Page 31 - Men’s Health - USA (December 2019)

BODY
But I had done so by risking collapse. I had let
data, not my body, dictate how I would live.
It had been three weeks since I’d decided
to commit to helping myself heal after each
and every workout, and to rest through more
nourishing sleep—to “recover,” in today’s
wellness vernacular—and I had no idea that
taking it easy would be so hard.
THE VERY IDEA of recovery has evolved
recently and rapidly. It used to be that after
a workout, you’d ice, you’d rest, and you’d hy-
drate. Basically, you’d let your body take care
of itself. But these days trainers are pushing
for a far more active approach. “Early in my
career, I focused all my attention on train-
ing,” says strength coach Joe DeFranco, host
of the Industrial Strength podcast. “Now
when I get a new client, I map out recovery
strategies fi rst, because I realized a workout
is only eff ective if the athlete is able to ade-
quately recover from it.”
You can credit (blame?) the original Fitbit,
which launched ten years ago. Health-cen-
tric data devices like the Bodybugg and
Nike+iPod gear came before it, but the Fitbit
monitored sleep duration and quality—two
key markers for recovery. Now “recovery
studios”—entire gyms geared toward post-
exercise R&R—have begun popping up across
the country. The value of the recovery-drink
market is expected to grow by 5.9 percent
annually from 2018 to 2023, according to
an industry report. And companies, dozens
of them, have started marketing gadgets to
improve how well you rest between workouts.
The Fēnix is a perfect case study. The device,
through various sensors, can assess your VO2
max, lactic-acid threshold, and recovery
heart rate—all factors it uses to predict how
much time you’ll need to refi ll your tank
before your next workout.
I was skeptical of these gizmos. To me, they
were expensive shortcuts to wellness. But as
a guy in my 40s with two kids who lifts almost
every day, plays tennis, and swims, who
travels for my job and tends to overwork, I’ve
begun to feel more pain. I know what my body
is trying to tell me, but maybe these products
could help me continue to grow stronger,
Danielle Daly (Oura ring) other professional friends from my more
sleep better, and feel more energized.
So I talked to DeFranco and some of my
than 20 years of working in the health and
wellness world. Together we assembled the
ultimate list of expert-approved recovery
gear. Then, after a few days of FedEx drivers
AUTHOR Tetris-stacking boxes on my front porch,
RATING I began to incorporate more than $5,000
worth of wellness gadgetry into my life—
starting with my bedroom.
1. GARMIN WATCH
IT’S 8:00 P.M. during the fi rst week of my
Ease of use experiment, and my OURA RING [2] alerts
me via an app on my phone: “Bedtime’s
Effectiveness approaching. If you want to prepare your-
self for good quality sleep, now’s the time to
start winding down your body and mind.”
When I’m sleeping, the Oura, which looks
as demure as a wedding band, will sense my
2. OURA RING body temp, pulse, movement, deep sleep,
REM sleep, heart rate, respiratory rate, and
Ease of use more, giving me a report on the eff ects of my
other sleep-centric recovery tools.
Effectiveness I adjust my OOLER SLEEP SYSTEM MAT-
TRESS PAD [3] to 55 degrees. I slip into my
UNDER ARMOUR RECOVER SLEEPWEAR
[4] and don my UNDER ARMOUR TUNED
RECOVERY GLIMPSE BLUE-LIGHT-BLOCK-
3. OOLER SLEEP SYSTEM
ING GLASSES [5]. I can see my daughters,
both now the color of Smurfs, roll their eyes
Ease of use
at me as I pop my BOSE NOISE-MASKING
SLEEP BUDS [6] into my ears. Below me rests
Effectiveness
the HELIX DAWN LUXE MATTRESS [7], also
pleasantly cool, likely due to technology that
encourages air to move through its layers. And
atop the Helix Dawn are MOLECULE PERCALE
4. UA SLEEPWEAR
SHEETS [8], made from the type of cooling,
Ease of use wicking materials you might fi nd in a workout
T-shirt. And on top of those, the GRAVITY
Effectiveness BLANKET [9] locks me into a less-restless
night of sleep and feels sort of like those weight-
ed aprons you’ve worn during dental X-rays.
Sleep-recovery products often fall into two
camps: those that cool you down and those
that power you down. Research shows that a
5. UA GLASSES
cool environment between 60 and 67 degrees
Ease of use Fahrenheit helps you fall asleep faster and
achieve deeper sleep, likely due to your body’s
Effectiveness circadian rhythms. And those blue-tinted
glasses were designed to protect your eyes
from the blue light emitted by devices, which
has been shown to mess with a night’s rest.
6. BOSE SLEEP BUDS The fi rst few nights under and above
Ease of use (and wearing) all these things made my
Effectiveness produced little to no eff ect. For example, my
bedroom feel clinical. Some of the products
recovery pajamas, though comfortable, felt
no diff erent from the pj’s I normally wear
to bed, despite Under Armour’s claim that
MEN’S HEALTH / December 2019 29