rbuike wrote:
devashish_paul wrote:
What if you just train less hard. Then you don't have to take away the inflammatory response that you need the recovery aid for? Would it not make sense that my training optimally hard frequently, you are not just training your muscles and cardio to work, but after every workout your organs get stronger to deal with recovery. Seems like you might want to train your own recovery mechanisms to do more on their own without outside assistance. I can see the benefit of recovery aids after traumatic scenarios like a really hard race or in stage racing, but for day in day our training, perhaps
better food and more sleep are far better overall than any machine or mechanical external aid. Money quote!
are "better food" and "more sleep" mutually exclusive with using a product like the normatec?
kind of reminds me when someone asks about a lighter bike and people say "lose some weight from your gut."
not saying the normatec does or does not have benefit, just that the above argument does not grab me as an effective one.
as for our bodies being optimal vs any machine or mechanical external aid.... well, sometimes external aids speed things along. these products (compression socks, recovery boots/pumps, etc.) do serve a purpose in medical scenarios and do improve circulation. n=1 but in scenarios where i have had swelling that reduced mobility (e.g. post-op, after breaking a femur), these types of products helped me to move with greater ROM, which is hard to argue against for recovery purposes.
for a healthy athlete??? not sure where we draw the line.
all i know is there are plenty of products that aid the body in some way. what about running shoes? :)