Your recovery toolbox
Modern running recovery has almost become a sport of its own. From home gadgets and specialist therapies to the truly weird and wonderful, chiropractor Dr Jesse Bruins Roberts separates the science, marketing and ritual of what’s available to today’s runners.
Recovering from a training session used to be simple. Go for an easy jog the next day. Eat well. Sleep well. Maybe book a sports massage before race day. Fast forward to today and recovery has become an industry in its own right. Ice baths. Compression boots. Massage guns. Hyperbaric chambers. Saunas. Foam rollers. Red light. Blue light. PEMF. Grounding sheets… The list is endless. I even jumped on the bandwagon with my own product, the ZlaantBoard! Nothing surprises me anymore. Open Instagram after a marathon and you’ll probably see someone submerged in freezing matcha wearing a futuristic recovery tracker and listening to delta-theta binaural beats. If you’re subconsciously reaching for your credit card right now, you’ve been hacked! Recovery has become the latest battleground for marginal gains and everyone is searching for the next 1%. As a chiropractor working with runners every day, patients regularly ask me one question, “What’s the best recovery tool?” The honest answer, and they never like it, is that there probably isn’t one. Recovery is far more individual than most marketing campaigns would have you believe. If I stopped there, my patients probably wouldn’t come back, so the conversation usually continues…
The problem with research
Recovery is surprisingly difficult to study because every runner recovers differently. Sleep differs. Nutrition differs. Stress differs. Training loads differ. Even your genetics and how your mother exercised while you were in the womb influence how quickly your body adapts. Now introduce three recovery tools into that mix and you’re trying to isolate variables in a system with hundreds of moving parts. That’s why you’ll often see headlines proclaiming, “New study proves xyz”, only to find another study a few years later suggesting the exact opposite. Science isn’t broken, it’s evolving. By definition. Our understanding improves over time, which means we should stay curious.
Never steal a patient’s placebo
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learnt in practice is this: Never steal a patient’s placebo. Or perhaps more accurately… Never take away someone’s recovery ritual. If a runner tells me they always foam roll before bed and it helps them recover, I’m not interested in arguing. I’m interested in understanding why. You can’t argue with the placebo effect. Expectation influences pain, confidence changes movement and stress alters recovery. The brain and body communicate constantly and we’re still only scratching the surface of how that relationship works. Research consistently shows that our expectations, beliefs and habits influence the way we experience pain and recovery. That doesn’t mean every recovery gadget works exactly as advertised, but it does mean the ritual surrounding recovery has real value. That’s why two runners can swear by completely different routines and both genuinely feel better. Recovery isn’t just physical. It’s neurological. It’s psychological. It’s behavioural. Creating a consistent ritual after training, whether that’s stretching, a hot shower, a massage gun or simply sitting quietly with your favourite recovery drink, teaches your body that it’s time to shift from performance into repair. Recovery, like fitness, is a habit we can train.
Placebo is becoming expensive
This is where healthy scepticism becomes important. Whenever there’s money to be made, certainty tends to become exaggerated, and recovery products are no exception. That doesn’t mean the companies behind them are dishonest. Many are founded by passionate clinicians, engineers and athletes genuinely trying to solve problems. It simply means we should understand what a tool is trying to achieve before deciding whether it’s worth buying. Almost every recovery tool on the market is trying to do one or more of four things:
• Improve blood flow or fluid movement.
• Reduce pain or muscle guarding.
• Stimulate a healing response.
• Help your nervous system shift from “fight or flight” into “rest and recover.”
Once you understand those four principles, the recovery aisle suddenly becomes much less confusing.
The home toolbox
Foam Roller
Foam rolling temporarily reduces muscle stiffness, improves tissue glide and can make movement feel easier by calming the nervous system’s protective response. It isn’t breaking down scar tissue. It isn’t squeezing lactic acid out of your muscles. It’s simply encouraging movement and making tissue more tolerant to load. Can it help? Absolutely. Can you overdo it? Also yes. I’ve seen plenty of runners try to foam roll an injury into submission. If it feels like a satisfying muscular ache, carry on. If it feels like you’re rolling directly over an injury, stop. You can’t foam roll away a stress fracture or a tendon tear. When in doubt, get it assessed before trying to “fix” it yourself. Verdict: Great for general muscle tightness. Less is often more.
Before you buy anything, always start with these five questions
1. How are you sleeping?
2. How are you eating?
3. Are you hydrated?
4. Are you managing your training load?
5. How stressed are you?
Massage Gun
Massage guns use rapid percussion to stimulate muscle, increase local blood flow and reduce the sensation of stiffness. The science suggests they can improve short-term flexibility and reduce the perception of soreness after exercise. One of the most common questions I get is whether a massage gun replaces a sports massage. Sometimes. More often, not. A massage gun delivers something a therapist never can: thousands of rapid oscillations every minute. A skilled therapist brings something no machine ever will: years of clinical experience, pattern recognition and hands that recognise when the sore calf is actually coming from a stiff ankle, a lazy glute or an old hamstring injury. They’re treating the runner, not just the muscle. Sometimes the tool is enough. Sometimes the person holding the tool is the treatment. Verdict: A fantastic maintenance tool, but great therapists are still worth their weight in gold.
Compression Boots
Compression boots rhythmically squeeze the legs to help move fluid back towards the heart. That can reduce the heavy-legged feeling many runners experience after long efforts and may temporarily improve recovery between hard training sessions. They don’t magically repair damaged muscles. They simply help your body’s own circulation do its job more efficiently. If they make you feel fresher tomorrow, that’s a win. Verdict: Excellent for tired legs, especially during heavy training blocks.
The professional toolbox
Home gadgets are fantastic for maintenance, but sometimes your body needs a little professional help. One of the biggest mistakes runners make is assuming every ache needs more stretching, more rolling or another gadget. Runners are incredibly good at pushing through pain. It’s part of what makes us runners. But, sometimes that’s exactly what not to do. I’ve heard runners being told to “keep running to strengthen it” when they’re nursing a stress fracture. Others are still wearing an ankle brace months after a simple sprain because someone once told them it needed support. Recovery should move you forward, not keep you stuck. If something isn’t improving, keeps coming back or is gradually getting worse, it’s worth getting another opinion.
Shockwave Therapy
Shockwave therapy sends high-energy mechanical pressure waves into injured tissue. Rather than calming tissue down, it deliberately irritates it in a controlled way to restart a healing response that has stalled. It stimulates new blood vessel formation, encourages collagen production and appears particularly effective for stubborn tendon problems. This isn’t a treatment I’d reach for on an acute muscle strain, but for chronic plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinopathy or tennis elbow, it can be a game changer. Verdict: One of the best-supported treatments for chronic tendon injuries.
Photobiomodulation (Laser Therapy)
Laser therapy uses specific wavelengths of light to stimulate the mitochondria, the tiny energy factories inside every cell. The result is improved cellular energy production, reduced inflammation and accelerated tissue repair. Unlike the cheap red lights you’ll find online, clinical laser systems deliver carefully controlled wavelengths and power outputs capable of penetrating much deeper into tissue. This is one area where professional equipment genuinely sits in another league. Verdict: Excellent evidence for muscle, tendon and ligament recovery when used appropriately.
Dry Needling
Despite looking similar to acupuncture, dry needling is based on a completely different philosophy. It targets specific muscles and trigger points that have become dysfunctional. The needle creates a tiny, controlled amount of local tissue irritation, stimulating blood flow, interrupting pain pathways and encouraging the body to begin a fresh healing response. Think of it as pressing the reset button on a muscle that has become stuck in protection mode. It’s highly specific, targeting the exact bundle of fibres that are overloaded and often referring pain somewhere else. Sometimes a runner points to knee pain when the real culprit is buried deep inside the quadriceps or hip. Verdict: A highly targeted treatment when the diagnosis is accurate.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture has survived thousands of years for a reason. Long before MRI scanners or anatomy textbooks existed, practitioners were using remarkably consistent treatment points to manage pain and illness. It’s based on the traditional concepts of meridians, yin and yang and the movement of Qi throughout the body. Whether or not science fully explains those ideas is almost beside the point. Different cultures, separated by geography and time, developed remarkably similar treatment maps for remarkably similar conditions. That deserves respect. Modern research suggests acupuncture also influences pain pathways, muscle tone and the nervous system, although the exact mechanisms are still being explored. Millions of people swear by it. I’m certainly not going to tell them they’re wrong. Verdict: Ancient wisdom with modern supporters. Keep an open mind.
Sports Massage
Perhaps the oldest recovery tool of them all. A good sports massage
isn’t simply someone rubbing sore muscles. An experienced therapist is constantly assessing tissue quality, movement patterns and subtle asymmetries while they work. Their hands become diagnostic tools. Can a massage gun produce more vibration? Absolutely. Can compression boots squeeze harder? Definitely. Can either replace years of experience and clinical reasoning? Not yet. Sometimes the therapist is the treatment. Verdict: Never underestimate the power of good hands.
The weird stuff
Some recovery trends sound ridiculous until they don’t. History has taught us that today’s “alternative medicine” sometimes becomes tomorrow’s standard care. It has also taught us that plenty of expensive fads quietly disappear. The trick is staying curious without becoming gullible.
Hydrogen Water
Hydrogen water contains dissolved molecular hydrogen, which may reduce excessive oxidative stress while preserving the beneficial adaptations that come from training. Early research is promising but still developing. Verdict: If you’re expecting superhero recovery, you’ll probably be disappointed.
Hyperbaric Oxygen
Hyperbaric oxygen chambers increase atmospheric pressure, allowing more oxygen to dissolve into your bloodstream. The theory is that additional oxygen supports tissue repair where circulation is compromised. It’s an established medical treatment for certain conditions, but its role in healthy recovery needs more convincing. Verdict: Interesting? Definitely. Essential? Probably not for most runners.
Cupping
Instead of pressing into tissue, cupping lifts it. The suction gently decompresses the skin and superficial fascia, increasing local circulation and allowing tissue to move more freely. Like acupuncture, cupping has existed for centuries across multiple cultures. The research is mixed, but plenty of athletes report reduced stiffness and improved movement afterwards. Remember, those impressive purple circles aren’t toxins leaving your body. They’re simply tiny blood vessels responding to suction. Verdict: If it helps you move better, great. Just don’t judge the treatment by the size of the bruise.
Ozone Therapy
Ozone therapy uses carefully controlled medical ozone to help modulate inflammation and stimulate the body’s natural healing response. It’s used by some sports physicians for selected tendon, joint and soft-tissue injuries, with encouraging results, although evidence remains mixed. Verdict: A promising option for selected injuries in experienced
hands, but not a first-line treatment.
PEMF, Grounding Sheets and Frequency Therapy
This is where recovery starts sounding like science fiction. Some devices use pulsed electromagnetic fields. Others claim to reconnect us with the Earth’s electrical charge while we sleep. Some promise better sleep, faster healing or reduced inflammation through frequencies alone. The research ranges from genuinely interesting to almost nonexistent depending on the device. Some people swear by them. Others notice absolutely nothing. Verdict: Keep an open mind, but, as always, be wary of certainty. Remember, the louder the marketing, the more questions you should ask. This goes for “science-based” too.
Ice Baths
No recovery tool divides opinion quite like cold water! The theory is that cold exposure reduces nerve conduction, temporarily decreases pain and challenges your body to adapt to another form of stress. Beyond recovery, cold is a form of resilience training. Every time you expose yourself to a controlled dose of cold, your body becomes a little more efficient at maintaining its internal environment. It learns to regulate temperature, blood flow and stress responses more effectively. Like any other training stimulus, adaptation happens over time. The key word is “build”. Start with manageable exposures and progress gradually. Recovery shouldn’t feel like another race. The goal isn’t to prove how tough you are by surviving an ice bath. It’s to become a little more comfortable being uncomfortable. Resilience is trained, not tested. If you’re shivering uncontrollably for hours afterwards or feel wiped out for the rest of the day, you’ve probably overdone it. Emerging research also suggests women may respond differently to repeated cold exposure because of hormonal influences and differences in thermoregulation. A reminder that recovery is rarely one-size-fits-all. Verdict: If cold leaves you feeling refreshed and energised, it may have earned a place in your routine. But, if it consistently leaves you exhausted, dial it back or try a different approach.
When deciding whether to spend your hard-earned money on the latest recovery gadget or miracle treatment, ask yourself three simple questions
1. Does it make biological sense? Can you understand what it’s actually trying to achieve?
2. Does the evidence support it? Not one miracle study. The overall body of research.
3. Do I genuinely enjoy using it? Because consistency beats perfection every time.
Jesse’s recovery rules
1. Diagnosis before treatment.
2. Movement before gadgets.
3. Consistency before intensity.
Final Thoughts
The longer I’ve been in practice, the less focused I’ve become on finding the perfect recovery gadget. I’m far more interested in finding the recovery ritual you’ll still be doing six months from now. The tools simply help create the environment for that to happen. Most probably won’t hurt you when used sensibly, but if you’re unsure, ask someone you trust. Everything I’ve shared here is based on the best evidence available today, combined with what I’ve seen work in practice. Both are constantly evolving. Stay open-minded, ask questions and don’t be afraid to change your opinion as the science changes. If something feels genuinely injured rather than just sore, go and get it checked. The right treatment starts with the right diagnosis. Most importantly. Your body is extraordinary. Give it enough sleep, enough movement and good nutrition, and be patient. It wants to heal!
About the author
Dr Jesse Bruins Roberts is a registered sports chiropractor and co-founder of Zlaant practicing in Cape Town. He’s passionate about facilitating natural healing within the body, and has spent his career working closely with athletes to integrate successful recovery practices. Find him at chiropractor.co.za
