Working towards your fitness goals? Protect your body with a proper recovery routine.

With colder weather here to stay, post-workout recovery becomes more important than ever. Why? Because colder temperatures can lead to tighter muscles, which increases your risk of injury. In order to play the long game and keep your workout routine in tip-top shape, pay attention to your recovery efforts and go the extra mile to take care of your body. Today we're exploring ways you can improve your recovery routine.

We asked some of our GO Sleeves athletes for their best advice on improving your recovery routine. Here’s what they had to say!

Take an Ice Bath
For Niko Price, GO Sleeves athlete and professional mixed martial artist currently fighting in the Welterweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, an ice bath is a necessary part of the recovery process.

“For me, the ice bath helps with reducing soreness and pain and the calf sleeves help with reducing knee pain and calf pain from all the cardio and running throughout the day.”

In the early days of cardiology, exercise and heart health was misunderstood to the extent that it was wrongly believed the human heart has a finite number of beats, and speeding it up by exercising would accelerate you closer to death. Just like other muscles in the body, the heart responds to exercise with increased size and strength. Regular aerobic exercise lowers resting heart rate due to increased stroke volume. Interestingly, a lower resting heart rate is correlated with longevity.

Prioritize your recovery
Zach Friedley, adaptive pro trail runner and GO Sleeves athlete, recommends treating recovery just as important as you do your training.

“If you're like me and schedule your training in your calendar then I encourage you to schedule your recovery just the same. You're more likely to follow through with it if it's treated just as important. It's easy to skip recovery because you have other responsibilities (this is me when I don't put it in the daily planner) but if it's in the schedule with everything else you'll have the time to do it. The better you recover the harder you can train. Prioritize your recovery!”

GO Sleeves will also help you with your recovery before and after competing. Unlike compression sleeves which just compress your joints, GO Sleeves knee, calf and elbow sleeves feature built-in kinesiology strips that stimulate your body's natural ability to recover and heal before, during, and after activity.



Build a recovery routine
For Mercedes Seigle-Gaither, pro trail runner, and partner Morgan (Moe) Elliott, sky running champion, post-workout recovery is absolutely essential. “Our recovery routines usually begin with a high protein shake and a meal post-run. Hot springs (depending on where we are), or an epsom salt bath help our bodies recover. Foam rolling and stretching are a must! We like to use the Normatech for after long runs, which is compression therapy that improves blood flow to my legs, which in turn encourages your body to deliver more oxygen and nutrients to the treated area, which promotes a faster recovery. Moe usually cools down on the stationary bike while I Normatech my legs.

We ALWAYS drink tons of water. We’ve recently started adding salt to it for better absorption. Then essential oils and/or our GO Sleeves K-recovery cream on any aches or concerns before we put our GO Sleeves Compression Sleeves on. 

Then it’s either off to continue on our day, or off to bed. Sleep is so important for our bodies to be able to repair themselves and build muscle, so we generally try to make sure we get at least 8 hours of sleep each night. We’ve recently been trying to improve our sleep by cutting out blue light a couple of hours before bed, which means no TV or devices. You name it, we’ve probably tried it! So this is our current recovery regime.”

Crossfit champion Leka Fineman went as far as becoming a certified health coach to help herself and other athletes with the crucial piece of fueling your body for competition, which also aids in your body's ability to recover. "The nutrition piece is very critical. In years prior, I worked with a nutrition coach to figure out the nutrition piece because I needed to eat more! Now I have learned a lot and even became a health coach. I have a good idea of what I need to fuel my body properly. For example, this year, I started getting tired and grouchy after workout and I realized I needed to eat more carbs, I was doubling my recovery shakes because I was incorporating an additional training session each day. The nutrition aspect is huge for athletes".

Wear GO Sleeves and use K Recovery Cream

For all of our GO Sleeves athletes, our GO Sleeves offer the kinesiology tape and compression that they need after a physically demanding day. GO Sleeves offer the first and only compression sleeve products with built-in kinesiology taping technology that supports key joints, ligaments, and tendons. Every sleeve contains silicone strips that trigger natural pain reduction, increase recuperating blood flow, and aid in lymphatic drainage to reduce pain, swelling and soreness in and around your joints. They are super-lightweight, breathable, washable, and reusable. GO Sleeves currently offer knee sleeves, calf sleeves, and elbow sleeves. Just pull them on and off you go! For extreme and everyday athletes alike.