Recover Well. Try something new?

You can make the most of your recovery between workouts to start your next run feeling fresh. But exactly how do you hasten the recovery process – from tight muscles to inflammation?

Access to new technology might hold the answer. But physiotherapist and trail runner TARRIN VAN NIEKERK isn't convinced.

Let your body recover

"The science around recovery methods is often inconclusive, and there's a lot of snake oil sold within the recovery industry. Most of their 'proven effectiveness' is based on pseudoscience or placebo. It costs a ton of money and is no more effective than eating and sleeping well.

There is lots of bad and biased research out there. When I look at research around recovery, I take note of how they design the research methodology. You can measure recovery in two ways:

Subjective measurements

How the athlete feels, muscle soreness, feeling recovered after using recovery method, and so on. This type of self-reported measures is very unreliable and contributes to low-quality research.

Objective measurements

Blood samples used to test for