NormaTec Recovery Sleeve

[erk]

Well Mark, your blog posts have slowly infected my mind and I believe I am catching whatever madness you "suffer" from. With that said it has left me with a psych to attack every angle of of the training game. I digress...

I was listening to the Iron Cowboy episode on the Rich Roll podcast (dude does 50 Iron Mans in 50 days, its a great episode to listen to if you have the time) and he discussed how he used the NormaTec boots for recovery every night and how that really helped him get through each day.

Curiosity got the best of me so I decided to check it out. The first thing noticed is that the system runs at a lofty $1500, the second thing I noticed is that they do make sleeves. The system is designed to move fluid and metabolites out of the extremities and the science behind it works is pretty cool. Everyone seems to be raving about it and claims that it has been a game changer in the recovery aspect of their training regiment. Yet I haven't found any climbers who have checked it out.

So I'm curious to see what everyone thinks. Could a system like this be worth it? Do the forearms need as much flushing after a day of climbing as the legs do after running a marathon? Is it worth the $$$$? Am I better off with an Armaid? I know the RCTM program already has a lot of rest built in, but I figured this would be great for weekend warriors trying to get more out of their second day on. Heck, it'd even be great to get that extra bit of recovery in between hangboard workouts.

[jessebruni]

Unless you're an elite climber who has been training for years and plateaued for years because you've reached your genetic potential you're probably better off saving your money and just getting stronger through hangboarding, campusing, and bouldering. I don't know why anyone would pay $1500 for something that's un-researched at could very well turn out to be a placebo effect when there are more obvious and proven methods of increasing performance all around. That's my personal opinion anyway.

[MarkAnderson]

If they want to make some serious cash, they should come out with a penis sleeve.

Anyway...let's assume for argument's sake that it works as advertised and produces the desired results in the muscles (I think there's a good chance it does, since I believe massage is beneficial, and this is basically a fancy machine for systematic massage). In that case, I think it's value would depend somewhat on the type of climbing you do or what you use it for. I tend to think that for day-in, day-out training, I'm limited more by connective tissue fatigue (especially in the fingers/hands) than muscle fatigue. I don't think this would help speed connective tissue recovery in the fingers (elbows maybe?). By the time my finger ligaments are ready for another training session, my muscles are usually good to go without any need for fancy recovery aids. So I think it would have limited value for my training.

However, once I'm rock climbing, unless I'm cranking on tweaky pockets, my forearm muscles are much more likely to be limiting. At a place like the Red or Maple, or any non-sharp, non-tweaky crag, my forearms are definitely limiting. So I could see it potentially being useful to get more performance days out of a season at pumpy/PE crags. It would be interesting to try and see what type of difference it makes. If I try to climb a bunch, even on non-tweaky stuff, my elbows start to rebel, so I wonder if it would help with that sort of thing too.  

It looks promising to me.  If they gave me one, I would certainly try it out.  But I wouldn't shell out that much for it without some hard data or first-hand recommendation from someone I trust.  YMMV

[erk]

Thanks for the input guys. Mark, I had the same concerns about tendon recovery. jessebruni, everything you listed is physical exercise. I believe I have training regiment pretty well dialed, however the one thing I am always trying to improve upon/fine tune is recovery. If I had some serious disposable income I would give it a shot but sadly that isn't the case. I'll post if I find out anything else.