The multibillion-dollar category of recovery has changed how athletes maintain their health and wellness throughout their careers. The biggest names in sport spend millions of dollars a year on recovery routines to reach peak performance and prevent injury. Tom Brady’s diet program alone is estimated to be around $16,000 per year, while LeBron James spends nearly $1.5M per year on various training, recovery, and diet programs to maintain his body, and Russell Wilson devotes over $1M per year on physical and mental recovery.
As professional athletes have led the charge in streamlining recovery, more and more companies tailored to physical and mental restoration begin to rise in valuation and popularity. Sports analytics and technology companies like Kitman Labs, which raised over $82M since 2012, have created the billion-dollar industry of athlete performance technology directly influencing athlete recovery.
So, let’s take a step back, what is recovery and why is it so important? Recovery aims to restore physiological and psychological processes that are essential to an athlete’s performance. Creating a well-rounded recovery plan and executing it in between high-stress competition and training sessions is essential for athletes to compete and train at an appropriate level all while decreasing the risk of injury. Recovery involves techniques from stretching and massage therapy to high-tech compression equipment and cryotherapy.
Although professional athletes are leading in dollars spent on recovery, everyday people and fitness enthusiasts across the world continue to participate in physical and mental recovery treatments and routines. Interactive stretching, mobility, and meditation classes like those developed by Mobility MVMNT have shown the masses extensive benefits recovery and mobility may offer them. Programs and interactive classes like those developed by MVMNT are meant to unleash the nervous system and promote superior performance overall for professional athletes and the weekend warrior.
As recovery companies continue to surface and high-profile athletes spend countless hours and money on recovery, other professional athletes are capitalizing on the recovery craze to diversify. Athelo Group athlete, professional volleyball player, and health coach Kim Hildreth even gives viewers on social media a behind-the-scenes look into her recovery routine and actively uses her education and personal athletic experience to regularly blog about wellness, dieting, and recovery. Not only are businesses and labs giving the general population access to amazing recovery techniques and technology used by pros, but athletes themselves are able to participate and provide everyday people with the information contained in this multibillion-dollar industry.
While the industry rapidly grows, many are even predicting that athletic performance tech and athlete recovery will take on a Tesla-like trickle-down technology model, where expensive early programs and equipment created by companies like Orreco and Kitman Labs pave the way for more affordable recovery technologies utilized in all aspect of health, eventually creating a mainstream appeal. Since recovery is so widely received across all levels of sport, fitness, and mindfulness, there is no stopping the industry’s growth within and beyond athletics.
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