New book asserts exercise 'recovery' is mostly bogus

WHEN health journalist Christie Aschwanden was travelling the world as a competitive ski racer in the 1990s and 2000s, recovery between training sessions basically meant doing nothing - taking a day to sleep in or lie around with a good book.

About a decade ago, she noticed something had changed: recovery became a thing athletes actively performed - with foam rollers, cryotherapy, or cupping - as part of their training routines. These recovery tools were heavily marketed to athletes, including amateur ones, as a means to boost performance and bust muscle aches.

In a new book, Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recover…