“But really, it’s a recovery suit that Saucony gave me. It’s got this stuff called Celliant in it, and it reflects the photons…”
This is what you might very well say to your friends as they look at you dumbstruck for lounging around in a racing-striped black unitard. They’d probably laugh less if you said “I’m now a masked vigilante.”
Really, I get it. It seemed nuts to me too. Had Saucony not been the company whose shoes enabled me to start running again, I would’ve written this off to snake oil. But Saucony gear almost never fails for me. I figured I owed it to them to have an open mind to their recovery suit, right?
Aaaand… the suit really works. Seriously. I’m more shocked than you are.
I’m not even willing to admit that it’s because of the space-aged material. I can’t tell if it makes me strangely warm because it’s inducing a sort of self-perpetuated light therapy, or because it’s made from polyester. I don’t know if my muscles are getting fixed faster because of the Celliant, the compression, or something else.
But, the bottom line is, I recover faster when I wear the Saucony AMP PRO 2 recovery suit after a hard workout.
I was so unprepared to believe that I tried it twice.
Last Tuesday, I ran a sprint drill. I haven’t run sprints since I was maybe 20. I had my friend Courtney with me to help coach my form. But still, we ran 3-4 miles of intermittent sprints. It was a sure recipe for shin splints, cramped calves, aching thighs and the worst-case scenario: reigniting nerve-shattering knee pain. So, I slept in the suit and hoped for the best.
The best happened. The next day I had nothing but a tiny twinge in my right thigh. I was almost completely recovered.
I refused to believe it. I figured that I must not have worked as hard as I thought. So, on Saturday, I hit up the Run A Muck Festival, a 5k mud run with obstacles, boulders, and water. I went as hard as I could in the race (I wore Saucony Razors, by the way – great for bouncing off rocks. Would you believe I can swim well in them?), and I did not wear the suit that night. By Sunday, my legs were stiff and wracked with pain. I didn’t want to get out of bed, much less walk around, with this kind of conditioning pain.
So I put on Saucony’s recovery suit. Usually, if you’re this beat up after a race, you’re stiff and sore at least through the next two days. But after lounging in the suit for three hours, I felt limber again and the pain subsided to a dull ache. I could literally feel the thing working. I was almost recovered by bedtime, and that has never happened to me before, at least not without a masseuse involved.The down side: It is warm, so you might need to crank the AC a little when you wear it. Also, you step in through the shoulders, so there is no fly, adding an extra step to a 3 a.m. bathroom break.
Whether you’re a casual athlete like me, or training for something that makes mortals tremble, you should at least try some of Saucony’s forthcoming Celliant-based products and see if they help you as much as they help me.
Bryan Harris, Everyday Health Fitness Blogger
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