Contrast therapy is an increasingly popular practice among health and fitness enthusiasts. Also known as hot and cold therapy, the experience involves exposing the body to alternating hot and cold temperatures (in a sauna and cold plunge, for example), which comes with benefits for both fitness and recovery.

“Alternating between the two extremes of hot and cold can help increase blood flow, which aids in muscle rejuvenation,” says Danny King, Master Trainer and director of performance and recovery at Life Time. “Heat helps open blood cells while cold causes them to constrict — that process of increasing the movement of blood helps bring more nutrients to our body.”

This circulatory effect can result in several benefits for those who have an active fitness routine, including the following:

• Muscle recovery: “The increased blood flow that happens not only helps bring new nutrients to the muscle, but it also helps pull metabolic waste out, both of which can lead to faster muscle recovery after workouts,” explains King.
• Reduced soreness: “The amplified circulation can help reduce inflammation and mitigate sore muscles after a tough workout,” says King.
• Injury healing: “The nutrients being brought to the muscle can accelerate the process of rebuilding tissue and aid in quicker healing from an injury,” says King.
• A feeling of rejuvenation: “Most people are putting their body through some form of strain on a regular basis, whether that’s due to a fitness routine or sitting for much of the day,” shares King. “The alternating experiences of hot and cold therapy can help your body feel refreshed and ready to keep moving through the day.”

How to Perform Contrast Therapy

If you’re interested in incorporating contrast therapy into your regimen, King offers the following step-by-step guidance for how to do it.

1. Start with heat.

Begin with the heat therapy of your choosing: sauna, steam room, or whirlpool. “The goal is to get your body tissue temperature up, which generally takes about 10 minutes,” says King.

2. Exit and take a short rest.

After about 10 minutes, exit the heat therapy and give yourself a minute or two to catch your breath and let your body briefly regroup. “A fast transition between extreme temperatures can make people feel lightheaded or dizzy,” King explains, “so it’s important to give your body a pause to reorient itself.”

3. Transition to cold.

After your rest, do a quick rinse in the shower to wash off any sweat and then enter the cold plunge. “Submerge your body for two to three minutes,” advises King. “The goal is to undergo a major temperature change of the tissue to really reap the benefits.”

4. Exit and take a short rest.

Give yourself a one- or two-minute break again to help normalize your body temperature before moving on. “There’s no need to move fast between the cycles,” King notes.

5. Repeat this cycle two to three more times.

Go through each flow again, completing three to four rounds total. Each round’s time can vary some based on how you’re feeling, according to King. “The length of time spent in each therapy can fluctuate, but I recommend spending between five to 20 minutes in hot therapy and then one to three minutes in cold therapy,” says King.

6. Complete your final flow.

End on whichever temperature you prefer. “There are sometimes slightly better inflammation-reducing benefits when ending on cold,” King says. “But if you want to walk out feeling more relaxed, you may prefer to end on hot. It’s really up to you.”

7. Slowly adjust back to a stable temperature.

With the rapid temperature changes, it’s important to give your body two or three minutes of rest to stabilize before continuing on with your day, according to King. “And as with any heat exposure, it’s also important to hydrate after.”

A Few Helpful Safety Reminders

Keep these tips in mind before jumping into contrast therapy.

• Consult your doctor if necessary. While contrast therapy is generally safe, it’s important to check with your healthcare provider before you try it, especially if you are pregnant or have high blood pressure or a heart condition.
• Don’t overdo it. King advises starting by adding contrast therapy to your routine just once per week on your designated recovery day. “This helps ensure you’re not interfering with muscle growth, which can occur when exposing your muscles to cold temperatures immediately after an intense strength training session,” King says. “It’s important to keep in mind that therapies like this still impact your body and nervous system similarly to a workout, so use it sparingly.”
• If you’re feeling extra sore, consider ramping it up. If you’re experiencing more soreness or stiffness than usual, increasing contrast therapy to two to three days per week on either rest or cardio days (post-workout due to the impact on your body) can help, but King advises not going beyond that. (If you become more experienced at contrast therapy, he shares that it’s also OK to increase to this amount even in the absence of extra soreness.)

If you’ve reached a plateau in your exercise performance and recovery efforts, supplementation can be a useful tool to help spark new results. According to nutrition experts, two supplements that can make a difference in these areas are pre-workout and amino acids. Although they have different benefits — pre-workout supports performance while amino acids support recovery — the two can work together to boost both the input and output of your workouts.

LTH Pump Pre-Workout and LTH Rally Amino Recovery are the go-to choices for Life Time nutrition and fitness experts. The exceptional quality of the ingredients and the effectiveness of the formulations, along with the rigorous testing standards, set them apart from other options on the market. (Both supplements are NSF Certified for Sport®. Learn more: “What Is NSF Testing for Supplements?”)

We asked Paul Kriegler, RD, CPT, CISSN, senior director of product development for LTH nutritionals at Life Time, and Samantha McKinney, RD, CPT, director of LTH at Life Time, to outline the benefits of these two supplements and offer guidance around adding them to your fitness routine.

LTH Pump Pre-Workout

What It Is: LTH Pump Pre-Workout is designed to help ignite intensity and give you a bit of a boost before your workout. “The LTH Pump Pre-Workout supplement is formulated with ingredients that help stimulate blood flow, the dilation of blood vessels, and cellular energy production to promote acute exercise performance,” Kriegler explains. “Vitamin B6, B12, and other targeted ingredients support endurance, stamina, and focus when you’re exercising. Over time, when used several times per week for multiple weeks, these ingredients also help to increase exercise capacity, strength, and power.”

Why You Might Use It: If you are looking to amplify your workout intensity, build your stamina, or dial in your focus — especially on days when you want to exercise but aren’t feeling motivated — supplementing with a well-formulated pre-workout could be a good option for you, says McKinney.

“I often recommend pre-workout supplementation to clients who are looking to enhance their strength-training workouts, improve endurance, or maximize results,” McKinney explains. “Pre-workout doesn’t provide many calories, measuring at only five to 10 calories per serving, but it does deliver targeted ingredients that help the body use energy, support blood flow, and support your nervous system, as well as aid in motivation and focus.”

How to Use It: McKinney suggests using pre-workout roughly 30 minutes before a strength-training workout or higher-endurance activity. “If you’re newer to using pre-workout, I suggest starting with one scoop (a half serving) of the LTH Pump Pre-Workout powder mixed with 8 to 10 ounces of water. You can always add more water or powder if needed once you see how your body responds to it,” McKinney says. “If you have a lower tolerance to caffeine, this is also the amount I’d suggest, or opting instead for the caffeine-free version of LTH Pump Pre-Workout.”

“For best results, aim to use pre-workout at least four days per week for one month or longer,” Kriegler advises. “Beta-alanine — an ingredient in pre-workout — requires consistent use to build up carnosine levels in the muscle cells. So, using it any less than that won’t allow it to accumulate correctly to give you the best results.” (Note: Beta-alanine may cause some tingling on the skin, but this is normal and often fades over time with consistent use.)

LTH Pump Pre-Workout comes in tropical breeze and dark cherry flavors, with grape and blueberry watermelon coming soon. There are caffeinated and non-caffeinated versions, so you can incorporate based on your preferences and workout timing (if you don’t want caffeine for workouts later in the day, for example).

LTH Rally Amino Recovery

What It Is: Amino acids are important protein-building blocks that can help the body build lean muscle and recover effectively from exercise, according to McKinney. LTH Rally Amino Recovery is a blend of all nine essential amino acids, including the branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) leucine, isoleucine, and valine.

“You can’t build muscles out of nothing,” McKinney says. “I like to encourage my clients to think of essential amino acids as the raw material building blocks for lean tissue and repair after a workout. They support muscle protein synthesis, which helps build shape and tone as well as reduce soreness. They also help the body hold onto muscle when in a caloric deficit.” (Learn more: “Why Aminos for Recovery?”)

“Delivering amino acids to your body through a dedicated supplement allows them to be utilized with a higher efficiency than whole-food protein or protein powders,” Kriegler adds.

Why You Might Use It: This supplement is beneficial for those who exercise regularly, seek body-composition changes, or experience soreness after workouts. It’s also helpful for those who struggle to meet their daily protein goals, lose muscle mass, suffer from gut issues, or have trouble digesting whole protein or protein powders, according to McKinney.

“Those who consistently supplement with amino acids often report less muscle soreness, quicker recovery, and notable improvements to physique and lean body mass,” says McKinney.

“Essential amino acids may also help stimulate leptin levels, which is a hormone that increases feelings of satiety,” she adds. “The LTH Rally Amino Recovery blend can also help support optimal blood-sugar levels and contains both L-threonine and L-cysteine, which can play a helpful role in joint health.”

How to Use It: McKinney recommends using LTH Rally Amino Recovery immediately before, during, or after exercise, mixing a serving of it into about 8 to 10 ounces of water. You can also customize your dose by using one serving per 100 pounds of body weight, she says.

“I personally like to mix up a serving in my water bottle and drink it throughout my workout,” McKinney shares. (Learn more: “How Do I Use LTH Rally Amino Recovery?”) LTH Rally Amino Recovery comes in cherry limeade or lemon lime flavors and contains 10 calories per serving.

Should I Use Both Supplements?

These two LTH supplements are formulated to complement each other, and McKinney recommends using both pre-workout and amino acids to enhance your workout performance and recovery. “They are not duplicative,” she says. “They provide complementary benefits to your overall workout nutrition strategy.

“While a well-formulated pre-workout might not be necessary the way that having adequate essential amino acids is, using both can absolutely be helpful and can make a meaningful difference,” she adds.

With consistent use, LTH Pump Pre-Workout can offer a comprehensive boost for the brain and body to get the most out of your workout time and effort. “Its ingredients have been shown to help increase performance, muscle stamina, and endurance, help people work out harder for longer, and improve intensity and focus during exercise,” McKinney says.

LTH Rally Amino Recovery, on the other hand, provides a comprehensive blend of essential amino acids in a research-backed dose and ratio to support healthy muscle strength, repair, rebuilding, and more following exercise. “Using it consistently during your workouts is a great and easy way to provide your body with the necessary nutrition to make the most out of your workout recovery,” says McKinney.

And when used together? “Users of both products often report an enhanced wave of smooth energy (without jitters) to help increase workout volume and intensity, while also being able to come back stronger and more recovered for their next session — often with less soreness,” says McKinney.

With the finish line behind you, the focus of your fueling shifts from performance to recovery. Exercise breaks down your body’s tissues, and good postworkout nutrition can repair this damage and support your body’s regenerative powers. This helps not only to minimize postevent fatigue and soreness but also to rebuild your body stronger than before so it can tackle your next endeavor.

Immediately following your event, continue to hydrate with water supplemented with electrolytes and amino acids (check out “3 Functional Water Additives to Try” for more on these supplements). You might not have an appetite at this stage, but if you can stomach a protein shake or some other digestible source of protein and carbs, it may be beneficial. (Find more tips on managing impaired hunger after exercise at “Why Am I Not Hungry After a Tough Workout?“)

An hour or two after completing your effort, aim to eat a meal of solid food that includes complex carbohydrates, nonstarchy vegetables, and at least 20 grams of protein.

Further support your recovery by engaging in light movement (stretching and foam rolling are great options), doing breathwork or meditation, and catching some z’s.

(For even more nutrition tips to boost your recovery, visit “A Simplified Guide to Pre- and Post-Workout Nutrition.”)

Optimizing your workout performance involves more than the exercises you do, the weights you choose, and the intensity you move at: It often starts with an effective warm-up and concludes with a proper cool-down.

By focusing your warm-up on recruiting and engaging the muscles you’re going to be working, you can improve your ability to perform for and endure the length of the workout. After the session, when muscle fibers are tense and exhausted, an effective cool-down can loosen your body, calm your nervous system, and set you up for success the next time you train.

Targeted stretching is a method of muscle recruitment that can be beneficial in both a warm-up and cool-down routine, particularly around a strength-training regimen. Think of classic adages that may apply to your exercise efforts, like “put your back into it” or “lift with your legs”: Once you identify the specific muscles you’re aiming to engage, targeted stretching beforehand can help you prepare the necessary muscle groups for work.

And because you’re creating muscular contractions, which shorten your muscles while you’re strength training, targeted stretching post-workout can help those same muscles slowly lengthen and relax. This can result in less soreness and improved recovery.

These are some of my go-to targeted stretches to do when warming up and cooling down around a strength workout.

Warm-Up Stretches

1. Scarecrow Rows

This stretch is all about activating the muscles of the rotator cuff and getting them ready to support any upper-body movement. It’s especially useful for pulling exercises, shoulder mobility drills, or overhead work.

• Start in a comfortable seated or standing position with your arms extended out in front of you at shoulder height. Form a fist with your hands.
• Pull both elbows back as far as you can, keeping your chest lifted.
• Keep your elbows in place as you raise your forearms toward the ceiling. Hold for a second, keeping your hands stationary as you squeeze your shoulder blades together and down.
• Relax your back, then rotate your forearms back down, and slowly extend your arms forward again.
• Repeat this sequence three to five times.

2. Hamstring Squats With a Twist

The hamstrings are key to many lower-body exercises, but a lot of people struggle to use them effectively. This stretch recruits the hamstrings, glutes, and low back to get them working as a team. This sequence is great for getting more out of plyometric exercises or improving your range of motion for squats and lunges.

• Start in a standing position, then step one foot forward. Straighten the front leg and lift your toes while keeping your heel firmly on the ground.
• Bending only your back leg, lower into a quarter squat, stopping to hold your position once you feel a good stretch in your front leg’s hamstring.
• Maintaining the squat position, slowly turn the toes of your front foot to the outside, feeling the stretch move into your outer thigh. Hold for a few seconds then turn your toes back to center.
• Rise out of your squat to return to the starting position.
• Repeat three to five times on each side.

3. Split Stance Torso Twists

The obliques, abs, and spinal muscles are critical stabilizers, supporting almost every exercise. This stretch helps ensure your core functions in tangent with the rest of your body to support both the upper body and legs.

• Start in a split-squat position with one foot in front of the other and knees slightly bent. Lift onto the toes of your rear foot while keeping your front foot flat on the ground.
• Bring your hands together with your arms bent at 90 degrees in front of your chest.
• Slowly turn your torso to one side, keeping your hips as stationary as possible; you should feel a twisting sensation in your sides.
• Return to center before twisting to the other side. Continue to keep your hips stationary as you twist and feel the stretch.
• Repeat three to five times on each side before switching your front foot and repeating the sequence.

Cool-Down Stretches

1. Modified Child’s Pose

This stretch targets the entire length of the back and is one of the best ways to bring balance to your neck and shoulders after upper-body-focused training. The modification here is keeping your hips high, which engages the upper body and keeps the pressure off your hips and knees.

• Start in a tabletop position with your hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips.
• Walk both hands forward as far as you can, keeping your hips in a stationary position.
• Slowly lower your chest, shoulders, and forehead toward the floor, taking your time as you move through any difficult spots or tightness.
• Once you’ve found the stretch, begin to draw your shoulder blades down your back. It helps to imagine them sliding into your back pockets.
• Hold for five to 10 seconds.
• Come out of the stretch, starting from the lower back. Lift your hips, then round your back as you rise and return to the starting position.
• Repeat up to three times.

2. Windshield Wipers

The lower back is key to effective hip mobility. This version of a windshield wipers stretch creates movement in the spine and pelvis to better recruit the quadratus lumborum (a deep muscle in the lower back) and spinal erectors for improved mobility.

• Start by lying down on your back with your knees bent and the soles of your feet on the floor.
• Turn both legs to one side, bringing your knees toward the floor. Keep your upper body and head flat on the ground and outstretch both arms to your sides.
• Imagine your top knee touching the heel or toes of the opposite foot. Settle in as you begin to feel the stretch traveling through the lower back, outer hip, and outer thigh.
• Hold for five to 10 seconds.
• Come out of the stretch by moving from the lower back to return to the starting position. Think about the hips connecting to the ground and the knees following their lead.
• Repeat on the opposite side.
• Repeat up to three times on each side.

3. Seated Side Bends

The obliques help create stability for both your upper and lower body. This stretch helps them bend and extend at the same time, teaching the two sides of your obliques to work as a team. Side bends are effective after core-focused workouts but really shine on training days that involve heavy loads in seated, standing, or squatting positions.

• Start in a comfortable seated position with your legs crisscrossed.
• Place one hand on the floor beside you slightly behind your hip. Raise your other arm high in the air.
• Reach your lifted arm toward the opposite side, moving slowly and feeling the opening in your side body. Imagine one side lengthening as the other side crunches.
• Hold for five to 10 seconds.
• Come back to center, imagining your hips being pinned down as your upper body stacks back into alignment.
• Switch arms and repeat on the opposite side.
• Repeat up to three times on each side.

The recommendations for exercising during cancer treatment are not much different from those geared toward the general public, experts say. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends healthy adults should get a minimum 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week at least two days of which should include some resistance training.

1) Get started now.

The sooner you start moving, the better, says Spencer. “A lot of people think, I don’t need to work on this now, and so they wait until treatment is done. At that point, they may be tired and deconditioned, and side effects possibly could have been mitigated if they had started moving sooner.

It’s just about meeting [yourself] where you’re at.

“For the most part everyone can be moving more: It’s just about meeting [yourself] where you’re at. If you haven’t been active your entire life and now you’re going through treatment, you might be doing five minutes a day and building up from there,” she says.

 

2) Make a plan with your care team.

“Besides getting the initial clearance to work out, it’s important to find out if there are any issues you should be particularly concerned about,” says Champ. “Ask, ‘Based on the surgery I had, is there a decreased range of motion? Are there concerns because of chemo? Are there concerns because of [my] immune system?’ All those things come into play.”

Experts recommend working with an exercise professional who can communicate and collaborate with your care team. This helps ensure safety while also increasing the effectiveness of workouts. “Much like medical treatment, this should all be done in person, under expert personnel. But also it has to be dose-escalated,” says Champ. “If I give you a low dose of radiation, it’s not going to cause any side effects, but also it’s not going to work.”

Some of the most prominent cancer organizations, such as the Mayo Clinic and Memorial Sloan Kettering, promote exercise as an integral part of treatment plans. There are also trainers, physical therapists, and other movement professionals who have experience with cancer and may be a resource for clients.

“While there are certifications out there in the field, there isn’t a generally accepted approach saying [this] is ‘the right way,’” says Schneider. “The best option would be for the fitness professional to stay in contact with the oncology team to make sure they are clear on treatment and potential side effects, and the team is aware of exercise and recovery the patient is going through.”

 

3) Take it one day at a time.

Cancer treatment has a cyclical nature, explains Spencer. “The first one to five days after chemo, a patient may be feeling badly, but the closer they get to the next cycle, the more energy they’ll have. It’s important to reassure them it’s normal not to feel their best after treatment. Doing something at a lesser intensity is OK, as long as they’re still moving.” (Try this gentle, somatic workout designed to support you well-being.)

That said, not every day has to be an easy day. When a patient is feeling good, Spencer advises, the approach to exercise should look much the same as it does for someone without a cancer diagnosis: Progressively increase the load, intensity, and/or volume of their workouts to match their energy and fitness level.

Champ uses a red-, yellow-, and green-light system so that patients can let him and other trainers know how they’re feeling. Red indicates a light and easy day; yellow means they can push a little harder; and green shows they’re ready for a regular workout.

 

4) To maximize your benefits, maximize your efforts.

“Too often, people say, ‘This person has cancer; we’re not going to push them hard.’ But data shows that the more muscle mass and the less fat you have, the better the outcome [of overall treatment],” says Champ.

When patients come to Champ’s facility, they get a quick lesson in the principle of progressive overload: This means that to see results, you need to continue to put your body under additional stress.

“Whether you’re on nasty chemo or you’re not on chemo at all, we’re going to overload you. It’s just figuring out personally where you are and what that level of overload is,” says Champ. This approach helps ensure that patients aren’t just going through the motions — that the work they’re putting in is actually effective.

“If we think we’re going to put on muscle with exercise, it has to be exercise that’s going to cause you to put muscle mass on.”

Similarly, Almli urges cancer patients to challenge themselves with their cardio workouts. “A lot of people think, Well, I’m just going to walk. But you need to walk fast enough to get your heart rate up. If it took you 25 minutes to walk a mile on the treadmill, that’s probably not an effective cardio exercise. We’re human beings, we’re supposed to walk,” she says. “I love the idea of some sort of wearable technology so you can see what your heart rate is doing.”

 

5) Be aware of red flags that indicate you’re doing too much.

“I tell people it’s OK to be tired; it’s not OK to be hurting. If you want to stop because you’re tired, challenge yourself to do a little bit more,” says Almli.

“If you want to stop because you’re tired, challenge yourself to do a little bit more.”

To see if a client has pushed too far — or not enough — Schneider watches for changes in mental clarity or brain fogginess, windedness, strength gain or loss, pain, range of motion, and emotional states.

“The biggest tell will be if they can recover quickly,” he says. “The metric I use is: Work as hard as you can while being able to do it again tomorrow. Not necessarily the same routine but being able to maintain a similar intensity level.”

 

6) Find an accountability partner.

“It’s really hard to exercise on your own, especially if you don’t feel well,” says Almli. “But if you get a buddy and start slow, you have someone to hold you accountable.” You can make regular plans with a friend to meet for walks, join a group fitness class that you’re expected to attend, or work with a personal trainer.

She recommends scheduling exercise like you would an appointment. “When you’re going through cancer treatment, your calendar is so full of things you don’t want to do — labs, scans, doctor appointments, chemotherapy, radiation, etc. Add some exercise with a friend, so when you look at your calendar, it gives you something to look forward to.”

See Elise and Tom’s Top 3 Takeaways

One morning in May 2020, Elise Laedtke woke up feeling confused, slurring her words, and struggling to walk. This was bizarre for an otherwise healthy 59-year-old woman, but especially for Elise, who had been a competitive athlete all her life.

Elise and her husband, Tom, went straight to the hospital, where the medical evaluation and CT scan revealed Elise had suffered a stroke during the night.

Tom, an endocrinologist, was shocked. Given Elise’s age and health, it hadn’t occurred to him that her symptoms could be the result of a stroke. “We thought it was other causes,” he says. She didn’t have any risk factors for stroke, which include high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease.

Elise spent the following week in the hospital and another week in rehab. After subsequent testing and medical workups, her team of doctors discovered that she had a congenital anomaly — a hole in her heart that had allowed a blood clot to travel from her lower abdomen to her brain. Six months after the stroke, she under­went surgery to close the hole and reduce the risk of future strokes.

After months of physical, occupational, and speech therapy, Elise was able to walk again, even drive, but her speech and strength lagged behind. She couldn’t participate in life the way she once did, which affected how she felt mentally and emotionally.

That is, until her former tennis coach put a pickleball paddle in her hand.

Always an Athlete

Elise had long enjoyed sports. Her father was an All-American swimmer and guided three children to successful swimming careers; Elise was a Division I swimmer in college.

After graduating in 1984, she moved back to her hometown of Rochester, Minn., where she became an elementary school teacher and taught swimming lessons on the side.

Meanwhile, Tom had been a lifelong tennis enthusiast, and they started playing together in the early years of their marriage. Elise had played some tennis as a child and picked it up easily; the sport became a part of her life, as much for the social interaction as for the love of the game.

After moving to Edina, Minn., Elise and Tom joined Northwest Athletic Club in 1998, before it became Life Time. In time, Elise was competing in league play twice a week, coached by tennis pro Rajan Keswani. “Elise’s routine had been tennis, tennis, tennis, tennis,” Tom says.

The couple maintained an active lifestyle off the court and regularly walked, biked, and golfed together.

Before the stroke, Elise was free of physical complaints. In retrospect, both she and Tom are convinced her good health and active lifestyle — along with her drive and determination — ultimately spurred her recovery.

Quality Coaching

In spring 2021, after Elise recovered from heart surgery, she was hopeful about reclaiming her fitness routine.

Strokes often result in long-term complications, including muscle weakness and the language disorder aphasia. Although Elise felt encouraged by the progress she was making with walking and driving, her strength remained limited and she still had trouble speaking.

She and Tom started branching out, incorporating some of the activities that had been part of Elise’s life for years. “We were searching for what Elise could do to have fun,” Tom remembers.

She started walking their dogs, Frankie and Stella. At the pool, she found that her swimming stroke was as good as ever. She and Tom rented a tandem bicycle, and they rode around nearby lakes with ease. She practiced her golf swing.

All of that brought her joy, but she still missed her tennis game.

Tom began taking her to the tennis court and dropping balls for her to hit. “It was nice to be back on the court, but she couldn’t play like she used to,” he says. Her weak grip strength made holding a racket difficult, and she couldn’t manage the coordination required to swing the racket or quickly move around the court.

“It was kind of depressing,” Tom says. “We felt good that she tried, but Elise didn’t feel like she was getting much better at tennis.”

Tom could see how hard this was for Elise: She wasn’t accustomed to being a mediocre player, and improvement seemed unlikely. It was hard to accept that she’d lost the game she loved as well as the social network she’d developed while playing competitively.

One day that spring, Keswani, who had coached Elise on her tennis game for more than a decade, saw her on the court and suggested she come to the first pickleball mixer he was hosting. Pickleball was so new at Life Time that there wasn’t yet dedicated space for it: Keswani used masking tape to create a pickleball layout on a tennis court.

“Why don’t you try it?” Keswani suggested. He thought a racket sport with a smaller court and a smaller, lighter paddle might provide the accommodations Elise needed. He was right.

Elise and Tom showed up to that first mixer, along with about a dozen other Life Time members who were all learning too. Elise took to pickleball right away — and the more she played, the more she smiled.

“She was bubbly again,” Tom says about the way playing pickleball brought out her personality. “When she plays pickleball, I can see the Elise I married.”

More Than a Sport

Elise has attended a weekly drill class and twice-weekly pickleball mixers ever since. She and Tom are grateful for the variety of Life Time’s pickleball offerings. Tom shares that her successful adoption of the sport has improved her fitness and eased some of the frustration she experienced in the wake of her stroke. Participating in the mixers helps her running ability, overall fitness, and math (thanks to the nuanced scoring system).

Pickleball has also introduced her to a new group of friends who are understanding, supportive, and encouraging. “When she goes to Life Time and does these pickleball mixers, she has a big smile on her face,” Tom notes. “She sees people she knows, and more importantly, they know her and they’re very kind to her.”

As her cognitive processing improves, her teammates provide visual cues to help her keep score.

“We’re blown away at her incredible progress,” says Keswani. “Over the last three years, she has blossomed into a very good pickleball player. She listens, plays hard, never wants to stop, hydrates, then throws in an adorable dance when she wins a point.”

Elise continues with speech therapy twice a week, which has helped her increase her vocabulary and communication. “Her pickleball friends laugh because she has a few famous phrases, such as ‘Close, but no cigar,’ when the ball lands out of bounds,” Tom says.

And she still practices her tennis game, which has gradually improved. Occasionally, she’ll play doubles in a tennis mixer. She says she still likes tennis, but pickleball is now Elise’s sport of choice.

Elise and Tom’s Top Takeaways

1. Focus on recovery with physical activities and speech therapy. Elise is diligent and puts in a lot of practice.
2. Stay open to adjustments and accommodations. Elise may not play tennis like she used to, but she’s grateful for her new sport and for organized pickleball mixers.
3. Surround yourself with empathetic and supportive friends. Stroke recovery is a long, slow process, and the support of family and friends is priceless!

This article originally appeared as “A New Game” in the March/April 2025 issue of Experience Life.

When you’re seeking fitness results, it can be tempting to simply focus on your workouts instead of devoting time to recovery. But experts emphasize the importance of prioritizing restoration both after your workouts and on your rest days.

“The better and the faster you can recover from your workouts, the harder and [more frequent] you can train — and the more progress you can ultimately make toward your fitness goals,” says Danny King, Master Trainer and director of performance and recovery at Life Time. “When we feel better, we can move better. And there are all sorts of recovery strategies we can use to help our muscles heal and grow, including things like stretching, myofascial release from foam rolling or massage, or compression therapy.”

Many Life Time athletic country clubs dedicate an entire area of the workout floor to recovery, featuring several tools members can use to feel better and recuperate from tough workouts.

“I highly encourage my clients to try out these tools after a workout, on a rest day, or even just when they have some extra time,” says Colin Milan, Dynamic Personal Trainer at Life Time Highland Park in St. Paul, Minn. “It can help your body feel better, which can help your mind feel better too. If you need help with the tools, any of our Dynamic Personal Trainers will be glad to assist you.”

We asked King and Milan to outline the most popular tools available in this area of the club and their benefits as well as demonstrate how to use them.

Normatec Compression Therapy

Normatec compression sleeves or “boots” use a patented compression technology to enhance circulation, speed up recovery, and reduce soreness. They work by using dynamically controlled air pressure to massage your muscles and move fluid.

“This mirrors the body’s natural process of pumping blood and moving fluid away from and back toward the targeted area,” says King. “The repetitive compression continuously inflates and deflates to move inflammation, lactic acid, and metabolic waste out of your legs so they can recover faster. The compression also acts as a self-massage, which can feel good on tired or sore muscles.”

How to Work it Into Your Routine

King recommends using Normatec immediately post-workout or on your rest days. “Compression therapy can help you recover from your workouts faster so you feel better and can get back to it on your next session,” he says. “I like to grab a shake from the LifeCafe, sit down with the Normatec, and take a few minutes to unwind after my workout.

“If you had a tough leg day or a long run, this is a particularly great way to speed up your recovery,” he adds. “I also recommend coming in to the club on your rest day to take advantage of this recovery amenity.”

How to Use Normatec Compression Therapy

• Sit down on the lounge chair. Take off your shoes and secure the boots comfortably over your legs. Zip the zipper up to your hips.
• Each boot has a connecting hose. Connect each hose to the pressure system.
• Using the control pad, choose your level of pressure and time duration. King recommends starting the pressure level between two and four. At Life Time, the time is set in 15-minute increments.
• The boots will start compressing your lower body, starting at the feet and ankles and moving up toward your hips.
• Sit back and relax for 15 minutes.

CryoLounge

As a convenient alternative to cold plunge or cryotherapy, CryoLounge chairs offer targeted dry hot and cold therapy. This allows you to control your experience and decide which areas of the body to apply cold and which to use heat to ease soreness or aches and pains.

“The CryoLounge has two tanks of water — one hot and one cold — and it moves the water underneath the chair to apply heat or cold to specific segments of the body,” King explains. “Using the control pad, you can choose which areas of your body receive [hot] or cold. There is also a compression massage feature for your lower legs.

“This is another tool to help keep fluid moving within the body,” says King. “When we apply cold therapy, it can help reduce inflammation, reduce swelling, and draw blood away from the area. When we apply heat, it helps bring new blood back in and relax the muscles.”

How to Work it Into Your Routine

If you’re feeling achy or sore, King recommends using the CryoLounge after a workout or on a rest day.

“We see a lot of people who are feeling stiff or sore come in to use the Cryolounge,” says King. “Going through a few cycles of cold and heat tends to help loosen things up and promote recovery.”

How to Use CryoLounge

• Start by lying back on the CryoLounge chair. The control pad is on your right.
• Tap on the screen to select up to four cold zones to target sore muscles and adjust the temperature Use heat zones on the rest of your body to maintain a comfortable temperature overall.
• Wrap the auxiliary pad around hard-to-reach areas like ankles, knees, wrists, or shoulders.
• Using the contrast feature, you can switch the cold and heat zones when ready.
• Sit back and relax for 15 minutes.

HydroMassage Lounge Chair

A HydroMassage session offers a way to relax and relieve muscle tension. This dry (fully clothed) massage chair uses high-pressure jets of hot water that move up and down the body to massage muscles, increase circulation, and promote overall well-being.

“There are so many general benefits of massage — reducing tension, improving circulation, and more. The HydroMassage machines are a great way to get a quick dose of those benefits,” says King. “It’s another way to get blood flowing to reduce soreness, and it’s also super relaxing. It may even help you notice where you carry extra tension, and you can take that information to a massage therapist at LifeSpa who can help bring you further relief.”

How to Work it Into Your Routine

HydroMassage is a great tool to use post-workout or on a rest day, according to King.

“When we finish a moderate- to high-intensity workout, our bodies are often in that sympathetic or fight-or-flight state, and we want to move into the parasympathetic or rest-and-digest state,” he explains. “Using the HydroMassage is a great way to calm down your body.

“If I’m working with clients, I encourage them to come to the club on their rest days,” King adds. “Relax on the HydroMassage and then hop on a treadmill to get some active recovery movement in.”

How to Use HydroMassage

• Have a seat on the HydroMassage lounge chair; you will see a screen to your right with a start button. Press start, and the water pressure will begin to massage your backside, moving up and down your body.
• The pressure starts at level one. Press the up arrow to increase the pressure as desired.
• Adjust the speed and range of the water jets — how fast they move up and down your body and what area they focus on — as desired.
• Sit back and relax for 15 minutes.

Note: Amenities available vary by club location.