Peek Inside the Swanky New Recovery Lounge at EverybodyFights

Photo by Tessa Yannone

If you talked about recovery 10 years ago, people would automatically think about recovery from drug and alcohol abuse, NormaTec CEO Gilad Jacobs tells me as we sit back in leather EverybodyFights and NormaTec branded recliners. NormaTec, which offers compression boots and sleeves to optimize athlete performance, is partnering with the boxing gym to bring its clients a new added benefit to their membership: A space to recharge.

That’s right, you heard it here first: Recovery is the biggest fitness trend of 2020 and gyms and studios in Boston aren’t waiting to capitalize on this new frontier of the wellness industry. Starting on Monday, EverybodyFights members at the Seaport location can take advantage of NormaTec compression sleeves, Hypervolt percussion therapy guns, and foam rollers in a swanky new lounge located on the second floor of the massive gym. The space includes black recliners as well as mood lighting, and is meant to give participants a moment to pause before or after their workout.

If you’ve never used NormaTec compression sleeves, Jacobs says to expect it to feel like a massage with as much or as little pressure as you need—easily controllable by a Bluetooth connected device hooked up to the sleeves. The compression sleeves come in three different shapes: one each for your legs, hips, and arms. The concept behind the experience is that as the sleeves are air compressed, the muscles are receiving oxygen, and the lymphatic system is being cleared to prepare your body for the next workout.

Jacobs recommends using the Hypervolt percussion therapy gun for about five minutes before you put the sleeves on to prepare the muscles. The gun looks like a drill and has different foam attachments that pulsate up and down at differing speeds and intensities to work out hard-to-reach knots in the muscles. After your muscles are prepped, the NormaTec sleeves can be worn from 20 minutes to an hour, depending on how much time you have.

“We’ve coined the term ‘fresh legs faster,'” Jacobs says. Essentially, you’re going to feel less sore because of the way the sleeves compress and pulsate to make your muscles more flexible—or even pliable, one very popular Boston athlete might say. “The whole point is that you’re oxygen-loading the muscle. You even see Lebron in his NormaTecs before and after every game and practice,” Jacobs points out.

NormaTec, which has been outfitting professional sports teams with fancy recovery lounges for quite some time, is now making the practice more accessible for everyone. Not only are its devices offered in EverybodyFights, but also places like BKBX, which has a full recovery lounge for its clients.

And it’s really an added value for clients to be able to take advantage of these services in the same place they’re already working out. A typical NormaTec session, if you were to go to a separate studio, would put you back about $20-$30 each time. At EverybodyFights, Jacobs envisions people grabbing their smoothie (at the in-house juice bar), hooking up to a NormaTec device, and sitting back in the lounge chairs to catch up on email.

“We’re trying to do triple the amount of things these days,” Jacobs says. “Being able to integrate recovery into what you’re already doing is huge.”

Maybe this will persuade you to become an EverybodyFights member, maybe it won’t—if you aren’t already. But one thing’s for certain, this is not the first and it’s certainly not the last gym to offer services like these.