Codie Taylor looks on during a New Zealand All Blacks training session at Narrabeen Academy of Sport on November 13, 2020 in Sydney. Photo / Getty Images.
In the modern world, technology is everywhere – a lot of it in the palms of our hands.
It's no different in the professional sporting realm. Athletes can track how fast and how far they run during a match, and in recent years, individual recovery technology has become more and more prevalent.
Gone are the days where athletes solely rely on massage and foam rollers, with the space developing rapidly. And as All Blacks strength and conditioning coach Nic Gill says, it isn't going to slow down any time soon.
"It's interesting, eh? When you look at an iPhone and you think 'how much crazier can an iPhone get?', you just think it can't get any crazier, then every year there's this new innovation that comes out. So, I don't think this space will slow down. I think, if anything, the quality of the equipment will get better," Gill explains.
"Massage is probably what may have been used 20-30 years ago, and it's still hugely popular – we still will do massage – but there's now these other tools for different purposes that are probably more effective as they've improved in what they can do.
"The tech, like anything in the world we live in, is just getting more complex and more fancy. We've always had access to rollers and balls – let's say 10-15 years, we've had access to people being able to look after themselves to a degree. But now they vibrate at different speeds and a different amplitude of vibration. We now have heat packs and the pneumatic pants that pump up and flush blood out of your body.
"Some of that technology has been around in hospitals for a long, long time...so it's been around for a while some of these ideas, it's just now being commercialised and people are doing more and more of it because we all realise how easy it is and how important it is to look after your body."
Gill has seen the improvements in gear available to athletes over the past few years, and recently championed a partnership between New Zealand and sports technology company Hyperice, who specialise in recovery technology, which will see their range made readily available to the All Blacks, Black Ferns and Sevens sides, including massage guns, vibrating balls and rollers, NormaTec pulse compression pants, heat and cold packs.
"I introduced the idea to our commercial team and said there is this equipment we love and need, and there is interest from them that we talk," Gill said. "That's where my job stops; I'm not a salesman or anything like that. I'd made the introductions and said we want this gear; the gear is really good so help me get it in my players' hands please."
With the improvements in the recovery technology space, athletes are able to be better educated on what sort of programme they should be following to ensure their bodies are in the best condition possible.
As Australian weightlifter and four-time CrossFit Games winner Tia-Clair Toomey explains, the available technology now allows athletes to take their conditioning into their own hands.
For Toomey, who mixes the more traditional methods such as massage into her routine, her massage gun gets use daily between training sessions, while she uses Normatec compression boots every night so she is in a position to get back to training the next day.
"Some of the newer methods make recovery faster, easier and more convenient," she explains.
"Because I dedicate so much time to training and am constantly moving its super nice and helpful to utilise some of the newer methods like the Normatec boots that allow me to recover while I watch tv, read and decompress at night.
"Without it, I wouldn't be optimising my recovery to the extent that I do now. It is part of my arsenal that helps me be the best version of myself."
Recovery is an important part of the athlete lifestyle and Toomey's is a familiar story. Recovery between sessions is vital for the sustainability of any athlete, but particularly in the more physical codes such as rugby, in which physicality is not just a big part of the game but trainings as well.
For Gill, he sees it as part of his job with the All Blacks to educate the players in the squad how to get the best out of their bodies.
"What I see in my job, I've been doing this for a while now, and players don't realise until they're a bit older that they have to look after their bodies better," Gill says.
"So, when you're 19, 20, 21, 22, you're reasonably durable and robust, and as you get to the other side of your 20s you start having to really look after your body to keep doing what you need to do.
"It's really those pros who have been around for four or five years that are now like 'OK I have to do all of this just so I can keep training and playing to the level I need to to remain in this profession for as long as I can to keep doing what I love. So, they love it; the tools are amazing."
In the New Zealand rugby space, academies, NPC teams and even some high schools have started to help players develop in terms of how to best look after themselves. Gill says he's now starting to see 20-year-olds coming into the All Blacks system with a vastly superior knowledge of looking after themselves than players of the same age would have five years ago.
"That's happening, and in this environment; we're in a hotel, we're living together for seven days a week, 24/7 we're together, so there is a lot of learning about what it can feel like if you look after yourself well – you sleep lots, you get up and you use some tools to free up the body, to loosen up the muscles, to address any tight areas, train hard, eat well, rinse and repeat.
"I think that's where the learning comes in...we train really hard and if you don't look after yourself you get hurt and then you get sent home, so there's a lot of learning for the young guys."
While massage was once the major form of athlete recovery, the rise of technology in the field which allows the athlete to take things into their own hands means they can work toward an individualise programme that meets their specific needs.
It also means the team staff have to have a certain level of trust in the athletes to carry out what is required of them.
"Everyone has a little bit of a different routine, but typically before most trainings the guys will be using all aspects of the tools and then on days off when we're recovering from a big day, they'll be using it during the day to help make them feel better, so they can keep training well the next day.
"It's basically a daily event; pre-training and then during the recovery phase ahead of another big day."
While the space has rapidly grown in recent years, Gill suggests there won't be any signs of it slowing down, with more and more new or improved technologies likely to emerge.
"You get what you pay for, but I think there will continue to be significant evolution and innovation around this space because if we can look after our bodies better, then we can do what we love longer. It's no different in general health and wellbeing; if people move more, eat better, and look after their main asset which is their body they've been given, then we'll be healthier for longer.
"This isn't just about athletes, these tools and this space is about people moving freely and pain-free for longer as they age, so I think there's going to be huge movements."
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