One Stop Recovery At Boulder’s Fuelary
Climb the stairs to Fuelary in Boulder, Colo., and you’ll see a plethora of recovery practices being put to use by many hard-working triathletes.
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Climb the stairs to Fuelary (formerly AllSports Recovery Club) in Boulder, Colo., and you’ll see a plethora of recovery practices being put to use by many hard-working triathletes. Owner and founder Josh Shadle, a certified massage therapist, wanted to create a walk-in recovery clinic with the membership structure of a fitness club. Yearly and monthly membership options (starting at $59 per month and increasing for shorter terms) and packages (such as the Performance or Therapy Package) allow athletes an affordable avenue to regularly access recovery tools that are otherwise cost-prohibitive. Good news for the rest of us: Fuelary recently opened a new location in Denver and hopes to franchise across the country in the future.
Here’s a sampling of what the 3,000-square-foot Boulder club offers:
Espresso bar
Grab a cappuccino or a “Super Antioxidant” smoothie to enjoy while you recover.
Gait analysis
Get your running form analyzed; footage captures your stride to the 0.001 of a second.
Self-use tools
Foam rollers, a Tiger Tail Stick and Compex electrostimulation machines are on hand to target specific muscles.
Recovery baths
To reduce swelling and tissue breakdown, jump in the Fuelary’s ice bath. Water is kept at 50–60 degrees. Try contrast therapy with Fuelary’s new ice bath to hot bath combo.
Free massage
Students from the Boulder College of Massage are on hand for free 15-minute massages.
Compression lounge
Relax in a lounge chair and pull on some Normatec Compression Boots to pump lactic acid from your overworked muscles. Fuelary has 14 pairs of the boots, which each cost around $5,000. World champion rock climbers frequently stop by to use the arm units.
Therapy
Fuelary’s therapists use methods ranging from your basic sports massage to Muscle Restoration Therapy.
Chiropractors
Stop by for a quick adjustment, or try dry needling or the Graston Technique, an instrument-assisted method used to treat scar tissue. Average cost is as low as $12 per session.
Hyperbaric chamber
Take a nap in the hyperbaric chamber (95 percent oxygen) to speed recovery by 50 percent, according to Shadle.
IHT
The latest addition is a system Shadle created for Interval Hypoxic Training (IHT), a tool that allows an athlete to simulate different altitudes during a workout. “Our system has you train on high altitude [simulating 19,000 feet, where the body absorbs roughly 13 percent oxygen], then recover with oxygen saturation of 60 percent—three times normal,” Shadle says. The idea is to increase an athlete’s oxygen utilization efficiency. A 15–30-minute session is $15.
Learn more at Fuelary.com.