The first time I saw compression boots was in a gym in Milan. I’d already passed a man straddling an exercise bike while drinking an espresso and smoking a cigarette. Then I poked my head into a room where three women were lined up on massage beds with their legs sausaged in inflated boots attached to wheezing pumps. These Italians really know how to live.
I like lying around. And if I weren’t so worried about the next deadline or admitting that, in the depths of my soul, I’m lazy, I’d be lying around right this minute. The ideal scenario for me is being productive while doing absolutely nothing. That’s what I loved about pregnancy: I could flop on a couch, gestating another human without lifting a finger.
You know what’s a whole lot easier and less risky than pregnancy? Popping your legs in air-filled boots that squeeze and release your muscles while you lie on a couch, or—why fight it?—in bed. Like pregnancy, compression boots, or what scientists call intermittent pneumatic compression (I.P.C.), make your body feel uncomfortably tight and inflated at the same time.
The Hyperice Normatec Elite boots look like something Julia Roberts might wear when she’s playing the role of a hooker with a heart of gold. They zip up from toe to groin. Unlike other compression devices, the Normatec Elite boots are self-contained, with no clumsy hoses or separate control consoles to clutter up your life. All you do is hit the On button, set the timer and pressure level (from a breezy 1 to a punishing 7; I usually stick to 4), and succumb. The compression starts at the ankles and moves up the legs, gaining intensity along the way. Some people compare it to squeezing toothpaste from a tube, but that’s a little visceral for my taste.
All that squeezing is legitimately productive. Doctors have employed compression therapy for decades to treat lymphedema, or swollen tissues, and deep-vein thrombosis, a blood clot in a deep vein, often in the legs. Most people, including LeBron James, Travis Kelce, and me, turn to it for exercise recovery.
On an episode of the Huberman Lab podcast, Andy Galpin, a human-performance scientist, discussed the benefits of I.P.C. in exercise recovery for those who are trying to build muscle mass. He says that the pressure moves fluids in and out of the tissues, enhancing blood flow to the muscles, which pumps in nutrients and flushes out waste products such as lactic acid.
My younger son, who’s a competitive rower, has a pair and swears by them. My older one comes over for dinner and a Normatec session after a leg day at Equinox. As neither an athlete nor a member of Equinox, I still love a Normatec break. It feels indulgent and slightly punishing at once, like a strenuous massage. It’s the ideal follow-up to a workout (half-assed in my case) and an excellent way to justify lying around and doing next to nothing.
Linda Wells is the Editor at Air Mail Look
