If you’re anything like me, post-workout aids like massage guns and foam rollers tend to gather dust in the corner until the body is at breaking point. Yet, a new partnership between Garmin and Therabody could offer a glimmer of hope for recovery neglecters.
As announced at CES 2025, the latter has launched a ‘Coach by Therabody’ tool within its app that links with Garmin sports watches and smartwatches to help personalize user recovery plans.
The AI tool is available to beta testers ahead of an expected full rollout later this year, and currently provides reminders and generates plans based on recent workouts and inputted goals.
These goals could include reducing muscle soreness, improving performance, or being more active. Data from Apple Health, Google Fit, and Strava can be used, too.
However, Therabody’s integration with Garmin is deepest. The wellness brand will use the data from Garmin users (presumably you can opt out, but it’s not clear at this stage) to study the effects of recovery on performance.
Heart rate, sleep, activity, stress, and Body Battery figures will all be beamed across to Therabody if you make the connection. However, you will also need a compatible massage gun to partake. Currently, only the Theragun Pro Plus and Theragun Prime Plus are involved.
Wareable says:
The effectiveness of percussive massage therapy is a notoriously contested subject, with little scientific research to suggest that using one will have any major accelerating effect on recovery.
We’re also not necessarily expecting any groundbreaking or conclusive findings from the Garmin user data analyzed by Therabody scientists, given the brand is far from impartial in this area.
However, the integration with Garmin’s watches has us intrigued. It reminds us of Whoop’s collaboration with Withings to present in-app data from the brand’s scales.
A more personalized recovery plan that reminds us to engage with recovery in those crucial post-exercise moments could be a real boon. I’m looking forward to testing it out in 2025.
