When we started building the PlayMakar Athlete Services Recovery Zones, our intention was to bring professional-level recovery equipment and services to athletes who normally wouldn't have access to them. We began working at swim meets, volleyball tournaments, and other competitive events, setting up portable far-infrared saunas, compression systems, percussion devices, and equipment I had been using with athletes for years.
It didn't take long to realize that the competition itself was only part of what these athletes were putting their bodies through.
Spend an entire Saturday at a swim meet and you'll understand. A swimmer might race for thirty seconds, climb out of the pool, and wait two hours before getting back in. Depending on the event schedule, that cycle could repeat several times throughout the day. Volleyball tournaments presented a similar challenge. Teams might play multiple matches, sometimes separated by long stretches of inactivity and other times with barely enough time to eat something and get ready for the next opponent.
As the day progressed, athletes started making their way into our Recovery Zones. Some were looking for relief from tired legs. Others were dealing with soreness or stiffness, and plenty simply wanted to feel better before they had to compete again. By the afternoon, you could see how much the accumulated demands of the day were affecting them.
I enjoyed helping those athletes, but something about the situation kept bothering me. We were spending a considerable amount of time and effort helping their bodies deal with the consequences of competition, often after they'd already spent hours accumulating fatigue.
And I knew from experience that we could approach preparation differently.
Years earlier, while working with professional athletes, I had developed a practice I called a Pre-Warm Up. I was experimenting with infrared light and vibration before athletes began their traditional warm-up routines. My interest was in whether we could influence tissue readiness, circulation, and neuromuscular preparation before the athlete started moving through the more demanding activities their coaches had planned.
I wanted to pay closer attention to the condition of the athlete's body when that traditional warm-up began.
Working with professional athletes gave me the opportunity to explore those ideas in an environment where small differences in preparation mattered. When you're working with someone whose livelihood depends on physical performance, you pay attention to how they respond to what you're doing. You observe their movement, listen to their feedback, and make adjustments based on what you see.
Years later, standing inside those PlayMakar Recovery Zones, I began thinking about how much of that earlier work could benefit the younger athletes coming through our doors.
From Pre-Warm Up to Precovery™
My original Pre-Warm Up eventually evolved into what I now call Precovery™, a deliberate approach to biological preparation before competition.
Within PlayMakar Athlete Services, we've developed a sequence that begins with eight minutes in a portable Relax far-infrared sauna, followed by five minutes of targeted percussion-based tissue preparation using the PlayMakar MVP Mini. This 13-minute sequence takes place before the athlete begins their conventional warm-up, and the areas we address vary according to the athlete and the demands of their sport.
The far-infrared sauna portion is designed to give the athlete an opportunity to settle the nervous system before competition. Between the anticipation of competing, the noise of the venue, and the physical demands ahead, many athletes arrive at their warm-up already in a heightened state of arousal. Those eight minutes provide a quiet environment where the athlete can relax, regulate their breathing, and begin transitioning toward a more focused state of readiness.
From there, we move into targeted percussion work, addressing areas of muscular tension and restriction that may interfere with comfortable, efficient movement. The MVP Mini allows us to work selectively with the muscles and surrounding tissues involved in the athlete's particular sport.
This tissue preparation is distinct from the active recruitment of stabilizing muscles. Percussion may influence perceived tension, range of motion, and movement readiness, but it does not replace the neuromuscular activation that occurs during a properly designed dynamic warm-up. We see these as complementary stages of preparation.
These stabilizing systems are easy to overlook because they're rarely the muscles people associate with athletic power. Most athletes can tell you about their quadriceps, hamstrings, biceps, and pectorals. Far fewer spend much time thinking about the muscles that help position the shoulder blade, control the hip, stabilize the ankle, or maintain trunk alignment during rapid changes in direction.
Yet those functions are involved in nearly everything an athlete does.
A volleyball player needs coordinated stabilization through the feet, ankles, hips, trunk, and shoulders to jump, land, change direction, and hit effectively. A swimmer places different demands on the body, particularly through the shoulder complex and trunk. A baseball player, tennis player, or runner brings another set of movement requirements. Our tissue preparation and subsequent activation work change according to the athlete and the sport because the physical demands change.
One of the more interesting observations we've made is how athletes appear to access the power they've already developed through training. Anecdotally, we've noticed what seems to be a significant improvement in their ability to express that power following Precovery™. Athletes sometimes move more freely, appear less restricted, and seem able to generate force with greater ease when they begin their sport-specific preparation.
That distinction between developing power and accessing it interests me. An athlete can possess considerable strength and physical capacity, yet their ability to express those qualities during competition may be influenced by fatigue, muscular tension, nervous system arousal, and how effectively they've prepared for the demands ahead.
Our 13-minute Precovery™ sequence is something we've developed through our experience working with athletes. Although passive warming, percussion-based tissue preparation, and targeted neuromuscular activation have relevant scientific foundations, the effects of this particular combination haven't been established through controlled performance studies. Our observations regarding improved access to power remain anecdotal rather than objectively demonstrated improvements in power output or competitive performance.
We continue paying attention to individual responses, environmental conditions, hydration, and the demands of each sport rather than assuming every athlete will respond the same way.
What interests me is the opportunity to make preparation more deliberate, beginning with the athlete's mental and physical state, addressing tissue readiness, and then progressing into the traditional warm-up where movement, stabilization, and sport-specific activation come together.
The Biological Economy of Competition
While writing Terrain 2.0: A Restoration Manual for the Modern Body I spent considerable time exploring what I call the Biological Economy: the relationship between the resources available to the body and the demands we continually place upon them.
Athletic competition is a remarkable example of that economy in action.
Every race, match, practice, and training session places demands on energy availability, hydration, muscular function, and the nervous system. Those demands don't disappear simply because an athlete finishes competing. The body begins recovering, but the next competition may arrive long before that process is complete.
An athlete's ability to handle those demands is influenced by much more than the quality of their training. Sleep, nutrition, hydration, environmental conditions, and the time available between competitions all contribute to the biological resources they bring into the next event.
This becomes particularly important with young athletes competing across entire weekends. A swimmer might have several races scheduled throughout the day, while a volleyball player could be facing multiple matches with limited opportunities for meaningful recovery.
They're making repeated withdrawals from their Biological Economy, often without realizing how much they're spending.
I've often said that being exhausted after a workout isn't the same thing as adapting to it. Athletes can work incredibly hard without necessarily providing their bodies with everything needed to benefit from that work.
That understanding helped shape the broader PlayMakar Athlete Services model around four connected areas: Precovery, Performance, Recovery, and Adaptation.
Each represents part of an ongoing biological process. We prepare the athlete for physical demands, support their ability to perform, address the demands that competition creates, and provide the conditions that allow training and competition to contribute to future adaptation.
The more we understand that relationship, the better we can approach the entire competitive experience.
Bringing Professional-Level Thinking to Young Athletes
I've had the opportunity to work with celebrities, professional athletes, and Olympic athletes over the years. Those experiences taught me a great deal about physical preparation, performance, and the attention elite athletes devote to their bodies.
But some of the most rewarding work I've done has been with young athletes through PlayMakar Athlete Services.
Many of these athletes are competing at an extraordinarily high level for their age. They're traveling across the country, playing multiple games in a weekend, and committing tremendous amounts of time and energy to their sports. Their parents are investing in coaching, equipment, travel, tournaments, and opportunities to help them develop.
I believe understanding the biological demands of that investment deserves a place in the conversation.
When we first began operating our Recovery Zones, I watched athletes arrive after hours of competition looking for ways to feel better. Those experiences reminded me of the work I'd begun years earlier with professional athletes and how much opportunity existed to bring that thinking into youth sports.
Precovery grew out of those experiences, bringing together years of practical work with a broader understanding of the biological resources athletes depend upon.
We're continuing to develop that approach because I believe the way athletes prepare deserves as much attention as what happens after they've finished competing.
And after all those years working with athletes, I keep coming back to one question.
Why wait until after your competition to start thinking about recovery?
Explore how PlayMakar Athlete Services brings Precovery™, Performance, Recovery, and Adaptation into competitive environments.
Rocco Castellano
PlayMakar Athlete Services
Author, Terrain 2.0: A Restoration Manual for the Modern Body