Welcome to our continuing series Glocal Fitness Mavericks where we get up close and personal with some of the industry’s shining stars responsible for the ongoing transformation of the Health & Fitness Industry across Asia.
Join Dr Alan Cheung of International Orthopaedic Clinic in Singapore as he goes in for a no-holds-barred discussion with five decade athlete Michael Lyons, partner at Recovery Systems in Singapore.
Sport and exercise have been an active part of Michael Lyons life for as long as he can remember, growing up in New Zealand, running, rugby, basketball, cricket, squash, cycling, and golf were always on a seasonal rotation.
Michael met coach of the century, Arthur Lydiard at the age of 14 when he came to his school, who was to become a great inspiration and role model for Michael over the years as a coach.
Michael is in his fifth decade as a cyclist and for a period, this morphed into triathlon as an athlete and coach when he moved to Singapore 21 years ago. He ran a Triathlon club with good friend and fellow coach Scott Larsen for close to ten years.
Michael had some good success at times with his sport with three national titles and fair to say, now that he is 62, sport has taken on more of a wellness, restoration, and social dynamic for him.
The whole time Michael competed and coached, he was always looking for marginal gains, mostly from training, however he realised that training makes you worse and that it was recovery he needed to better understand and apply himself and his athletes to – hence the birth of Recovery Systems more than five years ago.
Recovery Systems is a concept rather than a product line. It is the company’s mission to improve the health and wellness of people of all walks of life with the Recovery Products and Services they offer. Michael decided to focus on recovery modalities that promote blood flow, cellular health and the nervous system repair - parasympathetic healing, or rest and digest as it is more commonly know today.
Michael and his partners realised they needed to be entrepreneurs, innovators, and risk takers by taking recovery treatments previously only available in clinics and distil them into a convenient, portable, and ready to use in the home solution. Afterall, recovery is a daily ritual and convenience is the key to repeatability, and repetition brings results.
So, how do Recovery Systems Products Recovery work?
Recovery Systems Boots uses various treatment modes to effectively mimic the body's natural recovery, greatly enhancing the movement of fluid and waste out of the limbs after an intense workout or competition. The active compression helps move blood through your veins towards your heart. There are 2 Phases, a squeeze and release phase.
The continuous squeeze phase, or compression phase from the lower limbs to upper limbs lasts around one minute, effectively keeps the fluid and waste moving in the right direction where it is extracted through your lymphatic system thus lymphatic drainage.
The release phase of around 20 seconds promotes the natural release of substances in your body that help prevent clots. Between compressions, the recovery leg sleeves relax, and oxygen-rich blood continues to flow in the arteries of your legs. Essentially, it speeds up recovery by accelerating the transport of fresh nutrients back to the muscles to speed up healing, recovery, and gains.
A compliment to the compression boots, are the Recovery Bio Mats - the Qi Mat series which consists of a combination of five recovery Modalities - PEMF, Far Infrared, Negative Ion, hot stones, and red-light therapy - or Photon light therapy. These combinations of treatments have been proven to enhance recovery, detoxification, wound/injury healing, boost mitochondrial health, nerve regeneration, and raise HGH levels naturally.
The Recovery Boots and the Recovery Bio Mats are designed for convenience and portability for daily use. They significantly improve warm-up, recovery, rehab, and sleep to turn training into faster gains. Athletes can bio hack their warm-up with eight minutes on the Recovery Boots to boost muscle oxygen to the point that would otherwise take up to 30-40 minutes on a bike or treadmill.
Michael suggests 20 to 30 mins recovery after a workout will significantly accelerate recovery, healing, and gains. Recovery sessions can be immediately after a workout, or some time afterwards; many find before bedtime is significant as they promote sleep. The Bio mats can be used in conjunction with the boots to double down on your recovery or by themselves.
According to Michael, recovery should be a daily ritual. Knowing that convenience and portability are key factors to encourage regular use, the creators designed the products to be portable, powerful, convenient, and easy to use.
Specific examples of the unique nature for the Recovery Boots:
- Twice the pressure of most on the market
- Six overlapping chambers for smooth, concentrated pressure transition
- Four recovery modes to cover all scenarios
- Twice the battery capacity of others in the market
- Duo mode - we can support the recovery of 2 people on one machine or one person with legs and arms simultaneously.
Specific examples of the unique nature of the Bio Mats:
- Five in one treatment modalities
- convenient and portable for use anytime
- brings commercial-grade therapy into a home form factor.
- enhances sleep quality
- More specific bio-mat benefits here
I asked Michael, how would an athlete who uses compression recovery differ from one who doesn't? Michael replied, "there is an old saying; training makes worse; Recovery makes you better. Enhancing recovery will prevent injuries, bring faster gains, and allow athletes to improve their training quality and quantity." Recovery Systems just had their fifth birthday and looking back on the last five years customers using the product include
- Three current Olympic Gold Medallists
- 2 Current World Champions
- 2019 Rugby World Cup, NZ Rugby, Singapore sporting bodies such as Rugby, swimming, canoeing
- Product shipped to 14 countries
- We supply medical practitioners also and prevented many people with diabetes from leg amputation due to using our products as a part of their treatment
- Developed and launched an Equine (Horse) recovery product in Singapore, this was a first and has been well adopted at the Turf club, polo club and equestrian centre in Singapore, the UK and NZ
Pivoting the business during Covid was a challenge for Michael and the team at Recovery Systems. Due to the lack of events they introduced a Try/Buy Program where people could try the products at home on a two-week rental and if they bought at the end of the rental period we deducted the rental off the price, now that's what we call a win/win. The Try/Buy Program was hugely successful with most customers buying after the two-week period.
As the original product is five years old, Recovery Systems also introduced a trade-in program for the original customers to bring them up-to-date with the latest technology which include battery models with expanded features.
Recovery Systems is delighted to be launching their Bio Mat series in August 2021 which features five therapies in one mat, an outstanding recovery device that you can even sleep on.
Athletes and their journey are very important to Michael and the work he is involved in. Most are evangelical about Recovery Systems, so Recovery Systems decided to set up an ambassador affiliate program to reward them for their love.
Michael and the Recovery Systems team also felt they needed to contribute towards thought leadership on all aspects of recovery, not just their own products, to have a holistic approach and in the process also debunking some recovery myths. Here's the perfect introduction Recovery for Cycling and Why Most Don’t Get It
About Dr Alan Cheung of International Orthopaedic Clinic
A keen athlete, Dr. Alan Cheung Orthopaedic Surgeon and Director at International Orthopaedic Clinic trains in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) at Evolve Mixed Martial Arts.
Says Dr Cheung, “As a sportsman who has played a variety of sports and recovered from bilateral shoulder dislocations, and various knee and ankle injuries, I can understand where my patients are coming from. This helps me empathise and build trust, and I can discuss injury management and recovery in an intelligent way.”
He regularly competes in BJJ and has won gold in tournaments in Singapore and Japan. When he’s not practicing martial arts, Dr Cheung enjoys golf, cycling and skiing.
