Matthew Januszek and Mohammed Iqbal welcome Star Sage to the LIFTS Podcast to ask one of the questions the fitness industry keeps circling back to — is the recovery boom just beginning, or has the hype already peaked?

Star draws on her experience at Hyperice to examine how recovery has moved from the margins of elite sport into everyday gym floors, hotel rooms, and cultural events, and what that mainstreaming actually means for operators looking to use recovery as a retention and engagement tool.

What This Episode Covers

Star Sage has spent years working at Hyperice, one of the companies most responsible for bringing recovery technology into mainstream fitness culture. Her work there placed her at the intersection of elite athlete partnerships, consumer product development, and the cultural repositioning of recovery from a niche afterthought into a central part of the fitness experience.

She has observed the shift firsthand as recovery practices moved from the treatment room and the training facility into events, hospitality venues, and everyday gyms — a transition that has changed both how consumers think about their bodies and how businesses build around wellness.

Sage brings a practitioner's skepticism alongside her enthusiasm, which means she is willing to draw lines between evidence-backed recovery methods and the wellness industry's tendency to oversell.

Key Moments from the Conversation

• Hyperice played a meaningful role in redefining recovery as a mainstream cultural practice rather than an exclusive tool for elite athletes, and Sage traces that journey from her position inside the company.
• Recovery is now appearing at elite events in forms like compression lounges, replacing the cocktail hour format and signaling a genuine cultural shift in what counts as a valuable hospitality experience.
• Hotels are investing in 24/7 recovery rooms as a response to demand from business travelers and wellness-conscious guests, opening a new commercial channel for recovery technology and operators.
• Gen Z consumers are showing a measurable preference for wellness over nightlife, which has real implications for how gyms and wellness brands position their offerings to the next generation of members.
• Recovery is a direct lever for gym retention — members who use recovery services engage more consistently and maintain stronger connections to the facility and the brand.
• The wellness technology space still has noise and marketing claims that outrun the science, and Sage is clear that operators and consumers need frameworks for evaluating what is real versus what is hype.
• Wearables are enabling more prescriptive recovery recommendations, moving the conversation from general advice toward individualized protocols based on actual physiological data.
• Recovery is beginning to function as a social experience — a context for connection and community — rather than purely a solitary or rehabilitative practice.

Why This Conversation Matters

Matthew Januszek and Mo Iqbal built the LIFTS Podcast to track the trends that are reshaping how fitness businesses operate, and recovery is one of the most commercially significant of those trends. Star Sage's perspective — grounded in both the technology side and the culture side — offers operators a clearer picture of where genuine opportunity lies versus where the noise is loudest.

For Escape Fitness USA, recovery is increasingly part of the conversation gym operators have when they are spec'ing out facilities and thinking about member experience end to end. This episode gives that conversation sharper edges.

▶  Watch the full episode on YouTube

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