Last summer, Josh Shadle opened the first AllSports Recovery Club in Boulder. A massage therapist by trade, Shadle’s vision was to bring the same recovery treatments and cutting edge post-workout technology used by Olympians and NCAA Division I athletes to the masses, for an affordable price. AllSports Recovery Club is equipped with tools most of us mere mortals have never seen—from cold laser technology to compression boots to inversion tables to ice baths.
An elite triathlete himself, Shadle’s club courts the Boulder cult of endurance sport devotees. “Having access to these treatments can actually make a difference in someone’s performance,” he says. “Every committed athlete wants to be able to do these things, the problem is expense and availability.”
AllSports Recovery Club, which is currently the only facility of it’s kind in Colorado, solves for that problem by providing the equipment for members to share, from basic items like foam rollers to complex machinery like therapeutic ultrasound machines. Members pay $59 a month for unlimited access, plus additional services like massage, chiropractic, gait analysis and Muscle Restoration Therapy (MRT).
A visit to the club can feel a bit other-worldly at first, with uber-fit folks of all ages lounging in overstuffed chairs with their legs propped up in giant inflatable boots, guys in short shorts rolling their tightly-strung IT bands over the top of foam rollers and pony-tailed gals in sports bras stretched upside down on inversion racks. But Shadle’s friendly staff helps you feel at ease, and their enthusiasm for the tools and techniques is contagious.
As Shadle gets ready to celebrate AllSports Recovery Club’s first birthday, he’s finalizing plans for his first expansion. He’s hoping to open a second location in Denver, in Cherry Creek, soon. allsportsrecovery.com
Slacklining for Dummies
It’s not exactly easy to rig a slackline, even for climbers. Boulder-based Gibbon Slacklines USA has been working to change that since 2009, by providing a one-stop-shop for the gear and by engineering simpler rigging techniques. Today, its lines are in schools, gyms and even the Super Bowl Halftime show. Gibbon’s latest creation hit store shelves in April—the industry’s first double ratchet kit. The system was designed to enable anyone to set up a one-inch slackline (up to 60-feet long), with just one person and zero climbing equipment. The kits are available with a choice of either the Gibbon Flowline ($100) or the Gibbon Tubeline webbing ($110); gibbonslacklines.com.
—J.M.
