The 16 Best Recovery Products for Muscle Relief, Joint Pain, and More

One of the keys to better fitness recovery? A regular yoga practice. Slink into the restorative yoga (or meditation) session of your dreams with this supportive bolster that you use under your neck, knees, or bottom to relax your muscles and de-stress in various postures.

It’s filled with plush cotton batting for extra comfort, with a cover that’s made of soft microfiber that you can remove for cleaning. An easy-to-carry handle rounds out the mix of savvy specs, and you can choose from black, purple, or teal. 

If you prefer a round bolster, we love the Gaiam Sol round yoga bolster, also on Amazon.

More: The Best Massage Guns for Muscle Relief

With 40 grams of protein per day, this juice cleanse is a great way to reset in the new year and help flood your body with nutrients and superfoods. Choose from 2-, 3-, 5-, 7-, or 10-day cleanses, which usually include a mix of three cold-pressed juices and three plant-based protein smoothies per day to help you drop body fat and boost your energy levels.

Our personal faves? Start the day with the Sweet Roots juice to get revved up, or the Peanut Butter protein smoothie after a tough workout to help with muscle protein synthesis and improve your recovery.

The ultimate mattress for recovery, the Molecule 2 Airtec is beloved by athletes like Michael Phelps, Alex Morgan, and Russell Wilson. Once you sleep atop these micro-coils and supportive specialty foam, you’ll wonder how you did any other way. 

The AirTEC foam provides superb airflow to help alleviate pressure from the heavier parts of the body like the head, shoulders, and hips while the embedded advanced temperature regulation helps promote the best recovery-focused sleep.

Each purchase also includes Percale Performance Sheets to keep you cool and comfortable while you sleep — and setting you up for success with whatever tomorrow’s HIIT workout or Vinyasa yoga class brings. Read our full review here.

Billed as “The Quietest Massage Gun,” this recovery tool delivers (so much so that even Olympic athletes use it to relieve their muscles). 

Whether you’re looking to free up a knot in your back or relieve aches and pains in your calves after a long run, this powerful percussion massager has multiple head attachments to fine-tune your massage session, a battery that lasts up to 6 hours per charge, and six pulse settings, so you can customize your massage based on your intensity preferences.

This soothing topical cream includes the brand’s 1,000-milligram CBD complex with nourishing ingredients like Aspen bark, lavender oil, and vitamin E. With a luxurious, rich texture, it absorbs quickly and helps your achy limbs feel better almost instantly. 

Note to self: Buy two at a time. It’s that great.

Available in berry and lemon flavors, this powder is high in essential amino acids, including branched-chain amino acids (BCAA). 

Research has shown such BCAA supplements to enhance muscle growth, boost exercise performance, and get a knowing smile from that friendly bodybuilder roommate of yours. All Thorne products are free from gluten and other major allergens.

Really feeling it from a long cycling session or run? Speed up your recovery with this lightweight and adjustable shoulder brace that helps to relieve muscle tension and discomfort in your upper back, neck, and shoulders.

Made in the U.S.A., this product works by training your chest to extend fully, which then lengthens your pectoral muscles so you don’t round your shoulders over, resulting in poor posture and ensuing strain. It’s available in three patterns and a variety of sizes to suit a wide range of body types and style preferences.

If you have back pain, consider the Chirp Wheel, which is designed to help the thoracic and lumbar region muscles feel better by rolling out the pain. Simply place it between your shoulder blades and roll on it for about 5 minutes a day to stretch and strengthen your spine, as tension melts away.

For a more comprehensive set of tools to help with strain for muscles and ligaments, try Chirp’s Ultimate Back Pain Bundle.

Sip that post-workout protein shake in style with this smartly designed shake bottle that opens with a touch of a button for one-handed use. It also features a locking lid and leak-proof seal so it doesn’t spill in your gym bag.

Each BlenderBottle includes a wire whisk to mix together the thickest of shakes effectively, and the bottle itself is made with double-wall insulated stainless steel to keep your drink cold for up to 24 hours.

What’s the remedy to soreness and muscle exhaustion? A nice long bath, of course. All the better with these goodies from Muscle Rehab, a female-founded brand of handmade bath soaks and salts that are crafted with 10 muscle relief-promoting essential oils like eucalyptus, peppermint, and ginger. They’re also vegan and cruelty-free, and contain no parabens, phthalates, dyes or SLS.

Friends, you’ve been putting off investing in a high-quality ergonomic chair long enough. But we’re not kidding when we say this specific chair is a game changer for back tension and discomfort. The X-Chair with Elemax offers heating, cooling, and massage features to take your muscle recovery to new heights.

All models also incorporate so-called Flex Mesh technology which frees up weight from sensitive pressure points throughout the body.

This superfoods powder is brimming with nutrients from good-for-you ingredients like turmeric, beetroot, and bee pollen. The blend also contains vitamins B-6 and B-12 to promote focus and metabolism, and biotin to support hair and skin health.

You can take it pre-, during, or post-workout, but we especially love it after a long, difficult a.m. workout and frothed with almond milk into a latte of sorts.

Nothing ruins a day like sore feet after that half-marathon training run you did or lengthy hike you conquered. That’s where Atoms come in, which come in quarter sizes for a more precise fit which translates to less strain on your feet and throughout your body.

The lightweight outsole boasts cloud-like cushioning (people have called them a comfier, higher quality version of Allbirds sneakers), and each shoe is lined with odor-fighting copper thread lining. Choose from a variety of colors to suit your personal fashion sense.

There’s nothing like cozying up with a neck wrap, and this one is among the best of the bunch. Providing targeted heat therapy to help your neck, shoulders, and upper back perk up, it’s soft, cordless, and there’s even a model with lavender aromatherapy embedded (obviously, we’re going with that one).

Your rear end deserves some TLC, too. This chic (yes, we said so) moisturizer for your behind contains organically grown full-spectrum CBD (cannabidiol) and full-spectrum hemp to help soothe skin, and foster faster muscle recovery after going hard at the gym. Make your glutes glow with happiness and thank us later.

If you suffer from joint pain or osteoarthritis, research shows that a turmeric supplement may help. That’s thanks to the compound curcumin (it’s what gives turmeric its bright orange-yellow hue), which features strongly in this supplement from Gaia, along with traditional herbs for supporting joint health like ginger root and Boswellia. 

And don’t worry about icky additives: In addition to being purity-tested, the brand’s products are gluten-, soy-, and dairy-free.