Unique ways to help you recover from a rough workout

PHILADELPHIA -- If you over-did it at the gym or your training session left you with sore muscles, there are some new options to help you recover. Techniques used by some professional athletes are now available for the everyday exerciser.

Sharon Pulido is getting zipped in for NormaTec compression therapy. It's one of several recovery methods offered at the Zone inside Life Time Athletic Ardmore .

Dan Kubo, personal trainer manager there, says recovery is often neglected, but it's vital if you want to see results.

"That's what actually gets you to progress further and be injury-free," he said, adding it can also increase flexibility and allow people to keep up with challenging fitness regimens.

For Pulido, it's helped her continue on her quest to lose fat, increase endurance and build strength. "Every day I am in here doing something," she said.

NormaTec compression is said to to increase blood flow and flush out metabolites such as lactic acid that can lead to sore muscles. Kubo says its new technology and scientific studies are coming, but it's already caught on for some professional athletes.

"Lebron James, Blake Griffen, all these pro-athletes are using the same technology," he said.

"Oh, I feel like a new person," Pulido said when describing how she feels walking out of the Zone.

But if you're looking for more than just physical recovery, float therapy is becoming a popular way to soothe muscles and mind. Keegan Rosenberry of the Philadelphia Union says his recent session was like hitting the re-set button.

"Just mind, body, spirit just completely silent, just how many times a day are we without any noise at all and thinking to ourselves so it was really cool," he said.

Lisa Florentino, owner of Float Therapy & Wellness Spa in Deptford, New Jersey, says that's the goal.

Inside just 10 inches water, heated to 95 degrees and supersaturated with salt (1,000 pounds of Epsom salt) you can keep lights low, or float in the dark for 30, 60 or 90 minutes.

"Thirty minutes will give you physical relief as far as muscle recovery and just to ease overall aches and pains, but 60 or 90 minutes will give you mental as well as physical, putting you in what's called a theta brain wave state which is a meditative state for an extended period of time." she said.

Float therapy can also be used to help with anxiety and in some cases, addiction.