Therabody JetBoots Pro Plus Review: When Splurging on Recovery Is Worth It

Post-workout recovery has shifted from hot tubs and ice baths into a full-on industry within the $2 trillion wellness economy, complete with supplements, oxygen rooms, and foam rollers of all shapes and sizes. With so many options—and the prices for all those options ranging from reasonable to five-plus figures—it can be tough to discern what’s worth spending money (and time) on. I tested the Therabody JetBoots Pro Plus for more than a year to see if they made a difference for recovery.

Compression boots, which work by filling with air and compressing your legs from feet to thighs, have been around for years. But at-home use really took off in 2020 when Normatec, the brand that claims to have invented at-home compression, was acquired by tech tool leader Hyperice. Now, there’s no shortage of brands that offer compression boots—and yes, you can even buy them at Costco.

Therabody got its recovery bona fides with top-of-the-line massage guns, and got into the compression boot market soon after. Its JetBoots Pro Plus are among the priciest at-home compression boots because, in addition to the pneumatic compression, they come with a few extras: red-light therapy and vibration, plus no need to plug in while wearing them.

The science behind compression boots for recovery isn’t super straightforward. Some studies show they help with short-term soreness relief but don’t meaningfully improve long-term recovery. Others find there’s an improvement when compared to passive recovery. Red-light therapy has some good research behind its ability to reduce inflammation, though it’s mostly been tested on skin, not muscle tissue.

After using the boots after hard workouts and huge hikes, I can say that the direct line from my sore muscles to relief isn’t concrete. I certainly feel better after using the boots—after all, they’re almost like a massage for your legs without any deep-tissue discomfort. And unlike foam rolling, which can often feel like torture more than relief, I can relax into the boots.

Therabody JetBoots Pro Plus

$1,149.99 $999.99 at Therabody

Therabody’s top-of-the-line compression boots combine pneumatic compression, red light therapy, and vibration for a luxe recovery experience. You can select your intensity levels for a totally customizable session that aims to help you recover faster from workouts. After testing for a year, I’m most impressed by their ability to improve my sleep.

However, a surprising—and maybe even better—benefit I discovered is a direct line between the JetBoots Pro Plus and improved sleep. After wearing the boots right before bed for a couple of months, my Oura Ring discovered that after using them, my resting heart rate lowers. My sleep scores were also consistently improved on nights I used the boots.

This might be an even better indicator of recovery than less-sore muscles. The two most important factors in recovering after a workout are sleep and nutrition. Eating enough food and enough protein helps repair muscles; during sleep, your body produces growth hormone and works to repair muscles. If you’re training hard but not sleeping well, you’re not gaining fitness; you’re just exhausting yourself.

In addition to better sleep, the red-light therapy has helped fade a scar from a biking fall that’s all along my left knee. It was a pretty fresh scar when I started using the boots, and consistent use has helped make it nearly invisible.

Ultimately, compression boots aren’t a miracle, but they can be surprisingly helpful, especially if you value how you feel as much as what the science says. The JetBoots Pro Plus didn’t transform my post-workout recovery dramatically, but they did help me unwind, improved my sleep, and even faded a lingering scar, benefits I wouldn’t have predicted going in. And in a crowded recovery market, it’s nice to know there’s a tool that actually shifts your body into rest mode. If that’s the kind of recovery you’re after, these boots might actually be worth the splurge.