FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System Review – Must Buy For Athletes in 2024?

What do you get when you combine some heavy squats and deadlifts, with a 7 year old kid you are chasing around? You get some sore legs. Add to that that I have been dieting, riding my bike more, and otherwise living on my legs more often, and I’ve been trying to find something that helps alleviate some of the “am I getting older?” feelings as I approach 40. The FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System popped onto my radar as I was exploring recovery devices. It went on sale, I bought it, and have been using it religiously for the past month and a half.

Today I’m going to share my thoughts so you can decide if this is your next purchase, or not.

Transparency Note

I purchased the FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System out of my own pocket. I do not have a relationship currently with the company in any way. I purchased it through Amazon on sale, and I have an Amazon Affiliate link that will give me a kick back without changing your price.

If any of this changes, or the team reaches out to me and offers additional products, I’ll update this section. But as of posting, this is an out of pocket expense for a product that I wanted to test, use, and share my thoughts on.

Overview of the FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System

The basic concept of the FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System, and honestly any of the similar items on the market, is that you put your legs inside the “suit” and the suit fills up with air. Much like how the more air is put into a basketball, the firmer that ball feels, the more air added to the suit, the firmer the suit gets. That firmness, because the legs fit fairly snug, applies pressure.

This pressure creates the compression on your legs by SQUEEZING them. After several seconds it releases that pressure. It then repeats that process over and over.

The concept behind compression is that it has a compound effect of SQUEEZING lactic acid and waste build up in your tissues, and then RELEASING that pressure so your body moves it along down the pipeline. This in theory helps with recovery from strenuous exercise, acute pain problems, or even simple daily life activities.

Do you stand at work a lot? Maybe you sit a lot and you have bad circulation because of it? Are you a high level athlete trying to get ready day-to-day between workouts and competition? Maybe you are dealing with circulation issues due to a number of factors? The FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System MIGHT just fit the bill for you. Let’s take a look further to see if that is the case.

Sizing

The FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System comes in three sizes. Even at my size of 6ft and 245lbs, I ordered a Medium. You want to make sure you get this right, because too small and it won’t fit, but too large and the compression won’t work. Luckily their chart seemed to work. Keep in mind that if you have multiple athletes in your house, say you and your spouse, you might not be able to share a set of these due to the sizing.

Core Features

Performance of the FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System

No Battery

The FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System is their plug-in version. This means that you need an outlet nearby, and you are bound to that particular spot. I have a problem when companies don’t use accurate images and ads on their website, for what their product is. Take a look at this photo from the FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System product page:

Obviously the image is edited or AI generated, but it is missing the power chord for the digital controller. All of the product images are similar to this, showing no power chords at all. I feel like this sends a wrong message to potential customers on the possible use of the product. So be aware, that this 100% NEEDS a power outlet.

The power chord is about 8ft in length. In my bedroom, the outlets are behind my bed (not accessible) and along the wall away from my bed. That 8ft chord wasn’t long enough to get the job done. I also found in my office, that the extra cable length helped make sure I didn’t drop the unit on the ground. Since I am 6 ft tall and have the Digital Controller on my standing desk, that is about 4ft on its own. Add in the travel to the wall and that is another 3 feet. I now have 1 foot of slack, which can easily be eaten up with a quick twist or turn.

So, I had to snag an extension cable. Not a huge issue, just something to note depending on your set up. You might need an extra purchase. Luckily I had one laying around.

Digital Controller

The main control unit has 4 buttons, one that controls the power, another for the mode, one for the pressure, and one for the time. These are labeled accuratly, are straight forward, and work pretty much exactly how you would expect.

It would be nice if you could adjust the time to a continuous mode, but I’m sure there is a safety factor there. It just requires me to reset everything after a 30 minute run. I don’t think you likely need shorter time intervals, because if you only had 10 minutes you wouldn’t be likely to set the entire thing up in the first place.

The pressure of 120 is similar to my experiences with massage guns. Is it enough? Yeah, probably. But as someone who has a fairly high pain tolerance by means of abusing himself in the gym, I could probably stand an even higher pressure setting.

The Three Modes

This is similar to my experience with massage gun heads and my EMS settings, I’m not sure that these make a difference. You can see that they each perform similar tasks but in a different order. But they all start at the foot, then move their way up the leg, then reset. I don’t think that choosing to hit the the foot and lower cable together opposed to JUST the foot is such a huge difference that it warrants an entire setting system.

I’ve used all three settings a number of times, and at this point, 9 times out of 10, I just leave it on Sequence, which is the default setting.

The Bag

I’m really glad that FIT KING included a bag for this, as there is a lot going on here. Being able to keep it in one space is great. But there is a problem with this. After you finish using the FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System it is full of air. When it shuts off, it doesn’t suck all of the air out of the tubs in the legs. There isn’t a good way to squeeze them, or open them up either. This means you have to try and fold a suit of air, plus the digital controller, cables, and your extension cable, into the bag. It doesn’t work.

I often have to leave them on the couch until the air vacates and I can fold them up appropriately. The digital controller should spend the final 30 seconds or so of the cycle, pulling the air from the suit itself. So this is a, I’m glad they thought of this, but they missed the mark. If I was trying to use this in my bedroom, a shared living space, or somewhere that I needed to pack it up quickly after use, this would NOT work.

Does The FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System Work?

Over the past month and a half I have used this 3 to 4 times a week, every week. Because I work from home and have mostly full control over my schedule, what I wear, what I do, and when I do it, I’m able to use these while standing at my desk. In fact, I’m wearing them as I type this very sentence.

Some insight into my daily routine. I get about 11k steps a day, ride my bike around the neighborhood most days, and lift in the mornings. In any given week I am squatting 400+lbs, deadlifting 500+lbs, and doing any number of nasty accessory movements. My legs get a lot of abuse. These have helped ease that tension from day to day. When I skip using them, I notice it. I feel lighter and more mobile on the evenings I’ve used them.

And since I’m using them while doing my normal work, there isn’t much extra taken from my day. To use a foam roller or massage gun, you need 5 to 10 minutes of dedicated time. To go get a massage, you gotta actually GO GET a massage. Even the fit-fluencer favorites like Saunas and Ice Baths require some dedicated time. No one is going to knock out some emails or write up a review while tackling those.

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I tend to be a frequent get up in the middle of the night and pee kind of person. I’ve tried supplements and cutting water intake and electrolytes and nothing seemed to work consistently. But I have noticed if I take a day or two off of using the FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System, especially a day of heavy leg exercises, I tend to wake up more.

My guess is that the system is moving that fluid out of my legs and back into my body. I then dispose of it during the day as needed, instead of at night when I lay down. I had a similar experience when I used to consistently wrap my legs with “voodoo floss”, a type of compression wrap. So this is a nice added benefit from the recovery side of things.

Because of that, the FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System is an easy piece to the puzzle for me. I spend a couple minutes of set up time and put away time, and I’m all in for a good hour or two of massage work and looking forward to better sleep as well.

But what about your day?

I lay out the above because I want you to think about your typical day. If I was to work in an office, or construction, or in a grocery store, I’m obviously not wearing these during my work day. So now I have to fit them into my morning or night time routine. More than likely we are looking at a nighttime activity.

I tried using these in bed as part of my wind down routine, but the machine is kind of loud. The legs are fairly noisy themselves due to the material, and they aren’t very mobile friendly. Meaning, if I happen to lay down and then need to hit the bathroom, I gotta take them all the way off, go pee, come back, put them back on, etc. I struggled wearing them under the covers due to their size, so I had to sit on top of the covers. In the winter this is less than ideal.

If I had to use The FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System at night, I wouldn’t. I honestly think they would likely gather dust in the corner of my bedroom. And as I mentioned with the sizing, they don’t fit my wife. So they would be my mistake.

Anything Missing?

Yes there is, I’m glad you asked. The FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System works great from your feet up into your thighs. This means calves, tibialis, quads, and hamstrings are good to go. But you know what muscles get beat up on during squats and deads? The glutes and hips! The same muscles that take a beating from athletes who sprint, jump, ride, dunk, tackle, and more. The FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System stops just shy of the downstairs bits and leave the entire hip region to fend for itself.

And what if you are a baseball player, or just benched yesterday, or otherwise use your upper body? No go! The arms and upper body are left out of the picture here. As a lifter who treats every day like leg day, this is a gap in the system offered by FIT KING.

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Other Air Compression Recovery Systems On The Market

On all of these, you need to do some measurements. Some will not fit me, but might fit you. Make sure to double check. Some are MUCH more expensive, some are cheaper, some come with more features, you get it. But the concepts are the same.

Normatec 3

The originator and the leader in the field, is the Normatec line from HyperIce. They make the best of the best, and are the athlete’s go-to option. The problem of course, is the price. They are nearly double the price of other options with similar specs. That said, their offerings are always a step ahead of the competition. Where FIT KING currently is, Normatec was with their last version. So if you want the best, the decision is easy, go with the Normatec line.

You can check out the full Normatec Recovery System including the legs, hips, and arms right here. Yes, their system can include an ALMOST full body set-up. Again, you are going to pay for it, but this is the premium option.

FIT KING Professional Air Compression Leg Recovery System

This is FIT KINGs higher model. You can control the different “zones” with this kit, meaning that your upper and lower cables, feet, & thighs can get a different stimulus. It is also battery powered, meaning no need to plug in. And, it goes up to 150 for the pressure, which is a sizeable increase of the model I have. Plus you can set the timeframe from 15 to 60 minutes. It claims a 3.5 hour battery life. You can check it out here. This isn’t as premium as the Normatec system, but it definitely has some upgraded offerings compared to my current pair if you feel that would be warranted for you.

JZBRAIN Air Compression Leg Recovery System

This one is weird, because the JZBRAIN store mostly sells kitchen appliance accessories. But they also sell these. When I was looking at them, they had a full 40% discount code available, dropping them to around $225. Considering they have a HUGE compression power, and are wireless, this looks like a crazy good deal. Check them out here. This comes with a huge BUYER BEWARE warning.

Amazon Options

There are a LOT of options on Amazon, some that get down around $150 with coupons and sales. Similar to the massage guns, you are going to find a lot that look identical under different names, different prices, etc. So YMMV on finding a good one, for a good price.

Should You Buy The FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System?

I have quite a few items I nitpicked over above. Some would be addressed if you purchased the FIT KING Professional Air Compression Leg Recovery System, and others are likely just something you have to consider when using a set of compression pants.

But I think one of the number one things I can say is, I plan to continue to use these for the foreseeable future. If FIT KING or any of their competitors want to send me another option, I’ll keep the one I like best and use that. But in general, I like these things. I like the compression system idea, and it fits into my daily routine. It seems to help with my recovery and sleep, and I’m able to make the FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System a consistent addition to my day.

The question is, would you be able to?

Wrap Up

The FIT KING Air Compression Recovery System isn’t perfect. I think there are a number of quirks that they could address and make better, but overall I enjoy using the system itself regularly and plan to continue doing so into the future. There are a number of options on the market, so make sure to do your research around what fits your budget and matches your goals, and snag the right item for you. Assuming this whole thing actually makes sense for your daily routine.

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