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Christie Aschwanden opens her new book, “Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery,” with the fact that the word “recovery” has gone from a noun to a verb. I was floored. It so perfectly captured not only what has been pitched to me for years as all the ways that runners can actively make their bodies heal from long workouts, but also the unsolicited advice I’ve been getting on how to help my stress fracture heal faster.

I recently chatted with Ms. Aschwanden about the meaning of recovery, the placebo effect, compression socks, and the weirdest thing she did while researching her book. Who ever thought someone would try to turn the pain of stepping on a Lego brick into a form of recovery? Answers have been lightly edited.

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JAM: How did the word “recovery” become a verb?

CA: I was a pretty serious elite athlete back in the ’90s and early 2000s. Then, recovery was the state of being that you hoped to attain. Now it’s something that people feel like they have to actively do. We’ve let go of this idea that we just wait for recovery. It’s no longer the waiting period between workouts. There’s a sense that if you’re waiting, you’re not trying hard enough.