This Chiefs Trainer Has A Recovery Hack That's Good Enough For Travis Kelce

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Tiffany Morton has been here before. As an assistant athletic trainer for the Kansas City Chiefs, she’s traveled to the Super Bowl three times, with two championship rings to her name. So as her team prepares to battle the San Francisco 49ers in yet another Super Bowl, she’s fully embracing the magnitude of football’s biggest game—and even thriving in it.

“There's always a healthy amount of stress and pressure going into a big game,” she tells Women’s Health from Las Vegas. “That's what makes it good—[it’s] the positive stress, the eustress, that everybody should have in order to perform well.”

Back in 2016, Morton was hired by the Chiefs and became the first woman in team history to take on an assistant athletic training role. (Today, there are at least 20 women doing the job across the NFL.) But she’s not thinking about any of that right now. She’s too busy focused on the task at hand.

“I know there's people that absolutely look up to the fact that change is happening, and [that] I was a part of that,” she says. But when women in the athletic training field reach out to her, she encourages them to think about how they want to be remembered in the sport. Being a woman “does not necessarily set your identity as an athletic trainer,” she adds. “At the end of the day, you still have to be the best of the best, and you still have to make sure that you're out there competing with your peers, no matter what their gender identity is.”

Being a top athletic trainer is also a team effort. Morton knows better than anyone that there’s a big crew of folks behind the scenes helping players like Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes bring home a Lombardi Trophy. “It takes the entire village of the Chiefs Kingdom in order to bring these guys up to the Super Bowl,” she says. “I hope that everybody remembers that every person sitting on the sideline not playing or going on to the field is a part of that success.”

With more eyeballs on the game than ever—and a certain pop star taking the Chiefs into a new stratosphere of fandom—Morton is welcoming the influx of new football fans with open arms. “Watching families come together in a more inclusive environment, I think that's awesome. Anytime you can get a family activity, especially in 2024—you're taking the phone away and getting involved and having a conversation about what's going on,” she says. “Whether it's men, women, whoever the case may be, whether they're Swifties or fans of the league, them having a mutual point of interest, why not?”

Morton applies similar principles to the players she’s working with, because eliminating distractions is key to helping them focus on the essentials, like recovery. “Sometimes distractions are as simple as your phone, or sometimes as big as you've got other things going on in your life,” she says. “It’s a communication, understanding what the guy is going through and having a lot of conversations and an open relationship there.” Once the lines of communication are open, keeping their muscles (and minds) in tip-top shape gets a whole lot easier.

Here, Morton shares some of the top recovery and performance tips she uses with the Chiefs to help them get in Super Bowl shape—and any fan can apply them to their own life.

Learn to hydrate smarter.

Staying hydrated isn’t just about chugging from your Stanley cup. “Everybody thinks you just need to drink more water,” Morton says. “And then we have guys that come in who are like, ‘I swear I drank a gallon of water yesterday. Why am I still struggling?’” Likely, she says, they’re not consuming enough electrolytes or carbohydrates to help their bodies absorb and retain the fluids they need in order to perform.

Morton has found that explaining why things should be done—not just telling a player what should be done—is the secret to making a healthy habit really stick in their minds. “The guys are all about the ‘why,’ as they should be,” Morton says. “This is their job. They want to understand.” That advice stands for any health change you may be making, for the record. (Hey, it works for the Chiefs!)

Turn recovery time into true self-care.

The Chiefs facility has a recovery room tricked out with Hyperice gear like Normatec boots, Venom heat and vibration devices, and Hypervolt massage guns. But beyond the tech, the room serves as a quiet space to unwind after a game. “They can zen there,” she says. “The lights are dimmed, boots are out—whether it's for arms, legs, hips, anything that they feel like they need to focus in on—and it's all their time.”

When the team travels for an away game like the Super Bowl, sometimes the plane will even become their zen zone. The staff carries a heavy-duty Pelican case of Hyperice products on board to help with inflammation and cramping on longer flights, so they don’t have to wait until they get home to start the recovery process. (It’s such a routine now that players have been known to fight over who gets to use what on the plane.)

Morton also likes that anyone can learn how to use this kind of gear, which empowers players to prioritize their recovery whether they’re relaxing at home or multitasking in a team meeting. “This is an opportunity for them to use a piece of equipment and actively still feel like they're doing something,” she says. Then, whether a player is at the facility or at home, they have the tools to supercharge their own recovery process without making it feel like an additional item on their to-do list.

Stick to a solid sleep routine.

This one can be tough after a high-energy moment like a big game, which makes it more difficult for players to wind down. So Morton and her team work with them to find calming strategies to help them wind down, including meditation.

“Sleep is nature’s best recovery tool,” she says. She especially notices the ripple effect the day after a game. “If they didn't get any sleep the night before, they are going to feel every bump and bruise tenfold. What used to be a three out of 10 pain suddenly is a six out of 10 pain.”

While it may be tempting to try a million different sleep hacks for a more restful night—eliminating digital distractions, changing the temperature of the room, switching out your light bulbs—Morton encourages players to implement new strategies one at a time “so they actually remember them and see which ones stick.” Consistency comes first.

With the Super Bowl looming, it’s impossible to ignore the amount of hard work that helped these teams become championship caliber, and their training and recovery is a huge element of that. “Obviously the guys are the forefront, and they absolutely are the pinnacle in what we are all watching,” Morton says. “But the behind the scenes aspect is the week leading up to it. It's the coaching that went into it. It's the practice and the reps that had to happen beforehand. It's the failures that led into the success.” Hear hear!

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