Recovery Flashcards
What are the four R’s of recovery?
Refuel
Repair
Relax
Rehydrate
What are the immediate and protracted effects of muscle fatigue and damage?
Immediate - muscle damage and soreness
Protracted - muscle soreness up to 72 hours post
How can muscle damage be measured?
MVC/ repeated sprints/ blood markers such as CK/ visual DOMS scale/ inflammation
Why does inflammation occur post-exercise?
Increases in WBC immediately post-exercise
What are the benefits of using recovery interventions?
- Facilitates optimal performance
- Lowers injury risk
- Lowers risk of burnout
What happens to muscle glycogen post-exercise?
Muscle glycogen drops and may not reach pre-measures until 72-hr post if nutritional strategies are not put in place
What is the theory behind co-ingestion of carbohydrate and protein?
Greater muscle-glycogen synthesis due to heightened insulin response to aid glycogen replenishment
Following glycogen depleting exercise, which has the greatest effect on glycogen synthesis?
CHO-PRO is significantly higher than CHO but CHO-CHO is highest
What are the effects of co-ingestion in terms of plasma insulin response?
CHO-CHO is significantly higher than CHO but CHO-PRO is highest
In terms of performance, which strategy has the best performance outcome?
Longer TTE in CHO-CHO compared to CHO-PRO, both higher than CHO alone
How can liver glycogen be measured?
Too deep for muscle biopsies so MRI scans are often used
CHO types and effects on liver glycogen
enhanced post-exercise liver glycogen resynthesis with GLU-FRU-SUC than glucose alone (implications with whole body glycogen and GI discomfort
What are the adverse effects of dehydration?
Reduced blood volume due to decreases in plasma volume
Limits to thermoregulation (particular problem in the heat)
What are the cardiovascular consequences of dehydration?
Cardiac drift
Reduced SV and Q = less blood pumped by heart
Reduced BP, reducing total peripheral distance = reduced muscle blood flow
What are the metabolic consequences of dehydration?
VO2max impaired
Reduced oxidative metabolism
as a result, lactic acd production increases and glycogen stores run out faster, accelerating fatigue
How many ATPs are released from oxidative and anaerobic glycogen breakdown?
Oxidative glycogen – 39 ATP
Anaerobic glycogen – 3 ATP
What are the cognitive consequences of dehydration?
Slower reaction times, impaired decision making processes and lower mood and visual analogue
What interventions can be used to combat dehydration?
Drink volume - intake must be higher than loss (usually 1.5x bm.loss)
Rate of ingestion - slower is better
Avoid caffeine and alcohol
Additional CHO, PRO and Na+ changes plasma osmolarity and aids fluid retention
Why is muscle-protein synthesis important post-exercise?
- repairs muscle damage
- promotes muscle protein synthesis
- greater muscle synthesis than CHO alone
What are the effects of adding CHO to water?
- Enhances endurance performance
- Greater anaerobic recovery
Extra protein has minimal extra advantages
What is the theory behind the benefits of tart-cherry concentrate?
Reduced oxidative stress
What are the effects of tart-cherry juice following prolonged intermittent exercise?
- Improved MVC
- Lower VAS
- Higher CMJ
- Lower IL-6 (pro-inflammatory cytokine)
What is the theory behind beetroot juice?
- Lower decline in CMJ
- Higher reactive stress index
- Improved pain pressure threshold
What is the reasoning behind an active recovery/cool-down?
To aid recovery through increasing blood flow, avoiding venous pooling and enhanced lactate transport and oxidation
What are some of the possible problems of a cool-down?
Interference with muscle glycogen resynthesis as it still requires energy
What is the theory behind the use of massage?
Reduction in
- tension/stiffness
- muscle pain
- swelling/spasms
- muscle damage
Increases in
- flexibility
- muscle blood flow (through heat and venous return) facilitating substrate delivery and metabolite removal
Is there any evidence supporting the use of massage for recovery?
No evidence of decreased endurance performance, but not much improvement
Even less of an improvement in strength performance
Foam rolling??
Similiar mechanism to massage
very little evidence showing improvements
Compression garments??
Similar mechanism to massage
Shown improvements in strength, power and endurance recovery after 24hr
What are the effects of cold water immersion?
Lower - inflammation - muscle pain - swlling/spasms - muscle damage - increased venous return P70S6K Possible added benefits of hydrostatic pressure Mixed literature, small improvement if any
What are the possible implications of CWI?
May switch off signalling cascades which would lead to improvements
Has been shown to decrease improvements of leg press and knee extension strength as well as ROFD and isometric torque
How can cryotherapy be beneficial?
Lowers inflammation, pain, swelling, spasms, muscle damage and increases venous return
What are the drawbacks of cryotherapy?
Cannot be sustained for long periods bc pain and frostbite
expensive
insufficient evidence
What is the mechanism behind contrast therapy?
Alternation between hot and cold baths helps to open and close blood vessels, helping to move metabolites and reduce inflammation
What are the possible problems caused by inadequate sleep?
Reduction in motor skills and cognitive performance as well as slower TTE, reduced total running distance and longer recovery
What interventions can be put in place to help sleep?
Napping, increase prescribed to 10-hours
consider factors like caffeine/alcohol intake, bedtime routines etc
Define hormesis
Process in which low doses of a chemical agent/ environmental factors are damaging at high doses but can elicit beneficial responses
How are muscle glycogen and oxidative remodelling related?
P53 and PGC1a activate mitochondrial changes in terms of number, content and respiration factors, allowing muscles to cope better with low glycogen in future
What are the benefits to periodising carbohydrate intake with training?
Regular training with low glycogen can reduce training quality/ risk of NFOR
however periodising low carb with key sessions leads to improvements in performance and efficiency (inc running economy)
Why is citrate synthase used as a marker?
Indicates the oxidative capacity of mitochondrial function
