Recovery Techniques for Athletes

Question 1

• Explain why S&C coaches should consider focusing on recovery strategies for their athletes

Answer 1

Why Focus on Recovery?
- Rate + quality of recovery is extremely important for athletes (especially at elite levels).
- Ability to optimise recovery is advantageous during repetitive high-level training + comp
- Recovery can influence muscle injury risk due to associated fatigue levels
- Recovery influences training adaptations.
- Recovery aims to restore physiological + psychological processes, so that the athlete can compete or train again at an appropriate level
- If not enough recovery = body not able to adapt to stimulus = not enough time = decrease in perf
- Perf can decrease due too long gaps b/w training bouts = detraining effect = doesn’t improve at all

Question 2

• Describe the factors that can influence the recovery of an athlete.

Answer 2

• training/comp: vol, intensity, duration, type of training/sport, degree of fatigue, recovery from previous training/comp
• Nutrition: carbs, protein + other nutrient intake, fluid + electrolyte balance
• psychological stress: stress + anxiety from comp
• lifestyle: quality + amount of sleep, schedule, housing situation, leisure/social activities, r/s w/ team members + coach + friends/family, job or schooling situation
• health: illnesses, infection, injury, muscle soreness + damage
• environment: temp, humidity, altitude

Question 3

How to Enhance Recovery

Answer 3

• Numerous popular methods used by athletes to enhance recovery
  Dependent on:
• Type of activity that will be performed during training/comp
• Time until the next training session or event
• Equipment and/or personnel available

Question 4

• List the popular recovery techniques used by athletes

Answer 4

• Hydrotherapy
• Active recovery
• Stretching
• Compression garments
• Massage
• Sleep
• Nutrition

Question 5

• Explain what hydrotherapy involves and its potential benefits for an athlete

Answer 5

Hydrotherapy
- Body is immersed in water.
- Changes in the heart response, peripheral resistance + blood flow, as well as skin, core + muscle temp alterations
- May effect inflammation, immune function, muscle soreness + perception of fatigue.
Common forms of water immersion:
- Cold water immersion (CWI)
- Hot water immersion (HWI)
- Contrast water therapy (CWT) - alternates b/w hot + cold water immersion
- Appears beneficial for athletes, particularly those performing high intensity efforts
- 6 minutes ideal - no dose-response r/s.
- CWI + CWT appears more beneficial than HWI for recovery following high-intensity exercise

Question 6

• Describe why sleep plays an important role in the recovery of an athlete

Answer 6

Sleep
- Serves to recover from previous wakefulness and/or prepare for functioning in the subsequent wake period
- Restricting sleep < 6 hrs per night for four or more consecutive nights impairs cognitive perf + mood, disturbs glucose metabolism, appetite regulation + immune function
- Recommendation that adults should obtain 8 hrs of sleep per night.
- Sleep deprivation > 30 hrs (one complete night of no sleep + remaining awake into the afternoon) impairs anaerobic perf
- Aerobic perf may be decreased after only 24 hrs
- Decrease perf could be due to increased perception of effort

Sleep disturbances in athletes can occur at 2 time points:
- Prior to important comps
- During normal training

Promotion of better sleep may assist with enhancing recovery of an athlete

Question 7

• Discuss how the following techniques are thought to improve recovery: active recovery

Answer 7

Active Recovery
- Usually aerobic exercise e.g. cycling, jogging, aqua, jogging or swimming.
- Thought to promote recovery of perf due to enhanced blood flow, clearance of lactate + other metabolic waste products via increased O2 delivery
- Benefits unclear? But no detrimental effects on perf

Question 8

• Discuss how the following techniques are thought to improve recovery: massage

Answer 8

Massage
- Widely used recovery strategy among athletes.
- Perceived benefits of massage on muscle soreness.
- Is beneficial for psychological wellbeing.
- Increased blood flow is one of the main mechanisms proposed to improve recovery (thus improving clearance of metabolic waste products).
- Most evidence does not support massage for improving recovery of functional perf
- May have potential benefits for injury prevention + management?

Question 9

• Discuss how the following techniques are thought to improve recovery: compression garments

Answer 9

Compression Garments
- Traditionally used to treat various lymphatic + circulatory conditions.
- Thought to improve venous return through application of graduated compression to the limbs from proximal to distal
- May reduce swelling + promote stable alignment of muscle fibres, attenuating the inflammatory response + reducing muscle soreness
- Small amount of data suggests it may be beneficial + does not appear to be detrimental to recovery process

Question 10

Stretching

Answer 10

Stretching
- Anecdotally one of the most used recovery strategies
- Very little literature examining its effectiveness
- Two reviews concluded no benefit for stretching as a recovery modality
- However, no detrimental effects on perf associated w/ post-exercise stretching