Two studies that say how best to recover from repeated sprints....basically rest / passive recovery rather than active recovery.
Effect of Recovery Mode on Repeated Sprint Ability in Young Basketball Players. - The results of this study show that during repeated sprinting, passive recovery enabled better performance, reducing fatigue. Consequently, the use of passive recovery is advisable during competition in order to limit fatigue as a consequence of repeated high intensity exercise.
Performance and metabolism in repeated sprint exercise: effect of recovery intensity - In summary, peak power indices during the repeated-sprint test were inferior in the MI (moderate intensity) and LI (low intensity) active recovery trials, compared to passive (total rest?) . The minimal differences in performance and muscle metabolites between the MI and LI trials suggest that any low-to-moderate level of muscle activation will attenuate the resynthesis of PCr and the recovery of power output during repeated short-sprint exercise.
Not sure how we apply this to sports - e.g. football where, while you may be doing repeated sprints, you cannot just stand around to recover...... UPDATE 1/5/08 - of course as someone comments below, that is the point. In such sports, you cannot recover passively. That is why conditionign is so important and why these studies msut always be put into some context.
1 comment:
Great blog!
I believe that if the purpose of the sprint is for top speed development, then complete rest is better, something like at least 1 min for every 10m sprinted.
For football/basketball, conditioning is important, but that can be achieved through tempo runs as recommended by Lyle McDonald.
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