Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Rest means rest?

Real rest between sprints - lets you perform better than active rest.....


Muscle Deoxygenation during Repeated Sprint Running: Effect of Active vs. Passive Recovery

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of active (AR) versus passive recovery (PR) on muscle deoxygenation during short repeated maximal running. Ten male team sport athletes (26.9±3.7y) performed 6 repeated maximal 4-s sprints interspersed with 21 s of either AR (2 m.s−1) or PR (standing) on a non-motorized treadmill. Mean running speed (AvSpmean), percentage speed decrement (Sp%Dec), oxygen uptake (V˙O2), deoxyhemoglobin (HHb) and blood lactate ([La]b) were computed for each recovery condition. Compared to PR, AvSpmean was lower (3.79±0.28 vs. 4.09±0.32m.s−1; P<0.001) p="0.02)" p="0.03)" style="font-weight: bold;">In conclusion, during run-based repeated sprinting, AR was associated with reduced repeated sprint ability and higher muscle deoxygenation.

2 comments:

Bryce said...

But what about the adaptive response? I personally am all for lots of rest between my sprints. Am I short changing myself with regards to how my body will adapt?

-bruce

Scott Kustes said...

I can concur with this. My training is mostly VERY high-intensity (90-100%) sprinting to train for track and field. For short sprints, I usually walk around for 3-5 minutes and that's it.

For long sprints (200m+), I rest 1 minute per 10m, usually just laying or sitting around. I will do some light warmup again before my second sprint on those days, but no active recovery other than some walking around. It works better for me than jogging and such.

Cheers
Scott Kustes
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