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ABSTRACT
Athletes spend a much greater proportion of their time recovering than they do in training. Yet, much attention has been given to training with very little investigation of recovery. The purpose of this review is to stimulate further research into this vital area of training. Recovery can be categorized in three terms: i) immediate recovery between exertions; ii) short-term recovery between repeats (e.g., between resistance sets or interval bouts); and iii) training recovery between workouts. The focus of this review is training recovery. Full training recovery is essential to optimal performance and improvement. This review includes an examination of extant research on recovery and a very brief review of some potential modalities and techniques for hastening recovery and the time course of recovery and responses to some treatments. Measures of recovery and practical considerations are discussed briefly. Much research is needed in this area, but there are obstacles to high quality research. Attention must be given to key issues in research on recovery, especially the individual response to recovery treatments.
KEY WORDS rest, training breaks, fatigue, recovery modalities, overtraining, recovery ergogenics
INTRODUCTION
Training in its simplest form represents acute challenges to the body intended to optimize chronic improvements in physiological capabilities. Research has advanced our knowledge of physiological, biomechanical, and the psychological aspects of physical training and performance. The majority of research has focused on training, although most exercise-induced adaptations take place during recovery. Recovery is one of the least understood and most underresearched constituents of the exercise-adaptation cycle. Even the most dedicated athlete spends much more time in recovery than in active training. We define recovery, from a practical perspective, to mean the ability to meet or exceed performance in a particular activity. For example, if a person has done a challenging distance running workout, then that person's ability to run a personal best 10-km will be reduced for some period of time. Eventually that runner will be recovered, but certainly for the first 3-4 hours after a workout, no runner expects to perform at their best. This concept of recovery has been used by others (14,24,32).
In general, most coaches and athletes have assumed that increased training was the ultimate prescription for improvement. Endurance sports like swimming and running have, in...