Effect of Active Versus Passive Recovery on Performance During Intrameet Swimming Competition

Why you should pay attention to this:  Sometimes rest isn’t the best thing for an athlete in competition.  This study looked at competitive swimmers, aged 15-19.  In this protocol, an intense 100 meter swim was followed by five minutes of rest and then three sets of four 200 m swims at 65-70%, 80% and 100% of maximal intensity respectively.  Lactic acid was measured between each set.  Following this, athletes were placed into one of two recovery protocols – one with active recuperation (20 minutes of low-intensity swimming) vs. 20 minutes of total rest.  Following the rest period, another maximal 100 m swim was performed and lactic acid measurements again obtained.  Researchers found that the group using active recovery was much more effective at reducing blood lactic acid.  More importantly, this translated to better 100 m swim times, with an average of 68.11 seconds in the active recovery group and 69.31 seconds in the standard rest group.  Active rest helps circulate blood through working muscles of the arms and legs, which helps clear lactic acid and reduce exercise-related muscle fatigue.  So when training or competing with multiple bouts of exercise, keep moving in order to keep your performance optimized.

If you have questions about training and recovery, give our office a call at (515) 221-1102.

Active recovery after a 100 m swim results in faster subsequent swim times when compared to rest in –between races.

Want to read the article?  http://www.pubfacts.com/detail/24587860/Effect-of-active-versus-passive-recovery-on-performance-during-intrameet-swimming-competition.