Abstract
Purpose
To investigate the effects of different recovery strategies on fatigue markers following a prolonged running exercise.
Methods
46 recreational male runners completed a half-marathon, followed by active recovery (ACT), cold water immersion (CWI), massage (MAS) or passive recovery (PAS). Countermovement jump height, muscle soreness and perceived recovery and stress were measured 24h before the half-marathon (pre), immediately after the recovery intervention (postrec) and 24h after the race (post24). In addition, muscle contractile properties and blood markers of fatigue were determined at pre and post24.
Results
Magnitude-based inferences revealed substantial differences in the changes between the groups. At postrec, ACT was harmful to perceived recovery (ACT vs. PAS: effect size [ES] = −1.81) and serum concentration of creatine kinase (ACT vs. PAS: ES = 0.42), with CWI being harmful to jump performance (CWI vs. PAS: ES = −0.98). It was also beneficial for reducing muscle soreness (CWI vs. PAS: ES = −0.88) and improving perceived stress (CWI vs. PAS: ES = −0.64), with MAS being beneficial for reducing muscle soreness (MAS vs. PAS: ES = −0.52) and improving perceived recovery (MAS vs. PAS: ES = 1.00). At post24, both CWI and MAS were still beneficial for reducing muscle soreness (CWI vs. PAS: ES = 1.49; MAS vs. PAS: ES = 1.12), with ACT being harmful to perceived recovery (ACT vs. PAS: ES = −0.68), serum concentration of creatine kinase (ACT vs. PAS: ES = 0.84) and free-testosterone (ACT vs. PAS: ES = −0.91).
Conclusions
In recreational runners, a half-marathon results in fatigue symptoms lasting at least 24h. To restore subjective fatigue measures, the authors recommend CWI and MAS, as these recovery strategies are more effective than PAS, with ACT being even disadvantageous. However, runners must be aware that neither the use of ACT nor CWI or MAS had any beneficial effect on objective fatigue markers.
Citation: Wiewelhove T, Schneider C, Döweling A, Hanakam F, Rasche C, Meyer T, et al. (2018) Effects of different recovery strategies following a half-marathon on fatigue markers in recreational runners. PLoS ONE 13(11):
e0207313.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207313
Editor: Dominic Micklewright, University of Essex, UNITED KINGDOM
Received: July 31, 2018; Accepted: October 29, 2018; Published: November 9, 2018
Copyright: © 2018 Wiewelhove et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.
Funding: This study was initiated and funded by the German Federal Institute of Sport Science (https://www.bisp.de). The research was conducted within the research project entitled "REGman – Optimization of Training and Competition: Management of Regeneration in Elite Sports". As project managers, TM, MK, MP and AF received the funding. The grant number was IIA1- 081901/12-1. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.