To rest or not to rest between efforts in team sports?
Issue: Volume 27 Number 2
Background
One of the common questions I am asked as a sports physiologist is whether athletes should keep moving or rest completely between efforts during interval training or on the playing field after sprint efforts. Theoretically, it may be argued that light exercise between efforts would help remove the lactic acid from muscles and thus help the next repeat. However, recent research from France suggests that complete rest seems to be better than continued movement.
Research
The purpose of this sports science project was to compare the effects of passive versus active recovery on muscle oxygenation and on time to exhaustion for high-intensity intermittent exercises where efforts are alternated with rest periods. Twelve male physical education students aged 24 ± 4 years, who were soccer players training 3–5 times per week and playing once a week, were tested. In a sports science laboratory, they performed a cycling test to exhaustion to determine their VO 2 max (aerobic capacity). On two other occasions, they then did two intermittent exercise tests to exhaustion on a cycle ergometer. They completed repeated 15-second efforts at about 120 per cent of their previously-determined VO 2 max power output — not a sprint, but a strong effort. These 15-second efforts were alternated with 15-second recovery periods that were either passive (complete rest) or active (easy cycling) recovery at 40 per cent of VO 2 max. The researchers measured their time to exhaustion, oxygen consumption, and the amount of oxygen bound to their red blood cells over the whole exercise period.
Findings
The time to exhaustion for the session that alternated the 15-second efforts with passive (rest) recovery (962 ± 314 seconds) was significantly longer than with active (moving) recovery (427 ± 118 seconds). The amount of oxygen used during the passive recovery (48.9 ± 4.9 mL.kg -1.min -1) was also significantly lower than during the active recovery test (52.6 ± 4.6 mL.kg -1.min -1). Oxygen replenishment to the red blood cells was also quicker during the resting versus active recovery session.
Coach’s takeout
These results strongly suggest that athletes during training and playing sports where longer efforts are mixed with periods of rest, should just do nothing but stand still or move very slowly to recover rather than keep on swimming, jogging or paddling. Whether the same recommendation would be made for sports that have shorter efforts remains to be investigated.
Reference
Dupont, G, Moalla, W, Guinhouya, C, Ahmaidi, S, Berthoin, S 2004. Effects of passive versus active recovery during high-intensity intermittent exercises. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 36(2): 302–8.
