The Prevalence of Use of Various Post-Exercise Recovery Methods after Training among Elite Endurance Athletes

Eduard Bezuglov, Artemii Lazarev, Vladimir Khaitin, Sergey Chegin, Aleksandra Tikhonova, Oleg Talibov, Dagmara Gerasimuk and Zbigniew Waśkiewicz
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Eduard Bezuglov: Department of Sports Medicine and Medical Rehabilitation, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University), 119435 Moscow, Russia
Artemii Lazarev: High Performance Sport Laboratory, Moscow Witte University, 115432 Moscow, Russia
Vladimir Khaitin: Department of Sports Medicine and Medical Rehabilitation, Pavlov First State Medical University, 197022 Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Sergey Chegin: Olympic Reserve Sport School, 430032 Saransk, Russia
Aleksandra Tikhonova: High Performance Sport Laboratory, Moscow Witte University, 115432 Moscow, Russia
Oleg Talibov: Department of Internal Medicine, Clinical Pharmacology and Emergency Medicine, Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry, 127006 Moscow, Russia
Dagmara Gerasimuk: Institute of Sport Science, Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education, 40-065 Katowice, Poland
Zbigniew Waśkiewicz: Department of Sports Medicine and Medical Rehabilitation, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University), 119435 Moscow, Russia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 21, 1-13

Abstract: There is now compelling evidence of the effectiveness of a range of post-exercise recovery techniques, including extended nights of sleep, cold water immersion, massage, and compression garments. Currently, limited information is available on post-exercise recovery methods used by elite endurance athletes. Therefore, this study investigated the actual methods of recovery used in this group of athletes. Google Forms were used to collect information on the recovery methods used by elite endurance track and field athletes ( n = 153, 61.4% men, 38.6% women; average age: 22.7 ± 4.6 years). The most used methods of recovery were sauna bathing (96.7%), massage (86.9%), daytime nap (81.0%), and long night sleep (at least 9h) (61.4%). Recovery methods with proven effectiveness such as cold water immersion and compression garments were rarely used (15.0% and 7.8%, respectively). Overall, recovery methods were used more often when the tiers of the track and field athletes were higher. Massage and sauna bathing were the most used methods of post-exercise recovery among Russian endurance track and field athletes. In most cases, they were used in conjunction with short daytime nap and long night sleep. Higher tier athletes were more likely to use sauna bathing, massage, long night sleep, and daytime nap but not cold water immersion and compression garments as recovery methods; however, all these methods except for cold water immersion were widely used among elite-tier athletes.

Keywords: massage; sauna; recovery; elite endurance athletes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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