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UBC Theses and Dissertations

The effect of recovery strategies on high-intensity exercise performance and lactate clearance Peeters, Mon Jef

Abstract

PURPOSE: To compare the effects of recovery intensity on performance of a bicycle sprint task and blood La⁻ clearance. METHODS: On three separate days twelve trained male subjects (27.4 ± 3.9 yrs) performed three supramaximal exercise (SE) bouts at 120% of maximum aerobic power (MAP) for 60% of the time to exhaustion (TTE). Bouts were separated by 5 mm of passive recovery (PR), active recovery (AR) or combined active recovery (CAR). The third bout was followed by a 14 mm recovery. Recovery intensities were: PR (rest), AR at 50% of the workload difference between the individual anaerobic threshold (IAT) and the individual ventilatory threshold (IVT) below the IVT ( ₋50%ΔT), or CAR at the IAT workload for 5 mm and at the ₋50%ΔT workload for 9 mm. Five 10 s sprints were performed 2 mm post-recovery. Blood lactate (La⁻) concentration, power parameters (Peak Power (PP), Mean Power (MP), Fatigue Index (Fl), and Total Work (TW)), Heart Rate (HR), and Oxygen Uptake (VO₂ ) were compared using repeated-measures ANOVA. Pairwise comparisons and dependent T-tests were performed to analyze differences. RESULTS: Mean La⁻ values for AR and CAR were lower than PR (9.7 ± 3.5, 9.5 + 3.5, 11.7 + 3.6, respectively, p≤0.05). La⁻ was significantly lower with CAR versus PR at the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 14th mm of recovery (p≤0.05). AR versus PR La⁻ was lower at the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 14th min of recovery (p≤0.05). Mean MP was greater in the AR group compared to the PR group (800.1 ± 114.5 vs 782.2 ± 111.7 W, p≤0.05). TW during AR was greater than PR (p≤0.05) but not CAR (p≤0.05, 40003.3 ± 5110.2, 39108.3 ± 4852.9, 39335.8 ± 5022.6 J, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: AR and CAR both demonstrated improved La⁻ clearance when compared to PR, but differences in La⁻ clearance did not determine performance on the sprint task. AR resulted in more TW than PR and greater maintenance of power over the sprints.

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International