THE EFFECT OF ACTIVE RECOVERY, COLD WATER IMMERSION AND PASSIVE RECOVERY ON SUBSEQUENT KNEE EXTENSION AND FLEXION STRENGTH
Abstract
To assess the effect of three kinds of recovery (active recovery, cold water immersion, passive recovery) on the medium-term knee strength in the extension and flexion. Fourteen athletes at the age of 26.6 +- 4.4 years performed, in a random cross-over design, 3 sessions with 3 repeated medium-term isokinetic tests.
The effect of active recovery, passive rest and cold water immersion were assessed by the 3x3 (time x recovery) repeated-measure ANOVA, respectively. The dependent variables were: peak torque, total work and average power.
RESULTS: We found significantly lower absolute differences between first and third trial in knee extension for peak torque after the active recovery (UPWARDS ARROW 0.9 N.m) than after the cold water immersion (DOWNWARDS ARROW 14.6 N.m) or the passive recovery (DOWNWARDS ARROW 13.9 N.m). The decrease of the average power was significantly lower differences after the active recovery (DOWNWARDS ARROW 5 W) than after the cold water immersion (DOWNWARDS ARROW 23.7 W) or passive recovery (DOWNWARDS ARROW 25.9 W).
The changes in total work were not significant. We did not found any changes in the isokinetic strength for the knee flexors after different kinds of recovery.
Maximal heart rate (HRmax) was significantly higher during the active recovery than during the cold water immersion and the passive recovery (173+-14, 166+-14 and 167+-14 rpm). We have found significant differences in the average heart rates (HRavg) during active recovery, cold water immersion and passive recovery (124+-8, 97+-9 and 107+-12 rpm).
We found the positive effect of the active recovery on the subsequent medium-term performance for knee extension. That was the only one method which showed lower decrease of knee strength in extension in comparison with passive recovery and cold water immersion.