Recovery during and after a simulated multi-day tennis tournament: Combining active recovery, stretching, cold-water immersion, and massage interventions

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a mixed-method recovery intervention (MMR) consisting of active recovery, stretching, cold-water immersion, and massage on physical, technical, physiological, and perceptual recovery during and after a five-day simulated tennis tournament. Nine competitive male tennis players (age, 24.6±4.2 years) with national ranking positions (German Tennis Federation) and Universal Tennis Ratings between approximately 11-13 participated in two singles tennis tournaments, which were separated by a three-month washout period. During the tournaments, participants played five two-and-a-half-hour competitive singles tennis match on five consecutive days. For the assignment to one of two groups, athletes were matched into homogeneous pairs according to their ranking. Then, within each pair, the players were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first group performed MMR during the first tournament, whereas the other group used passive recovery (PAS). During the second tournament, recovery conditions were interchanged. Measures of physical and technical performance as well as physiological and perceptual responses (heart rate, blood lactate concentration, perceived exertion) were recorded during match-play sessions. Furthermore, muscle soreness, perceived recovery state, blood markers, countermovement jump height (CMJ), and repeated sprint ability (RSA) were determined before, during, and after the five-day tournament periods. Results showed significant changes over time (P < 0.05) in muscle soreness, perceived recovery state, creatine kinase, c-reactive protein, insulin-like growth factor 1, and countermovement jump height. However, no significant differences or recovery strategy x time interactions were noted either for tennis-specific performance (e.g. number of total points won) or any other of the measured parameters between MMR and PAS (P > 0.05). In conclusion, the repeated use of MMR during and after a five-day tennis tournament did not affect match performance, match load, or recovery from repeated days of tennis match play.

A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Foam Rolling on Performance and Recovery

Foam rolling is thought to improve muscular performance and flexibility as well as to alleviate muscle fatigue and soreness. For this reason, foam rolling has become a popular intervention in all kinds of sport settings used to increase the efficiency of training or competition preparation as well as to speed post-exercise recovery. The objective of this meta-analysis was to compare the effects of foam rolling applied before (pre-rolling as a warm-up activity) and after (post-rolling as a recovery strategy) exercise on sprint, jump, and strength performance as well as on flexibility and muscle pain outcomes and to identify whether self-massage with a foam roller or a roller massager is more effective. A comprehensive and structured literature search was performed using the PubMed, Google Scholar, PEDro, and Cochrane Library search engines. Twenty-one studies were located that met the inclusion criteria. Fourteen studies used pre-rolling, while seven studies used post-rolling. Pre-rolling resulted in a small improvement in sprint performance (+0.7%, g = 0.28) and flexibility (+4.0%, g = 0.34), whereas the effect on jump (-1.9%, g = 0.09) and strength performance (+1.8%, g = 0.12) was negligible. Post-rolling slightly attenuated exercise-induced decreases in sprint (+3.1%, g = 0.34) and strength performance (+3.9 %, g = 0.21). It also reduced muscle pain perception (+6.0%, g = 0.47), whereas its effect on jump performance (-0.2%, g = 0.06) was trivial. Of the twenty-one studies, fourteen used foam rollers, while the other seven used roller massage bars/sticks. A tendency was found for foam rollers to offer larger effects on the recovery of strength performance (+5.6%, g = 0.27 vs. -0.1%, g = -0.01) than roller massagers. The differences in the effects between foam rolling devices in terms of pre-rolling did not seem to be of practical relevance (overall performance: +2.7 %, g = 0.11 vs. +0.4%, g = 0.21; flexibility: +5.0%, g = 0.32 vs. +1.6%, g = 0.39). Overall, it was determined that the effects of foam rolling on performance and recovery are rather minor and partly negligible, but can be relevant in some cases (e.g., to increase sprint performance and flexibility or to reduce muscle pain sensation). Evidence seems to justify the widespread use of foam rolling as a warm-up activity rather than a recovery tool.

Heart Rate Monitoring in Team Sports-A Conceptual Framework for Contextualizing Heart Rate Measures for Training and Recovery Prescription

A comprehensive monitoring of fitness, fatigue, and performance is crucial for understanding an athlete's individual responses to training to optimize the scheduling of training and recovery strategies. Resting and exercise-related heart rate measures have received growing interest in recent decades and are considered potentially useful within multivariate response monitoring, as they provide non-invasive and time-efficient insights into the status of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and aerobic fitness. In team sports, the practical implementation of athlete monitoring systems poses a particular challenge due to the complex and multidimensional structure of game demands and player and team performance, as well as logistic reasons, such as the typically large number of players and busy training and competition schedules. In this regard, exercise-related heart rate measures are likely the most applicable markers, as they can be routinely assessed during warm-ups using short (3–5 min) submaximal exercise protocols for an entire squad with common chest strap-based team monitoring devices. However, a comprehensive and meaningful monitoring of the training process requires the accurate separation of various types of responses, such as strain, recovery, and adaptation, which may all affect heart rate measures. Therefore, additional information on the training context (such as the training phase, training load, and intensity distribution) combined with multivariate analysis, which includes markers of (perceived) wellness and fatigue, should be considered when interpreting changes in heart rate indices. The aim of this article is to outline current limitations of heart rate monitoring, discuss methodological considerations of univariate and multivariate approaches, illustrate the influence of different analytical concepts on assessing meaningful changes in heart rate responses, and provide case examples for contextualizing heart rate measures using simple heuristics. To overcome current knowledge deficits and methodological inconsistencies, future investigations should systematically evaluate the validity and usefulness of the various approaches available to guide and improve the implementation of decision-support systems in (team) sports practice.

Active Recovery After High-Intensity Interval-Training Does Not Attenuate Training Adaptation

Objective: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) can be extremely demanding and can consequently produce high blood lactate levels. Previous studies have shown that lactate is a potent metabolic stimulus, which is important for adaptation. Active recovery (ACT) after intensive exercise, however, enhances blood lactate removal in comparison with passive recovery (PAS) and, consequently, may attenuate endurance performance improvements. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the influence of regular ACT on training adaptations during a HIIT mesocycle.

Methods: Twenty-six well-trained male intermittent sport athletes (age: 23.5 ± 2.5 years; O₂max: 55.36 ± 3.69 ml min kg^-1) participated in a randomized controlled trial consisting of 4 weeks of a running-based HIIT mesocycle with a total of 12 HIIT sessions. After each training session, participants completed 15 min of either moderate jogging (ACT) or PAS. Subjects were matched to the ACT or PAS groups according to age and performance. Before the HIIT program and 1 week after the last training session, the athletes performed a progressive incremental exercise test on a motor-driven treadmill to determine O₂max, maximum running velocity (vmax), the running velocity at which O₂max occurs (vO₂max), and anaerobic lactate threshold (AT). Furthermore, repeated sprint ability (RSA) were determined.

Results: In the whole group the HIIT mesocycle induced significant or small to moderate changes in vmax (p < 0.001, effect size [ES] = 0.65,), vO₂max (p < 0.001, ES = 0.62), and AT (p < 0.001, ES = 0.56) compared with the values before the intervention. O₂max and RSA remained unchanged throughout the study. In addition, no significant differences in the changes were noted in any of the parameters between ACT and PAS except for AT (p < 0.05, ES = 0.57).

Conclusion: Regular use of individualized ACT did not attenuate training adaptations during a HIIT mesocycle compared to PAS. Interestingly, we found that the ACT group obtained a significantly higher AT following the training program compared to the PAS group. This could be because ACT allows a continuation of the training at a low intensity and may activate specific adaptive mechanisms that are not triggered during PAS.

Tensiomyographic Markers Are Not Sensitive for Monitoring Muscle Fatigue in Elite Youth Athletes: A Pilot Study

Objective: Tensiomyography (TMG) is an indirect measure of a muscle's contractile properties and has the potential as a technique for detecting exercise-induced skeletal muscle fatigue. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the sensitivity of tensiomyographic markers to identify reduced muscular performance in elite youth athletes. Methods: Fourteen male junior tennis players (age: 14.9 ± 1.2 years) with an international (International Tennis Federation) ranking position participated in this pre-post single group trial. They completed a 4-day high-intensity interval training (HIT) microcycle, which was composed of seven training sessions. TMG markers; countermovement jump (CMJ) performance (criterion measure of fatigue); delayed onset muscle soreness; and perceived recovery and stress were measured 24 h before and after the training program. The TMG measures included maximal radial deformation of the rectus femoris muscle belly (Dm), contraction time between 10 and 90% Dm (Tc) and the rate of deformation until 10% (V10) and 90% Dm (V90), respectively. Diagnostic characteristics were assessed with a receiver-operating curve (ROC) analysis and a contingency table, in which the area under the curve (AUC), Youden's index, sensitivity, specificity, and the diagnostic effectiveness (DE) of TMG measures were reported. A minimum AUC of 0.70 and a lower confidence interval (CI) >0.50 classified "good" diagnostic markers to assess performance changes. Results: Twenty-four hours after the microcycle, CMJ performance was observed to be significantly (p < 0.001) reduced (Effect Size [ES] = -0.68), and DOMS (ES = 3.62) as well as perceived stress were significantly (p < 0.001) increased. In contrast, Dm (ES = -0.35), Tc (ES = 0.04), V10 (ES = -0.32), and V90 (ES = -0.33) remained unchanged (p > 0.05) throughout the study. ROC analysis and the data derived from the contingency table revealed that none of the tensiomyographic markers were effective diagnostic tools for detecting impaired muscular performance in elite youth athletes (AUC, 95% CI, DE%; Dm: 0.46, 0.15-0.77, 35.7%; Tc: 0.29, 0.03-0.59, 35.7%; V10: 0.71, 0.27-1.00, 35.7%; V90: 0.37, 0.10-0.65, 35.7%). Conclusion: The tensiomyographic parameters that were assessed in this study were not sensitive enough to detect muscular performance changes in elite youth athletes.However, due to the preliminary nature of the study, further research is needed to investigate the sensitivity of TMG in this population.