THE EFFECTS OF RECOVERY DURATION AFTER WARM-UP ON PERFORMANCE

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether or not the recovery duration after warm-up could influence subsequent performance. The experimental procedure consisted of a Wingate test of 5 x 6 s sprints intermittent with 30 s recovery after a 3 minute warm-up followed by recovery periods of 30 s, 120 s and 240 s. Maximal Power Output (MPO), and Average Power Output (APO), were the performance variables collected during the experimental procedure, along with the physiological variables of VO2 and Heart rate (HR). 10 male particpants aged 20 ± 2 years, with body mass of 75.6 kg ± 13.2 kg, and height of 180 cm ± 6.4 cm participated in the study giving informed consent prior to participation. Results revealed no statistical significance (P>0.05), although revealed trends which appeared to show that MPO was higher in sprint one in the 240 s condition, (11.47 ± 1.27), than in 30 s (11.02 ± 1.24) and 120 s, (10.38 ± 1.93), and the 240 s condition maintained the greatest MPO throughout the testing procedure although the greatest reduction through the five sprints was found in this recovery condition (22.4%). APO was greater at the start of the trials after 240 s condition (7.81 ± 2.16) than after 30 s and 120 s, (6.98 ± 0.6 and 6.81 ± 1.20 respectively) however it was reduced by a greater degree between sprints 1-5 (30.2%), than in either of the other two conditions, (27.7%, and 24.4% respectively). HR was highest after warm-up after recovery 30 s and lowest after 240 s, (134.2 ± 19.24, and 121.7 ± 13.74); however the greatest increase in HR was observed after the recovery condition of 240 s. The findings of this study have provided an insight into the effect that recovery condition may have on performance. As well as this, the study has provide a basis for further work in this area which may provide in depth evidence for coaches and athletes when designing a warm-up routine which may aid in increasing subsequent performance.