Conclusion

In this free course, Recovery strategies in sport and exercise, you have been introduced to the role of recovery and recovery strategies in sport and exercise. Some of the key points covered are summarised below.

• recovery is an essential component of the training-adaptation process
• intensive exercise can cause exercise induced muscle damage, a symptom of which is delayed onset muscle soreness
• failure to recover adequately from exercise can lead to performance decrements
• the aim of recovery strategies is to speed up the recovery process
• the research evidence to support recovery strategies is inconclusive and there are challenges in conducting recovery-related research
• there is some debate as to whether recovery strategies help or hinder the process of physiological adaptation to training, and it may be appropriate to use recovery strategies in some circumstances but not others
• it is important to keep up to date on recovery research and to consider future research directions.