Recovery Strategies in Endurance Athletes

Abstract

In order to achieve optimal performance, endurance athletes need to implement a variety of recovery strategies that are specific to their training and competition. Recovery is a multidimensional process involving physiological, psychological, emotional, social, and behavioral aspects. The purpose of the study was to examine current implementation, beliefs, and sources of information associated with recovery strategies in endurance athletes. Participants included 264 self-identified endurance athletes (male = 122, female = 139) across 11 different sports including placing top three overall in competition (n = 55) and placing in the top three in their age group or division (n = 113) during the past year. Endurance athletes in the current study preferred hydration, nutrition, sleep, and rest in terms of use, belief, and effectiveness of the recovery strategy. Female endurance athletes use more recovery strategies for training than males (p = 0.043, d = 0.25), but not in competition (p = 0.137, d = 0.19). For training, top three finishers overall (p < 0.001, d = 0.61) and by division (p < 0.001, d = 0.57), used more recovery strategies than those placing outside the top three. Similar findings were reported for competition in top three finishers overall (p = 0.008, d = 0.41) and by division (p < 0.001, d = 0.45). These athletes are relying on the people around them such as coaches (48.3%) and fellow athletes (47.5%) along with websites (32.7%) for information and recommendations. Endurance athletes should be educated on other strategies to address the multidimensionality of recovery. These findings will be useful for healthcare professionals, practitioners, and coaches in understanding recovery strategies with endurance athletes.

The impact of dieting culture is different between sexes in endurance athletes: a cross-sectional analysis

“…Those without access to nutrition professionals, such as the recreational endurance athletes in our study, are more reliant on coaches and media for diet prescription. [ 21 ] As a result, popular diets that receive considerable media attention are commonly employed. This may be problematic given that endurance athletes require greater energy intake, but most popular diets promote severe restriction of at least one macronutrient, total energy, and/or entire food items or categories.…”

Effectiveness of Recovery Strategies After Training and Competition in Endurance Athletes: An Umbrella Review

“…Although a recent questionnaire study by Braun-Trocchio et al (2022) [18] provided an overview of which recovery strategies are used by endurance athletes, a cohesive overview on ways to enhance training recovery in endurance athletes is still lacking. Thus, in this umbrella review (UR), we focus on training recovery to provide athletes and practitioners with evidence-based recommendations and guidelines to improve recovery, optimize the training process, and in turn improve performance.…”

Effectiveness of Recovery Strategies after Training and Competition in Endurance Athletes - an Umbrella Review

“…Although a recent questionnaire study by Braun-Trocchio et al (2022) [12] provided an overview of which recovery strategies are used by endurance athletes, a cohesive overview on ways to enhance training recovery in endurance athletes is still lacking. Thus, in this umbrella review (UR), we focus on training recovery to provide athletes and practitioners with evidence-based recommendations and guidelines to improve recovery, optimize the training process, and in turn improve performance.…”