THE EFFECT OF VARIOUS RECOVERY MODALITIES ON SUBSEQUENT PERFORMANCE, IN CONSECUTIVE SUPRAMAXIMAL EXERCISE

Different recovery strategies from maximal exercise seem to induce dif ferent lactate utilization patterns without significantly affecting pe rformance on one subsequent maximal exercise. It remains unclear howev er, how varying recovery modalities affects repeated maximal exercise. To study this, whe examined in 16 subjects, the influence of passive (P), active leg (L) and active arm (A) twenty minutes recovery periods separating a series of four exhaustive exercises, up to two minutes d uration. Significant decreases in performance between the first and fo urth exercise were observed in all recovery series but a significant d ecrease in performance in the second exercise was observed during pass ive recovery alone (p < 0.01). When the different types of recovery ar e compared, a more pronounced decrement in performance was found durin g passive recovery when first and last exercises are compared (p < 0.0 4). Pedaling duration in each successive exercise was unaffected in A or L but was significantly shorter in P (p < 0.03). Highly significant differences in mean blood lactate kinetics were found for the three r ecovery patterns used, with more elevated peak and nadir levels in pas sive recovery, intermediate values in active arm and lowest concentrat ions in active leg recovery. However, no correlation was found between performance and lactate concentration at the onset of exercise (r=-0. 15; p=NS). Mean heart rates were similar throughout the experimental p rotocol except for a lower cardiac frequency during the last 5 minutes of passive recovery (p<0.01). Blood hematocrits showed higher hemocon centrations in repeated exercise during passive recovery (p<0.01) desp ite significantly lower total fluid losses in this group. A significan t correlation between peak hematocrit and blood lactate was also found (r=0.67; p<0.001). We conclude that the type of recovery has a signif icant effect on blood lactate elimination kinetics, and active recover y is beneficial in the preservation of performance during repeated max imal exercise. Furthermore, plasma shifts across the extra and intrava scular spaces are induced by maximal exercise, and appear to closely f ollow blood lactate kinetics.