To investigate the effects of different recovery strategies on fatigue markers following a prolonged running exercise. Countermovement jump height, muscle soreness and perceived recovery and stress were measured 24h before the half-marathon pre , immediately after the recovery intervention post rec and 24h after the race post In addition, muscle contractile properties and blood markers of fatigue were determined at pre and post Magnitude-based inferences revealed substantial differences in the changes between the groups.
It was also beneficial for reducing muscle soreness CWI vs. In recreational runners, a half-marathon results in fatigue symptoms lasting at least 24h. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. A long-distance running exercise such as a half-marathon or a marathon is one of the most strenuous activities because it combines a prolonged duration with an eccentric component and a relatively high exercise intensity [ 1 ].
Although the resultant post-exercise fatigue is based on many factors e. A variety of recovery methods can help to alleviate the deleterious effects of muscle fatigue caused by strenuous exercise [ 6 ]. Apart from nutritional strategies, three of the best known recovery interventions are active recovery also referred to as active cool-down and usually consisting of aerobic-type whole-body activities, such as running, biking or swimming [ 7 ], cold water immersion [ 8 ] and massage [ 9 ].
Although numerous studies have investigated their efficacy, most have used non-functional exercises to induce fatigue. Unfortunately, there are limited studies investigating the potential effectiveness of recovery strategies in road running. However, post-exercise fatigue varies in type and degree depending on the characteristics of the exercise that brings on the fatigue [ 2 ]. Therefore, the findings of the majority of these studies may not apply to the actual practice of long-distance runners.
