Restoration methods cannot be ignored?

[Guest guest]

Relevant extracts:

Matuszewski stated:

" In recent years, the outstanding OL performances of some of the

central and eastern athletes has surprised and stunned some countries

long considered masters of certain sports…Competitive sports

especially when spurred by national pride, make heavy demands on the

human body to produce outstanding performance. To this end Mother

Nature provides humans with considerable capacity for physical

effort – but such effort is always made at a great price…fatigue….A

key to the success of the eastern European athletes may not simply be

how well they train but how well they regenerate and recover from

heavy training… "

Medvedyev, Soviet weightlifting coach stated:

" Restoration measures should be considered an integral part of

training. "

Homenkova stated:

" The topic of restoration – whether it be restoration after a bout of

exercise, during or immediately after a training session or during

the interval between sessions –is vitally important in sports

training…In light of today's heavy training loads coaches simply

cannot ignore the various means of restoration "

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Dr Marco Cardinale wrote:

http://marcocardinale.blogspot.com/

In the last few years I have observed a steep increase in interest versus

recovery and regeneration strategies.

Athletes train and compete a lot these days and everyone feels the need to

provide recovery and regeneration strategies to speed-up return to optimal

functions.

I have to say that the quality and the science behind most of the recovery

modalities is quite questionable and most of the times, the appropriateness of

such modalities, could really be a matter of serious debates....

In this article I would like to write about the fact that many elite training

centres and Olympic associations are investing a lot of money into recovery and

regeneration centres aimed at helping athletes.

In september 2006, the USOC opened a New Athlete recovery centre investing a lot

of money in conventional and non-conventional recovery modalities/devices

(http://usocpressbox.org/usoc/pressbox.nsf/6272c9a938d3a5cb8525711000564abd/aad0\

06ac4a40193e852571ea0068b36d?OpenDocument).

The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) recently spent 3.5 AUD millions to

create the new Recovery Centre

(http://www.ausport.gov.au/journals/ausport/Vol3no2/32new_ais.pdf) to provide

this service to Australian Athletes.

The Japanese Olympic Association is also building a new site where recovery

services will also be provided.

Many leading countries are investing in this area, however research in the most

common recovery modalities is scarce or of poor quality. I expect an increase in

the number of research studies in this area and I can already anticipate that

many modalities currently used by famous athletes/teams will be shown not to be

as effective as advertised!

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Carruthers

Wakefield, UK