The effect of different recovery protocols on some physiological parameters applied after intensive exercise

Introduction and Aim After intensive training, athletes must undergo an effective regeneration process in order to be ready for the next training. In terms of efficiency of regeneration process, cooling methods after exercise are very important. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of active recovery, passive recovery, cold hydrotherapy, massage and progressive relaxation exercises within recovery. Material and Method Nine male and ten female team athletes participated in the study. After complete rest in the research group, intensive exercise was performed on the treadmill. After exercise, 10 minutes passive recovery, active recovery, cold hydrotherapy, massage and progressive relaxation exercises were applied. At rest, at the 5th and 10th minutes of recovery exercises, heart rate and blood lactic acid values were recorded. In the analysis of data, descriptive statistics, two-way repetitive measurements variance analysis and three-way repetitive measurements mixed variance analysis were used. Post-hoc comparisons were made with Benferroni. The results were evaluated according to p<0.05 significance level. Results According to the results of research it was determined that each recovery exercise resulted in significant decreases in lactic acid and heart rate (p <.05). At the 10th minute of the recovery exercises, a significant difference was found between active recovery and massage. There were differences in passive, massage, and progressive relaxation exercises with active recovery at the 5th minute, while there was a significant difference between the active recovery and the other four applications at 10 minutes (p <.05). It was determined that gender was not effective in terms of recovery parameters. Conclusion Progressive relaxation exercise was found to be an effective and feasible method for removal of lactic acid and normalization of heart rate. When the cooling protocols are compared, it can be said that active recovery is the most effective method. Key words: Recovery, lactic acid, progressive relaxation exercises.