This Recovery from Strenuous Exercise presentation examines the difficulties that athletes and coaches face in maximising training load and adaptation while avoiding insufficient recovery which could lead to maladaptation, loss of performance and possibly non-functional overreaching or overtraining syndrome Indeed, strength, power, fatigue and endurance in athletes are directly affected by muscle status, or the fatigue and recovery state of the muscle. This presentation examines how insufficient recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) caused by training impairs performance – likely because of increased sense of effort, reduced exercise tolerance, reduced strength and reduced power. The discussion of recovery involves close examination of the quantity of force and power decrements, neural deficits, substrate depletion and muscle damage induced by resistance exercise stimulus, and the subsequent post exercise physiological responses that occur over the next 48 to 72 hours. From a practical perspective, a lack of appropriate recovery may result in the athlete being unable to train at the required intensity or complete the required load at the next training session. However, it should be remembered that ‘recovery’ is an umbrella term, which can be further characterised by different modalities of recovery such as regeneration or psychological recovery strategies. In an attempt to reduce fatigue and muscle soreness athletes use a wide variety of modalities to return to pre-traning and competition levels in the shortest possible time. The science behind a selection of these modalities are discussed throughout this presentation

• Identify the different types of fatigue
• Examine the evidence behind delayed onset muscle soreness
• Understand the possible effects of different modalities
• Identify future recovery modalities coming to the market