This is an article I wrote for our ISPA newsletter, please review it and remember as soccer and football camps open up here in the next weeks that athletes need recovery (rest) time. More injuries occur because the young body is over taxed than any other cause.

Recovery Time

Recovery time between intervals during workouts is often a neglected part of training. We would encourage you to pass this information along to the athletes and programs you are working with as professionals. Optimizing recovery time can enhance performance greatly.

High intensity performance/workout – long recovery Workouts or performances that only last 20 to 30 seconds are typically at a person’s maximum exertion. To get the most out of your performance, you have to be able to produce maximum power, which means the recovery period between efforts has to be long enough to allow your muscles to fully recharge. Such short and intense workouts call upon the body’s ATP-CP system, its immediate energy system. In such high intensity exertion you burn through your available immediate energy supply within seconds. To recharge that energy source you need 5-8 minutes of recovery time. Encourage easy walking/jogging/ coasting on the bike, gently floating in the water, etc. to recover.

High intensity performance/workout – equal recovery We’re talking here about all-out workouts/performances that last longer than sprints, like speed work and VO max intervals. If this is a workout, the purpose is to adapt to repeated maximal efforts. For this training to be effective, you don’t want to have complete recovery of the immediate energy system (see above) before the athlete performs/works out again. To do this keep the recovery times the same as the interval time. So, if we are talking about 30 seconds to 4-minute performance/workout interval add more intervals or an additional set rather than make each effort longer.

Longer workouts – shorter recovery If your workouts are designed to improve your maximum sustainable pace then your intervals should be 10-30 minutes long, maybe longer. The intensity for these intervals should be near and a little below your lactate threshold (the maximum sustainable intensity you can hold over 8 or more minutes). The idea behind this type of work is to accumulate as much time possible at this workload to push your body to adapt. These workouts help to run a faster marathon or ride a faster century. Good recovery time between efforts – typically 50-75% of the duration of the work period (8-minute effort/6 minutes recovery, 12-minute effort/8 minutes recovery, 20-minute effort, 10 minutes recovery)- allows you to maintain the right intensity/pace in your second, third, and maybe even fourth interval. A common mistake we see is that athletes often shorten their recovery periods during these workouts because they feel rested well before the next interval is supposed to start. What results is that you will fatigue in the middle of your third or fourth interval and have to spend more time overall resting from the entire workout.

Max Workouts/performances – no recovery Runs, rides, swims at a steady aerobic pace. These are very long—20 minutes on up to an hour or more. These efforts are sometimes split into two or even three intervals, you may stop or slow down during this extended effort, but a true recovery period is not necessary between those efforts. Your recovery period starts when you finish your workout or performance. These workouts build overall endurance.

We talked about this recovery in the context of running, biking, and swimming, but coaches, be mindful of these needs for team sports as well. Another common practice we see is coaches, especially at the younger levels not giving athletes time to recover during team practices, football summer drills, etc.

Dr. John Mayer, President, ISPA