Recovery Periodisation in Football
Welcome to the latest issue of The Football Scientist.
In this week's issue, I'm going to discuss the concept of recovery periodization within soccer and provide some practical recommendations.
I hope you enjoy!
Concept of Recovery Periodization
Last year I came across a brilliant article published in the Aspetar Journal written by Warren Gregson, Glyn Howatson and Robin Thorpe.
The article discusses the concept of 'Recovery Periodization' - providing a practical framework for implementing different recovery strategies depending on the training microcycle day.
Below is an image taken from the article which shows the proposed recovery periodization framework applied to a one game week scenario.
The authors broadly grouped the different recovery strategies into 5 areas: cooling, heating, compression, range of motion and active recovery.
As you can see from the figure, each day within the microcycle has a specific recovery focus. For example, MD-3 has a focus on cooling methods and compression, whereas MD-2 has a focus on heating and other recovery methods.
This goes again the grain of using a singular recovery method (e.g. ice baths) by periodizing and combining different methods available to players.
But what is the trade off between science and practice with regards this type of conceptual framework?
Recovery Periodization: Science vs. Practice
Sport scientists should always follow a scientific, evidence-based approach when it comes to athlete support.
However, often research lags behind what is happening within practice due to the slow process of peer review and publication.
Therefore, we have to use a blend of scientific reasoning coupled with intuition and practical limitations when it comes to recovery intervention planning.
Let's look at the first main recovery intervention - cooling therapies.
Firstly, there is an argument around which method is best - ice baths? cryotherapy? phase change materials?
Then there is the question about which protocol is best. For example, with ice baths we tend to suggest 10 mins @ 8-10°C is best practice. However, some research suggests higher temperatures (15 °C) may be just as effective.
Then there are the practicalities - do you have access to a temperature controlled tub at the stadium? Or are you using an inflatable tub with no direct control of the temperature.
We have to combined all of these different factors to make a final recovery decision.
Let's say Player A hates ice baths, but doesn't mind using cryotherapy due to its dry application. We employ a 3 minute protocol at -130°C for the player, as recommended by the literature, but we can only do this when at the clubs training ground where the cryotherapy chamber is installed.
Therefore, during away games it's not possible to implement cooling therapies on the game day itself (as indicated in the figure above), but we can use on MD+1 and potentially following home games.
There is also the power of belief when it comes to recovery interventions. For example, massage is one of, if not the most, popular recovery methods in sport. However, the evidence around it's effectiveness isn't as great as you'd like to think.
However, it has been proven to enhance perception of recovery in athletes.
This aspect shouldn't be underestimated. As mentioned in the periodization framework, on MD-1 it is suggested that individual preference is adhered to. This makes sense, as one thing footballers hate is unfamiliarity around match days.
What about during the training week itself?
Using the one game week example above, it is suggested to utilize heating strategies on 'strength' days and cooling on 'endurance' days.
Research suggests that cold water immersion (ice baths) may enhance PGC1 alpha, a key regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis and thus endurance adaptation.
Has this research been done in elite soccer players? No - only in healthy adults from a non-sporting population.
Therefore the intuition from science would suggest to use cooling therapies following endurance-type exercise, but it's far from conclusive within soccer.
The same goes for resistance training. The one thing missing from the above framework is how to fit resistance training sessions (gym work) within the microcycle and how it also interacts with recovery interventions.
For example, research suggests that use of ice baths following resistance training may not be ideal for adaptation - albeit not conclusively proven at this stage with the body of evidence available.
However, again using intuition it would be suggested to avoid cooling therapies on resistance training days.
This was inferred in the framework of Gregson et al. with regards to pitch based 'strength' days also.
Ultimately, as long as the recovery method doesn't have a negative effect on the player in terms of adaptation or performance and has a strong perceptual/physiological effect then it should be recommended.
Remember, the goal of recovery isn't always to improve performance - if we can get things back to baseline then great, it's done the job. This concept is often overlooked in recovery research papers.
When it comes to multiple game weeks, it's actually more straight forward as training days are limited and we just utilize more recovery based days.
The interesting caveat is how we manage starters vs. non-starters in this instance. Essentially we must employ different recovery periodization frameworks depending on the squad status of the player. This is a big area for future research in my opinion.
Take Home Messages
Frameworks are useful to provide guidance around recovery strategies for players within a periodized programme.
At present, scientific evidence around recovery periodization is limited, so we must use our intuition combined with the available literature.
Need to consider the practicalities when it comes to use of certain recovery methods (e.g. player preference, match location and facilities) and how this fits within the framework.
Thank you for reading, see you next week.
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