Comparison of active and electrostimulated recovery strategies after fatiguing exercise

The purpose of this study was to compare an electrostimulated to an active recovery strategy after a submaximal isometric fatiguing exercise. nineteen healthy men completed three sessions (separated by at least 4 weeks) which included a knee extensors provocation exercise consisting of 3 sets of 25 isometric contractions. contraction intensity level was fixed respectively at 60%,55% and 50% of previously determined maximal voluntary contraction for the first,second and third sets. this provocation exercise was followed by either an active (ar) recovery (25 min pedaling on a cycle ergometer),an electrostimulated (esr) recovery (25-min continuous and non-tetanic (5 hz) stimulation of the quadriceps) or a strictly passive recovery (pr). peak torques of knee extensors and subjective perception of muscle pain (vas,0-10) were evaluated before (pre-ex),immediately after the provocation exercise (post-ex),after the recovery period (post-rec),as well as 75 minutes (1h15) and one day (24h) after the exercise bout. time course of peak torque was similar among the different recovery modes: ~ 75% of initial values at post-ex,~ 90% at post-rec and at 1h15. at 24h,peak torque reached a level close to baseline values (pr: 99.1 ± 10.7%,ar: 105.3 ± 12.2%,esr: 104.4 ± 10.5%). vas muscle pain scores decreased rapidly between post-ex and postrec (p < 0.001); there were no significant differences between the three recovery modes (p = 0.64). in conclusion,following a submaximal isometric knee extension exercise,neither electrostimulated nor active recovery strategies significantly improved the time course of muscle function recovery. © journal of sports science and medicine.