Speed sessions: What’s the best workout for optimal recovery?
If you want to get quicker, it’s no secret that introducing variety into your running routine is key. Speed work coupled with longer, easier runs (not to mention the all-important strength training we often neglect) has long been lauded as the ideal combination for getting stronger and faster. But which kind of running workout promotes the best recovery? How can we optimise the positive impact of our training with the least amount of post-workout recovery strain? One group of researchers wanted answers.
In a new study published in the American College of Sports Medicine, researchers investigated how different exercise patterns – interval training versus more moderate, continuous training – affect recovery after a workout. While much of the previous research had focused on the effects of exercise intensity on recovery, this study explored how the specific pattern of running affects post-exercise vagal reactivation, which is a fancy way of saying heart rate recovery.
The study subjects were 21 healthy, active men and women – all of whom completed three treadmill workouts on separate days. Researchers designed the workouts to include 30 minutes of running at about 90% of their tempo pace – in other words, a hard session but not a complete killer. On one day, participants ran their 30-minute tempo effort continuously; on another day, they completed 5 x 6-minute intervals with 2-minute recoveries; and on the third day, they ran 15 x 2-minute intervals with 2-minute recoveries. So, how did three similar but different workouts affect the heart’s recovery process?
Researchers measured the study participants’ heart rate recovery, heart rate variability (a measure of nervous system recovery), blood lactate and blood pressure during and post-workout. They found that heart rates recovered faster after the 2-minute intervals, with this pattern also producing the lowest blood lactate levels and the best heart rate variability.
The takeaway? How you exercise can make a difference to how you recover. In the researchers’ words: ‘Exercise pattern influences the physiologic response to exercise.’ Therefore, adding higher frequency intervals into your workout – like the 15 x 2-minute pattern – can ‘expedite post-exercise recovery while maintaining total work performed’. In simpler terms, you can optimise your recovery from a workout not by doing less, but just by considering the way in which you do it.
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