Acute Recovery after a Fatigue Protocol Using a Recovery Sports Legging: An Experimental Study

Enhancing recovery is a fundamental component of high-performance sports training since it enables practitioners to potentiate physical performance and minimise the risk of injuries. Using a new sports legging embedded with an intelligent system for electrostimulation, localised heating and compression (completely embodied into the textile structures), we aimed to analyse acute recovery following a fatigue protocol. Surface electromyography- and torque-related variables were recorded on eight recreational athletes. A fatigue protocol conducted in an isokinetic dynamometer allowed us to examine isometric torque and consequent post-exercise acute recovery after using the sports legging. Regarding peak torque, no differences were found between post-fatigue and post-recovery assessments in any variable; however, pre-fatigue registered a 16% greater peak torque when compared with post-fatigue for localised heating and compression recovery methods. Our data are supported by recent meta-analyses indicating that individual recovery methods, such as localised heating, electrostimulation and compression, are not effective to recover from a fatiguing exercise. In fact, none of the recovery methods available through the sports legging tested was effective in acutely recovering the torque values produced isometrically.

Automated summary

In this study, we investigated the acute recovery effects of using an intelligent sports legging embedded with an intelligent system for electrostimulation, localised heating, and compression. The results showed that the recovery methods provided by the sports legging did not effectively recover the torque values produced isometrically.