ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of recovery strategies available to rugby players, and focuses on recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD). Cryotherapy is one of the most common post-exercise recovery strategies used by athletes, with rugby players reporting the use of cryotherapy more than hockey, netball, and soccer players. Cryotherapy can reduce perceived muscle soreness and, biochemical and functional markers of EIMD after intermittent exercise designed to simulate team sports activity. Whilst sleep is not a recovery strategy per se, adequate quality of sleep is an integral component of successful restoration of athletic performance. The use of compression garments to enhance recovery in team sports is less prevalent than cryotherapy and is deemed less important. Whilst repeated-bout effect (RBE) could be useful to rugby players to enhance recovery in subsequent bouts of exercise, the majority of studies examining the phenomenon are in untrained populations who have had little or no prior exposure to resistance training.
