ABSTRACT
Recovery is Cinderella of psychological and psychophysiological research in sports, work, and related settings such as clinic, school, or family. Recovery takes place with complex interlinked time dynamics on different functional levels – ranging from activation processes in the central and vegetative systems via muscular, metabolic, and humoral processes to psychological processes and social processes with partners and coworkers, in teams and families. The effects of long working hours on both stress and recovery as indicated in the Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for Athlete-Work were visible in physical stress markers. Long-term stress or more severe stress reactions lead to changes in the morning values of cortisol, which is termed the cortisol awakening response and can be measured from salvia samples. Recovery needs time and maybe should be in accordance with biological rhythms, which can easily be disrupted by excessive training requirements. Timing of breaks with respect to onset, duration, and content needs much attention in research and in different areas of application.
