Recovery strategies are used after competition and training. recovery is vital as it ensures training and performance can continue at high intensities and longer durations to further stimulate the body and cause adaptations. If recovery is not complete, the training workload must reduce otherwise overtraining can occur. Therefore, good recovery improves performance and avoids injury and overtraining. 

Recovery strategies can be grouped into four different types. Physiological strategies seek to help the body to physiologically recover from exercise, while neural strategies focus on the recovery of the nervous system. Tissue damage strategies aim to repair damaged tissue, particularly soft tissue that often suffers small amounts of damage (needed in order to adaptations to occur). These strategies also help to repair other injuries from physical activity. The last strategy type if psychological, which aims to revive the mind and provide a time of relaxation for the athlete.

Full recovery occurs when the body has returned to the state it was in before training or performance occurred. The faster this occurs, the better training can be and therefore the better performance will be.

Students learn about:

Students learn to:

  • Research recovery strategies to discern their main features and proposed benefits to performance.

Past HSC PDHPE exam questions (2012-2022)

2012 Question 28

Describe the different recovery strategies used by athletes to improve performance. Provide examples. 8 Marks

2018 Question 27

Explain why marathon runners use physiological and neural strategies during recovery. Use examples to support your answer. 8 marks