ACE-SPONSORED RESEARCH: Active vs. Passive Recovery and Exercise Performance: Which Strategy Is Best?

We’ve all seen videos of athletes giving post-game interviews from the discomfort of locker room ice baths. Does this recovery strategy really work, and can those benefits be enjoyed by typical gym-goers in addition to competitive athletes? And how do timing and duration factor in? This latest ACE-sponsored research answers these questions and more.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) has repeatedly been shown to improve cardiorespiratory fitness and vascular function in a time-efficient manner. However, there has been a lack of research that looks at resistance training through this same lens. To address this gap in the literature, ACE enlisted the help of a team of researchers at Western State Colorado University to evaluate the effectiveness of applying the HIIT paradigm to resistance training.