Two-Week Recovery Strategies to Enhance Performance Readiness in Martial Arts Athletes: A Pilot Study

This study aimed to examine preliminary responses of two-week post-exercise recovery strategies on performance readiness in well-trained Taekwondo athletes. Fifteen athletes were randomly assigned to cryotherapy (partial-body cryotherapy followed by cold-water immersion; n = 5 per group), foam rolling (FR; n = 5 per group), and control (CON; n = 5 per group). The intervention lasted two weeks and consisted of post-exercise recovery strategies only. Performance and recovery outcomes were assessed using the Latvian Recovery-Stress Questionnaire (RESTQ), the determination test of the Vienna test (DT), the countermovement jump (CMJ), and isokinetic knee flexion and extension. Data were analyzed using mixed-design ANOVA. Significant time effects were observed for DT (F(1,12) = 5.91, p = 0.03, η²p = 0.33), CMJ (F(1,12) = 12.44, p = 0.004, η²p = 0.50), and knee extension (F(1,12) = 5.20, p = 0.04, η²p = 0.30). No changes were detected under the present conditions for RESTQ stress and recovery scores and knee flexion (p > 0.05). Overall, the findings indicate time-dependent changes in several performance outcomes, while differences between recovery conditions should be interpreted as exploratory, as no clear intervention-specific effects were demonstrated under the study conditions.