Recovery from Strenuous Exercise

Coaches, managers and athletes frequently ask about how they can recover as fast as possible from fatigue and improve subsequent performance. Recovery from Strenuous Exercise informs students, athletes and practicing strength and conditioning coaches and performance therapists on how to use the latest scientific evidence to inform their recovery practice – particularly during high training volumes and competitive cycles.

This book empowers the athlete, the coach and the therapist by giving them greater confidence, improving their critical thinking, helping them to avoid poor practice and enhancing their understanding of what causes fatigue and how its effects can be minimised. Recovery from Strenuous Exercise covers many of the aspects required to make a highly skilled, confident, knowledgeable personal trainer, sports therapist or strength and conditioning coach. It also acts as a recovery ‘go-to’ guide for competitive recreational athletes who lack the knowledge and guidance on optimal recovery protocols used by their professional peers.

This text serves as a learning and research aid for athletes and those studying vocational personal training and sports therapy courses, and those studying other courses where recovery modalities form part of their undergraduate and postgraduate study, such as strength and conditioning, sports science, sports therapy, sports rehabilitation, osteopathy and physiotherapy.

Steve Bedford qualified in Swedish massage in 1995 and in sports massage the following year. Further studies and qualifications include diplomas in sports therapy and sports injury management; certificates in neurolinguistic programming, clinical hypnosis, cardiac rehabilitation, personal training and mat-based Pilates; and a master’s degree in sports performance. Steve has worked at every Wimbledon tennis championship since 1999, 12 ATP World Tour Finals, ten Queen's Club championships and two seasons at Arsenal Football Club. He was also the unit lead for sports massage on the University of Bedfordshire’s sports therapy undergraduate program for four years, and has taught sports massage at the University of East London and Bath University. He has also taught health and exercise science and sports science at St Mary’s University. Steve has published in peer-reviewed academic journals and is the author of Sports Performance Massage (Routledge, 2021).