The Effect of Water Recovery and Active Recovery on Muscle Injury Indexes after Matches in Elite Soccer Players

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of water recovery and active recovery on serum creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase after soccer matches in elite soccer players. This study was quasi-experimental with a pretest and posttest with 3 repetitions. The sample consisted of 30 elite soccer players in Iran soccer league (mean age of 21.66±1.21 years) who participated in the study voluntarily by convenience sampling method. Participates were divided randomly into 2 equal groups (each group 15 subjects): water recovery and active recovery. Blood samples were collected before and immediately after the match, one hour and 24 hours after the recovery to measure the level of creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase enzymes. Descriptive and inferential statistics (mean, standard deviation and ANOVA with repeated measures) were used to analyze the data. The results showed that water recovery and active recovery significantly decreased creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase (P<0.001). There was a significant difference between water recovery and active recovery groups in creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase enzymes (P<0.001). According to these results, it can be concluded that water recovery and active recovery reduced creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase enzymes that can reduce the injuries and fatigue after the training. The mean lactate dehydrogenase enzyme in the water recovery group reduced more than the active recovery group (P<0.001, d=0.94). Mean creatine kinase enzyme in the active recovery group reduced more than the water recovery group (P<0.001, d=0.92).