Reproducibility of Objective and Subjective Markers of Exercise Recovery in College Aged Males.

This study investigated the reproducibility of objective and subjective parameters of recovery pre- and post-exercise in college-aged male athletes. Thirteen male (aged 19-22y) team sport players were assessed for a range of recovery markers before and 24 hours after a repeated sprint protocol. An identical procedure was followed one week later. Participants undertook two objective tests: creatine kinase (CK) and countermovement jump (CMJ) height; and two subjective tests: visual analogue scale (VAS) for muscle soreness and 5-item well-being questionnaire (WB). Coefficients of variation (CV) of CMJ and WB were lowest of all markers studied both pre (4.0% and 5.9%) and 24 hours post (7.7% and 7.1%) exercise, respectively. The CV of a single CMJ showed the highest reproducibility pre-exercise (4.0%) compared to taking the best or average of 2 or 3 jumps. Both CK and VAS had a high CV at pre (25.6% and 49.2%) and 24 hours post (44.5% and 44.8%) exercise. Moreover, while there was no difference between the change in CMJ, WB and VAS in response to exercise between weeks, the increase in CK was greater after the first compared to second exercise bout (mean 199.6 U/L vs 10.6 U/L change, p = 0.001), indicating a repeated bout effect. CK and VAS demonstrated poor reproducibility. However, single CMJ height and the WB questionnaire demonstrated a high reproducibility pre- and post-exercise and represent simple time-efficient objective and subjective methods to monitor recovery in this population.