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.