effects of recovery type after a kickboxing match on blood lactate and performance in anaerobic tests

purpose to verify whether active recovery (ar) applied after a kickboxing match resulted in better performance in anaerobic tests when compared to passive recovery (pr). methods eighteen kickboxers volunteered to participate on a kickboxing match preceded and followed by anaerobic tests: squat jump (sj), the counter movement jump (cmj) and the upper-body wingate test. blood lactate (bl), heart rate (hr) and rate of perceived exertion (rpe) were analyzed before and after rounds. the recovery sessions consisted of 10min at 50% of maximal aerobic speed or pr. bl was measured at 3, 5 and 10 min after the match, while hr, rpe and anaerobic power were assessed after the recovery period. results bl, hr and rpe increased significantly (p<0.001) during the match. bl was lower (p<0.001) after ar compared to pr at 5 min and 10 min (e.g. ar: 8.94 ± 0.31 mmol.l-1, pr: 10.98 ± 0.33 mmol.l-1). however, pr resulted in higher (p<0.05) upper-body mean power (4.65 ± 0.5 w.kg-1) compared to ar (4.09 ± 0.5 w.kg-1), while sj and cmj were not affected by the recovery type. conclusions the lactate removal was improved with ar when compared with pr, but ar did not improve subsequent performance.