Evangelidis, P., Stavrinou, P., Tambaki, M., & Theos, A. (2009). Influence of two different rest intervals on fatigue during maximal swimming. A paper presented at the 14th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science, Oslo, Norway, June 24-27.

This study examined the influence of two different rest intervals on performance and fatigue during repeated sprint swimming. Adolescent swimmers (M = 9; F = 7) performed 3 x 66 m sprint swimming in two different conditions in a random order. During the first condition, the rest period between sprints was 10 seconds. In the second condition, the rest period was 30 seconds. Differences between the two conditions in performance time and fatigue index (percent increase of performance time from the first to the third sprint) were analyzed

Total performance time was significantly better with the longer rest than in the short rest condition. Despite the difference in performance time, fatigue index did not differ significantly between the two conditions.

Implication. As expected, different recovery periods influence performance time. The fact that fatigue index did not differ between the conditions suggests that even a rest period as short as 10 seconds might induce almost the same fatigue as a longer interval despite its impairment of performance. The relatively low number of repeated sprints may have contributed to the non-significant difference in fatigue between the two conditions.

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