[Closed] Recovery time football vs cycling

Possibly:

A) Overly pampered, highly paid footballers

and

B) Cycling is a lower impact sport.

Football is a lot harder per minute, as said, and  with recovery they're talking about a few days getting back to close to their best physical condition. England could play tomorrow at 90% or whatever. There's also way more chance of injury in football than cycling, so recovery time is more important from that POV.

GT cycling there is no getting back to your best. It's measuring your effort over 3 weeks, and the only thing that matters is being in better condition tomorrow than the rest of the GC guys you're trying to beat. Still don't know how the top men manage to mix it in the mountains day on day - it's otherworldly, but it's a very different game to football.

Short answer....chalk and cheese. Football is frequently requiring of maximum efforts, sprints, jumps, direction changes, and is very hard on the bones and joints and connective tissues. That's without any physical traumas, which are also frequent.... kicks, strains, bruises, etc. If you don't recover properly you can't perform to the same level and are substantially more likely to be injured (more than 6x more likely to be injured in regular season periods where you are playing twice a week compared to once)

http://www.aspetar.com/journal/viewarticle.aspx?id=180#.W0FLks_TU0M

Injuries are also far more likely when fatigued, hence why even the extra 30 mins Croatia played becomes highly significant.

Hence why an extra day's recovery, or in England's case the chance to rest players against Belgium, or in domestic having a large squad to manage playing time, can be vital.

And it's got **** all to do with being 'pampered'

Why do track cyclists turn in their fastest times in the qualification and then regularly fail to be that quick in the rounds? Because every time you go out, you injure yourself a bit. As in the GT scenario, he who can cling on longest in the end wins the day.

They are totally different. I do both (at a slightly lower level than Engerland and the pro peloton) and if I don't put some effort into recovery after football I can barely walk the next day. If I do a couple of games in row that me out for a couple of days. I can do week cycling and feel a bit tired but not really have any other impact.

maybe footballers don't use such good drugs?  They need to go and talk to the tennis players for some advice.

I think Gary nailed it.

GT cycling is a three week race, everyone know the deal and is in the same boat.

I'm racing part two of a weekend road race later on. No way I would turn up to a one day race having done a hard 3 hour training session the day before. But today we all have fatigued legs.

I guess in football it is about those marginal advantages. Being a bit fresher is something that could work to your advantage.  Also I guess with it being stop start, sprints etc. It would take its toll more. Footballer do get more injuires than cyclists (at all levels?). Knees, ankles etc.

A) Overly pampered, highly paid footballers

As opposed to cyclists who earn millions riding bikes and give post race interviews whilst getting a massage?

Think its Tyler Hamiltons biography where he talks about pro cyclists being incredibly lazy, once he was off the bike he was feet up on the sofa recovering. And so adapted to cycling that any sort of impact exercise (walking to the shops) left them with aches and walking funny.

Watching a GT, the riders 'resting' are still riding 120miles in slipstream, and can then destroy their competition the next day, imagine how much of an advantage they'd have with an extra day off!

Ideas on recovery have changed considerably in recent years. You no longer "rest up".

A recovery day for a tour cyclist will consist of at least 40km on a bike. Any less and there's a change in plasma volume - resulting in a sluggish rider.

For football they there will be intense training sessions and for an evening, a session of explosive exercises during the day.

For football, the "recovery time" the commentators talk about is more preparation time. One advantage of England playing its B-team against Belgium was that they could do pretty much a full session with the A-team the next day.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40633269

Football it's just a bit of running and kicking isn't it... I've not played any more than kicking a ball for some mates kids in years but one Christmas we had a 5 a side game in the local park, being a fit cyclist at the time I didn't think much of it until I couldn't walk for the next couple of days!! A very different workout.

Then factor in you finish your game, there is a 1000mile trip to Moscow to factor in, recovery work and some more training.

GT riders are also not going flat out all day every day.  They only have so much flat out effort in them (these days!) and save it for certain tactically selected moments on certain stages.  Whereas footballers in knockout matches give absolutely everything, it's do or die.

Also, as above - in a GT everyone's getting tired at more or less the same rate on the same days.

maybe footballers don’t use such good drugs?

I thought football was still using blood bags after all the work the "Spanish Doctor" did in the field!

Most footballers are working class.

Most cyclists are nice, middle class people like us. They spend their money on homes on in Monaco, rather than Cheshire.

That's why it's ok to slag footballers off without giving a seconds thought to the fundamental differences between the sports.

Don't know about recovery times but i played a blinder* in a game against some 5 year olds yesterday and I can hardly walk right now! Had we gone for a ride I'd be ok. 😉

Surely the whole point of a GT is getting up the next morning and doing it again...

The TdF is 2000 miles+ ... it's not an elimination like football but who racks up the most points over the race.

Cyclists have better doctors 😉

Go play a game of 5 a sides for an hour in this weather, see how fit you are. I'm not for a minute saying footballers are any fitter than anyone else, but it's just different. Lots of sprints, far more impacts and niggles than you will ever get riding a bike.

I'm not sure the impacts argument is sound. Especially when riders frequently hit the deck and occasionally go through barbed wire fences or ride with broken bones. Personally, I'm sure its the mental side. Football uses more brain power on tactics etc and so is much more exhausting than cycling which is basically just pedaling.

Especially when riders frequently hit the deck and occasionally go through barbed wire fences or ride with broken bones

Nonsense. In all my years of watching the TDF I've seen one barbed wire incident. Tbh, that's not the impact I'm talking about anyway, I'm talking every time your foot lands on the ground, the dynamic movement of running, foot always landing slightly differently, weaving in and out, riding tackles etc, it's completely different.

Frinstance, I can quite easily go out on the road and run for 2 hours, and tomorrow I'd be fine. 2 hours of 5 a side, I'd be sore as **** in the morning.

as the article I linked to said, when players in the regular / domestic season play twice a week, they are >6x more likely to be injured per minute played than if they only play once a week. It is the build up of fatigue on joints and ligaments and the lack of time to recuperate back to full strength rather than the aerobic capability. In turn means you can't turn as fast, or jump as high, and when you do you are far more likely to injure yourself.  And in a game where making that extra 3 inches to reach a cross or make a tackle is often decisive in determining if you can clear the ball or the opponent scores, or make a tackle vs a foul. Going 90% isn't possible, and when the heart and lungs can go 100% again but the joints will only poke up with 90%....then that's when they break properly.

Yes, cycling does have impact injuries but they are (comparatively) rare - although I'm also full of awe at the Tyler Hamilton, Jonny Hoogerland, Lawson Craddock types, and the guys with simple road rash and bruises who just keep going - virtually every player left in the WC now will be 'injured' to some extent even if it's only a minor accumulated wear and tear niggle that is manageable with 3 days rest, but 4 would be better and 2 less good.

I guess the question is easily answerable, go and get the 22 top footballers in the world, stick them in the tour de france, go and get the 22 top cyclists in the world stick them in the Champions league!

See what happens! I predict hilarity all round! 😆

go and get the 22 top cyclists in the world stick them in the FA cup

and make them play in their roadie shoes.

they'd be falling over left right and centre!

Oh.......

Nonsense. In all my years of watching the TDF I’ve seen one barbed wire incident.

Another Johnny come lately.......Johnny Hoogerland

As above, it's very different.

Without sounding like I'm humble bragging here, in the last 2 weeks I've run a half marathon, started pre-season football training and done some long solo bikes miles. In order of pain/time needed for recovery, the bike was the easiest of the lot, the run was OK but my legs were very stiff and the football I felt like i'd been hit by a truck.

The bike is definitely the best tool for recovery though, a couple of hours at a gentle pace and heart rate and my legs always feel better, irrelevant of what caused the pain.

Wrong post, ignore