Research has been conducted into the best recovery strategies for elite athletes.

English Institute of Sport (EIS) physiologist Jonathan Leeder has undertaken his PhD on this area, at Northumbria University.

Leeder said: "Recovery strategies are designed to decrease the stress of exercise so that you recover faster.

"Compression garments are often used by athletes and we found that whilst they had an impact on how an athlete feels, they don't contribute to muscle recovery. However, whether a placebo effect or not, anything that makes an athlete feel better is advantageous, so they still can play their part in some situations."

When it came to ice baths and contrast baths, Leeder said that existing evidence combined suggests that there are beneficial properties of using them in recovery.

"Evidence suggests that ice baths reduce muscle soreness after exercise and that the effects on muscle function is specific to the exercise," he said.

Due to be published early next year, Leeder's findings will contribute to the understanding of recovery strategies and their use within training and competition, as deployed by those working with the EIS across its High Performance Centres.