The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of regular post-exercise whole-body cryotherapy (WBC) on physiological and performance adaptations to high-intensity interval training (HIT). In a two-group parallel design, twenty-two well-trained males performed four weeks of cycling HIT, with each session immediately followed by 3 min of WBC (−110 °C) or a passive control (CON). To assess the effects of WBC on the adaptive response to HIT, participants performed the following cycling tests before and after the training period; a graded exercise test (GXT), a time-to-exhaustion test (T max ), a 20-km time trial (20 TT ), and a 120-min submaximal test (SM 120 ). Blood samples were taken before and after training to measure changes in basal adrenal hormones (adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol). Sleep patterns were also assessed during training via wrist actigraphy. As compared with CON, the administration of WBC after each training session during four weeks of HIT had no effect on peak oxygen uptake ( O 2peak ) and peak aerobic power (P peak ) achieved during the GXT, T max duration and work performed (W Tmax ), 20 TT performance, substrate oxidation during the SM 120 , basal adrenaline/noradrenaline/cortisol concentrations, or sleep patterns ( P > 0.05). These findings suggest that regular post-exercise WBC is not an effective strategy to augment training-induced aerobic adaptations to four weeks of HIT.

Introduction: Modern tennis players face congested schedules that force the adoption of various recovery strategies. Thus, recovery must be fine-tuned with an accurate quantification of its impacts, especially with regards to training-induced fatigue. The present study aimed to examine the training type clusters and recovery practices adopted by elite tennis players under ecological training conditions. The respective impacts of training type clusters and recovery techniques on subjective variables, which reflect the players' recovery perceptions, were subsequently determined. Methods: During 15 consecutive months, a total of 35 elite tennis players filled out questionnaires to report their daily training load, training session content, adopted recovery modalities after training, and perceived recovery. Results: The hierarchical analysis identified three clusters: "combined tennis and S&C training," "predominant tennis training" and "predominant S&C training." Muscle soreness and perceived fatigue were not significantly different among these three clusters (p = 0.07-0.65). Across the 146 recorded training and recovery sessions, players primarily employed a combination of 2 or 3 modalities, with cooling strategies being the most widely used technique (87.6%). Mixed linear models revealed that independent of training clusters, cooling strategies significantly reduced muscle soreness (muscle soreness: β = −1.00, p = 0.02). Among the cooling techniques used, whole-body cryotherapy induced a greater perceived recovery than cold-water immersion (p = 0.02). Conclusion: These results showed that perceived recovery was not sensitive to training clusters or the associated acute training load. However, cooling strategies were relevant for the alleviation of tennis training-induced soreness. This study represents an initial step toward a periodized approach of recovery interventions, based on the interactions between training load, training contents, and perceived recovery.

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