Cold water immersion recovery following intermittent-sprint exercise in the heat

Abstract

This study examined the effects of cold water immersion (CWI) on recovery of neuromuscular function following simulated team-sport exercise in the heat. Ten male team-sport athletes performed two sessions of a 2 × 30-min intermittent-sprint exercise (ISE) in 32°C and 52% humidity, followed by a 20-min CWI intervention or passive recovery (CONT) in a randomized, crossover design. The ISE involved a 15-m sprint every minute separated by bouts of hard running, jogging and walking. Voluntary and evoked neuromuscular function, ratings of perceived muscle soreness (MS) and blood markers for muscle damage were measured pre- and post-exercise, immediately post-recovery, 2-h and 24-h post-recovery. Measures of core temperature (Tcore), heart rate (HR), capillary blood and perceptions of exertion, thermal strain and thirst were also recorded at the aforementioned time points. Post-exercise maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) and activation (VA) were reduced in both conditions and remained below pre-exercise values for the 24-h recovery (P < 0.05). Increased blood markers of muscle damage were observed post-exercise in both conditions and remained elevated for the 24-h recovery period (P < 0.05). Comparative to CONT, the post-recovery rate of reduction in Tcore, HR and MS was enhanced with CWI whilst increasing MVC and VA (P < 0.05). In contrast, 24-h post-recovery MVC and activation were significantly higher in CONT compared to CWI (P = 0.05). Following exercise in the heat, CWI accelerated the reduction in thermal and cardiovascular load, and improved MVC alongside increased central activation immediately and 2-h post-recovery. However, despite improved acute recovery CWI resulted in an attenuated MVC 24-h post-recovery.

Post-Exercise Cold Water Immersion on Sports Performance Recovery: A Review

“…Gradual decreases in core temperature and significant difference between post-CWI 35 and 40 minutes were found comparing with passive recovery (Peiffer et al, 2009). Furthermore, CWI also lowered heart rate significantly (Halson et al, 2008;Vaile et al, 2008;Vaile et al, 2011;Pointon et al, 2012) and this effect was able to last for a relatively long period after immersion (20 minutes (Halson et al, 2008) and 40minutes (Vaile et al, 2008;Vaile et al, 2011). In Vaile et al (2011)'s study , heart rate responded lower after CWI immediately, and even able to last in the first 5 minutes of the second exercise bout.…”

“…All in all, no significant recovery was found after CWI intervention (Table 2) on muscle power related measures, including jump performance (Crowe et al, 2007;Ascensao et al, 2011;Corbett et al, 2012;Elias et al, 2012) and sprinting performance (Rowsell et al, 2009;Ascensao et al, 2011;Higgins et al, 2011;Rowsell et al, 2011;Pointon et al, 2012). Particularly, (Rowsell et al, 2011);Pointon et al (2012) emphasised the insignificant recovery difference between CWI (8.9±0.9°C) and passive recovery (control) groups, even the invited male rugby players was statistically recovered in both recovery conditions on repeated sprint ability over 5 x 15m sprints at any time point. CWI seems not really effective enough for power related indicators comparing with passive recovery.…”

“…Removal of blood lactate is important for anaerobic power recovery, however, many studies in CWI did not show its effect on removal of blood lactate (Halson et al, 2008;Rowsell et al, 2009;Parouty et al, 2010;Brophy-Williams et al, 2011;Pointon et al, 2012), and was even significantly less effective than active recovery (Vaile et al, 2008). Leeder et al (2013) completed a meta-analysis on CWI recovery after strenuous exercise.…”

“…CWI recovery intervention is believed to have positive effect particularly on endurance performance recovery, which may be related to successful reduction on core temperature (Crowe et al, 2007;Halson et al, 2008;Vaile et al, 2008;Peiffer et al, 2009;Peiffer et al, 2010;Vaile et al, 2011;Lee et al, 2012) with enhanced cooling rate during the immersion (Lee et al, 2012;Pointon et al, 2012). The significant faster cooling rate following CWI was observed in the first 6 minutes (Lee et al, 2012) and last for mostly 40 minutes (Halson et al, 2008).…”

“…CWI is also a recovery technique that has been used in numerous sports disciplines, such as Australian Rules football (Elias et al, 2012;Elias et al, 2013), swimming (Parouty et al, 2010), cycling (Halson et al, 2008;Vaile et al, 2008;Peiffer et al, 2009;Peiffer et al, 2010;Vaile et al, 2011), soccer (Rowsell et al, 2009;Ascensao et al, 2011;Rowsell et al, 2011) and rugby (Higgins et al, 2011;Pointon et al, 2012). Paula Radcliffe, the British runner shared her dramatic experience on reduction of inflammation after using CWI (Mailonline, 2003).…”