Does Intermittent Pneumatic Leg Compression Enhance Muscle Recovery after Strenuous Eccentric Exercise?

Abstract

Intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) has gained rapid popularity as a post-exercise recovery modality. Despite its widespread use and anecdotal claims for enhancing muscle recovery there is no scientific evidence to support its use. 10 healthy, active males performed a strenuous bout of eccentric exercise (3 sets of 100 repetitions) followed by IPC treatment or control performed immediately after exercise and at 24 and 48 h post-exercise. Muscular performance measurements were taken prior to exercise and 24, 48 and 72 h post-exercise and included single-leg vertical jump (VJ) and peak and average isometric [knee angle 75º] (ISO), concentric (CON) and eccentric (ECC) contractions performed at slow (30° · s⁻¹) and fast (180° · s⁻¹) velocities. Plasma creatine kinase (CK) samples were taken at pre- and post-exercise 24, 48 and 72 h. Strenuous eccentric exercise resulted in a significant decrease in peak ISO, peak and average CON (30° · s⁻¹) at 24 h compared to pre-exercise for both IPC and control, however VJ performance remained unchanged. There were no significant differences between conditions (IPC and control) or condition-time interactions for any of the contraction types (ISO, CON, ECC) or velocities (CON, ECC 30° · s⁻¹ and 180° · s⁻¹). However, CK was significantly elevated at 24 h compared to pre-exercise in both conditions (IPC and control). IPC did not attenuate muscle force loss following a bout of strenuous eccentric exercise in comparison to a control. While IPC has been used in the clinical setting to treat pathologic conditions, the parameters used to treat muscle damage following strenuous exercise in healthy participants are likely to be very different than those used to treat pathologic conditions.

Does external pneumatic compression treatment between bouts of overreaching resistance training sessions exert differential effects on molecular signaling and performance-related variables compared to passive recovery? An exploratory study

“…A similar pattern was noted with CRP concentrations in the EPC group and we posit that the compressive stimulus may “mobilize” a greater proportion of metabolites/cellular contents in the context of sarcolemmal injury to the extracellular space. However, Cochrane and colleagues have reported similarity in CK levels when comparing an EPC subject pool to a non-treatment control group after strenuous eccentric exercise [30]. Given the quantitative and qualitative similarity in this metric, other investigators findings, and the influence of other confounding variables when analyzing serum CK levels (i.e.…”

Myths and Facts About the Effects of Ischemic Preconditioning on Performance

“…Most of the earlier studies demonstrated an evaluated cardioprotection effect in disease conditions [7,28,30,54], but did not refer to skeletal muscle function. This concept, based on the assumption that a tissue with some "history" of ischemic conditions eventually becomes more resistant to ischemia and its potential deleterious effects [34,39,45], obviously attracted many researchers in sports medicine and exercise science during the last decade, resulting in a reasonable number of experimental researches attempting to demonstrate beneficial effects of IPC on skeletal muscle strength [10,38], endurance [1,20] or general sports performance [23,32,33]. Based on anecdotal information, the IPC procedure was applied by South American indigenous populations before traveling long distances, e. g., to transmit information to other communities, by ligating the thighs for some time before starting to run.…”

An Intermittent Pneumatic Compression Device Reduces Blood Lactate Concentrations More Effectively Than Passive Recovery after Wingate Testing

“…Additional studies are required to evaluate the effect of an IPC machine over extended periods of time with varying degrees of exercise duration and intensity as well as recovery duration. Recently, Cochrane et al claimed the parameters used to treat muscle damage following strenuous exercise in healthy participants are likely to be very different than those used to treat pathologic conditions [17]. There must be follow-up research to explore the factors that were limited within our study.…”