Influence of Contrast Shower and Water Immersion on Recovery in Elite Netballers

Abstract

Contrast water therapy is a popular recovery modality in sport; however, appropriate facilities can often be difficult to access. Therefore, the present study examined the use of contrast showers as an alternative to contrast water therapy for team sport recovery. In a randomized, cross-over design ten elite female netball athletes (mean ± SD; age: 20 ± 0.6 y, height: 1.82 ± 0.05 m, body mass: 77.0 ± 9.3 kg) completed three experimental trials of a netball specific circuit followed by one of the following 14 min recovery interventions; (1) water therapy and contrast showers did not accelerate physical recovery in elite netballers after a netball specific circuit; however, the psychological benefit from both interventions should be considered when determining the suitability of these recovery interventions in team sport.

Influence of recovery strategies upon performance and perceptions following fatiguing exercise: a randomized controlled trial

“…This is most likely because CWT produced significantly reduced perceptions of muscle soreness and TQR ratings at 1 h in comparison to CONT (TQR only) and ACT. Similar findings have been reported with CWT producing better perceptual recovery following anaerobic exercise in comparison to ACT and CONT recovery strategies for state-level athletes [ 32 ], and CWT producing superior perceptual benefits of recovery in elite netball athletes following a fatiguing netball circuit in comparison to CONT [ 33 ]. Another previous study reported reduced perceptions of recovery 48 h post CWT in comparison to COLD [ 20 ], although this study utilised elite athletes.…”

The Applied Sports Science and Medicine of Netball: A Systematic Scoping Review

“…The majority of studies used elite level cohorts (n = 7, 78%) [63][64][65][66][67][68][69], with the remaining studies using Australian state-level athletes [3,70]. Two studies (22%) quantified the fatigue response to competition [63,67], whilst two studies (22%) investigated the effect [64] and the perceived importance [68] of various recovery modalities. Four studies (44%) focused on sleep indices, patterns and/or behaviours [3,65,66,69].…”

The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…One Cochrane review investigated the effect of cold-water immersion for preventing and treating muscle soreness after exercise[ 18 ] and found some evidence that cold-water immersion reduces delayed onset muscle soreness after exercise. The three randomized controlled trials were limited to the subject of cold bathing on athletic performance[ 19 , 20 ] and physiological response. [ 3 ] Positive habituation effects on the physiological response and slight beneficial outcomes on athletic recovery have been reported.…”

“…[ 21 ] Although most cold exposure studies involved cold water immersion, different methods of cold water therapy such as cold bathing and cold showering are used interchangeably and seem to have similar effects. [ 19 ] The latest form of cold therapy (or stimulation) is called whole-body cryotherapy and consists of exposure to very cold air that is maintained at -110°C to -140°C in special temperature-controlled cryochambers, generally for 2–3 minutes. It was initially proposed for the treatment of rheumatic diseases[ 22 ] but is increasingly popularized among athletes for its supposedly beneficial effect on recovery and performance, even though it has not been confirmed in a recent systematic review.…”