Post-exercise Cold Water Immersion Effects on Physiological Adaptations to Resistance Training and the Underlying Mechanisms in Skeletal Muscle: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Post-exercise cold-water immersion (CWI) is a popular recovery modality aimed at minimizing fatigue and hastening recovery following exercise. In this regard, CWI has been shown to be beneficial for accelerating post-exercise recovery of various parameters including muscle strength, muscle soreness, inflammation, muscle damage, and perceptions of fatigue. Improved recovery following an exercise session facilitated by CWI is thought to enhance the quality and training load of subsequent training sessions, thereby providing a greater training stimulus for long-term physiological adaptations. However, studies investigating the long-term effects of repeated post-exercise CWI instead suggest CWI may attenuate physiological adaptations to exercise training in a mode-specific manner. Specifically, there is evidence post-exercise CWI can attenuate improvements in physiological adaptations to resistance training, including aspects of maximal strength, power, and skeletal muscle hypertrophy, without negatively influencing endurance training adaptations. Several studies have investigated the effects of CWI on the molecular responses to resistance exercise in an attempt to identify the mechanisms by which CWI attenuates physiological adaptations to resistance training. Although evidence is limited, it appears that CWI attenuates the activation of anabolic signaling pathways and the increase in muscle protein synthesis following acute and chronic resistance exercise, which may mediate the negative effects of CWI on long-term resistance training adaptations. There are, however, a number of methodological factors that must be considered when interpreting evidence for the effects of post-exercise CWI on physiological adaptations to resistance training and the potential underlying mechanisms. This review outlines and critiques the available evidence on the effects of CWI on long-term resistance training adaptations and the underlying molecular mechanisms in skeletal muscle, and suggests potential directions for future research to further elucidate the effects of CWI on resistance training adaptations.

Athlete, coach and practitioner knowledge and perceptions of post-exercise cold-water immersion for recovery: a qualitative and quantitative exploration

“…We have spoken previously of the importance for context when applying such results in professional practice, particularly where the athlete, environment, situation, training, and competition cycle can vary considerably [41,42]. Readers are directed to several reviews assessing this paradox [42,74,75]. Sixty-nine percent of respondents disagreed that CWI enhanced strength adaptation, showing good agreement with the scientific literature.…”

Adaptations to Post-exercise Cold Water Immersion: Friend, Foe, or Futile?

“…Indeed, regular CWI has been shown to attenuate the magnitude of anabolic signaling (Roberts et al, 2015) and protein synthesis (Fuchs et al, 2020), leading to reduced magnitude of strength and muscle mass gain following resistance training (Frohlich et al, 2014;Roberts et al, 2015;Fyfe et al, 2019;Poppendieck et al, 2020). Readers are directed to excellent reviews elsewhere (Broatch et al, 2018;Malta et al, 2021) and within this research topic (Petersen and Fyfe, 2021) elaborating on the mechanisms surrounding CWI and resistance training.…”

“…A recent metaanalytical review showed that CWI effects on exercise adaptations are mode-dependant, where resistance training adaptations were diminished, whilst aerobic exercise performance seemed unaffected (Malta et al, 2021). Alongside these publications, detailed narrative reviews on the adaptative response following regular CWI have been published within this research topic series (Petersen and Fyfe, 2021), and elsewhere (Broatch et al, 2018). Additionally, editorials, point-counterpoints, and opinion pieces (Allan and Mawhinney, 2017;McPhee and Lightfoot, 2017;Méline et al, 2017;Peake, 2017Peake, , 2020White and Caterini, 2017;Cheng, 2018;Ihsan et al, 2020a) have been published discussing the suitability of CWI as a post-exercise recovery tool given its dampening effect on hypertrophy gains.…”

Post-exercise Recovery: Cooling and Heating, a Periodized Approach

“…Evidence exists where a singular temperature-based strategy applied locally to the quadriceps over the entire recovery continuum failed to further accelerate recovery beyond the acute period (0-72 h), albeit , following severe marathon running–derived mechanical and metabolic stress (Kwiecien et al, 2020a , b ). Moreover, Petersen and Fyfe ( 2021 ) suggested, from a chronic perspective, long-term application of a singular intervention may have disadvantages relating to adaptation (Petersen and Fyfe, 2021 ). It appears that a binary perspective to recovery has arisen within the literature, which in turn may have influenced the applied setting.…”