The effects of multiple cold water immersions on indices of muscle damage
Stuart Goodall 1 and Glyn Howatson 2
1 Centre for Sports Medicine and Human Performance, School of Sport & Education, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK
2 School of Human Sciences, St Mary’s University College, Twickenham, UK
Abstract
The aim of this investigation was to elucidate the efficacy of
repeated cold water immersions (CWI) in the recovery of exercise
induced muscle damage. A randomised group consisting of
eighteen males, mean ± s age, height and body mass were 24 ± 5
years, 1.82 ± 0.06 m and 85.7 ± 16.6 kg respectively, completed
a bout of 100 drop jumps. Following the bout of damaging
exercise, participants were randomly but equally assigned to
either a 12 min CWI (15 ± 1 °C; n = 9) group who experienced
immersions immediately post-exercise and every 24 h thereafter
for the following 3 days, or a control group (no treatment; n =
9). Maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) of the knee extensors,
creatine kinase activity (CK), muscle soreness (DOMS), range
of motion (ROM) and limb girth were measured pre-exercise
and then for the following 96 h at 24 h increments. In addition
MVC was also recorded immediately post-exercise. Significant
time effects were seen for MVC, CK, DOMS and limb girth (p ``
0.05) indicating muscle damage was evident, however there was
no group effect or interaction observed showing that CWI did
not attenuate any of the dependent variables (p %% 0.05). These
results suggest that repeated CWI do not enhance recovery from
a bout of damaging eccentric contractions.
Key words: Eccentric exercise, treatment, cryotherapy.