Abstract
In the last decade, cold water immersion (CWI) has emerged as one of the most popular post-exercise recovery strategies utilized amongst athletes during training and competition. Following earlier research on the effects of CWI on the recovery of exercise performance and associated mechanisms, the recent focus has been on how CWI might influence adaptations to exercise. This line of enquiry stems from classical work demonstrating improved endurance and mitochondrial development in rodents exposed to repeated cold exposures. Moreover, there was strong rationale that CWI might enhance adaptations to exercise, given the discovery, and central role of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1α (PGC-1α) in both cold- and exercise-induced oxidative adaptations. Research on adaptations to post-exercise CWI have generally indicated a mode-dependant effect, where resistance training adaptations were diminished, whilst aerobic exercise performance seems unaffected but demonstrates premise for enhancement. However, the general suitability of CWI as a recovery modality has been the focus of considerable debate, primarily given the dampening effect on hypertrophy gains. In this mini-review, we highlight the key mechanisms surrounding CWI and endurance exercise adaptations, reiterating the potential for CWI to enhance endurance performance, with support from classical and contemporary works. This review also discusses the implications and insights (with regards to endurance and strength adaptations) gathered from recent studies examining the longer-term effects of CWI on training performance and recovery. Lastly, a periodized approach to recovery is proposed, where the use of CWI may be incorporated during competition or intensified training, whilst strategically avoiding periods following training focused on improving muscle strength or hypertrophy.
Highlights
Cold water immersion (CWI) is a strategy aimed at enhancing recovery from strenuous exercise, typically involving the submersion up to the waist or mid-torso for ∼5–20 min in temperatures between ∼8 and 15◦C (Versey et al, 2013; Ihsan et al, 2016; Machado et al, 2016)
A periodized approach to recovery is proposed, where the use of CWI may be incorporated during competition or intensified training, whilst strategically avoiding periods following training focused on improving muscle strength or hypertrophy
Post-exercise CWI up-regulates mitochondrial-related signaling, longer-term changes in protein content and result in vascular adaptations, these changes do not seem to translate to improved endurance performance
Summary
Cold water immersion (CWI) is a strategy aimed at enhancing recovery from strenuous exercise, typically involving the submersion up to the waist or mid-torso for ∼5–20 min in temperatures between ∼8 and 15◦C (Versey et al, 2013; Ihsan et al, 2016; Machado et al, 2016). Adaptations to Post-exercise CWI late-2000s investigating the effect of CWI on the recovery of physical performance, research in this area has extended to investigate a plethora of recovery outcomes including thermoregulatory response (Stephens et al, 2018), hemodynamics (Mawhinney et al, 2013; Choo et al, 2016), hormonal balance (Halson et al, 2008), skeletal muscle damage (Goodall and Howatson, 2008), and autonomic nervous function (Bastos et al, 2012; Choo et al, 2018). 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). We review and discuss key studies which provide information on the applied scenarios where CWI can be utilized to promote physical recovery and adaptation whilst avoiding potential negative effects on hypertrophy and strength gains
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