Ankle Or Knee Joint Cooling Does Not Affect Athletic Performance During Team Sport

Abstract

Laboratory controlled measurements showed that knee joint cooling increased quadriceps strength and activation. It is unclear if this results in similar effects in athletic movements. PURPOSE: To observe the effects of ankle or knee joint cooling on 20m sprint time and maximal vertical jump height during team sport. METHODS: Twenty-one (height: 1.85±8.6 m; mass 80.9 ± 9.1 kg) healthy collegiate male basketball (n=14) and handball players (n=7) underwent one pre-trial test and three experimental trials. During the pre-trial test, each subject’s VO2max, 20m sprint time, and maximal vertical jump height were measured. Experimental trials consisted of four 15-min quarters of intermittent exercise protocols of 20m shuttle running and jumping with various intensities. Exercise protocol in each quarter consisted of five sets of the following activities: 3×walking (30% of VO2max), 2×jumping (80% of maximal vertical jump height), a maximal sprinting, 3×jogging (55% of VO2max), 2×maximal jumping, and 3×running (120% of VO2max). A 20-min bilateral joint cooling (ankle, knee, or control-no cooling: in a counterbalanced order) was applied before quarter-1 and quarter-3. 20m sprint times and maximal vertical jump heights in each experimental trial were recorded at baseline (prior to quarter-1), and each quarter. To test joint cooling effects over time, we performed 3×5 mixed model ANOVAs for each measurement and calculated effect sizes (ES). RESULTS: Neither ankle nor knee joint cooling changed 20m sprint times (F8,280=1.45; p=0.18) or maximal vertical jump heights (F8,280=0.76; p=0.64). For 20m sprint, subjects showed a 5% increase in quarter-1 (3.01 s) compared to the baseline (2.96 s, ES: 0.26), a 14% reduction in quarter-2 (2.87 s) compared to quarter-1 (ES: 0.77), a 13% increase in quarter-3 (3.00) compared to quarter-2 (ES: 0.76), and an 8% reduction in quarter-4 (2.92 s) compared to quarter-3 (ES: 0.48). CONCLUSION: Lower extremity joint cooling during a competition does not affect athletic performance in trained athletes. Rapid re-warming of a joint using the exercise protocol may have minimised the effects of joint cooling. Interestingly, joint cooling seemed to immediately slow down sprinting but improve after 20-min post-applications. Supported by a grant from the Kyung Hee University (KHU-20131809)