Abstract
In sport medicine, cryostimulation is used to help athletes to better support the training workload, to prevent the deleterious effects of strenuous exercise and to improve recovery. In this study, eight elite cross-country skiers had two experimental exercise sessions differing in that the second one was carried out after a series of 10 whole-body cryostimulation (WBC) treatments. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was applied to compare changes in athlete’s blood serum during both sessions. Mean DSC curves of serum collected in four stages of the training session: before exercise, after exercise, at 1 h recovery and after 24 h of rest have shown a similar nature of post-exercise changes and recovery regardless of the WBC. Statistically significant effect of the exercise, reflected in some parameters of serum denaturation transition, has been found. Too small number of participants in our study did not allow to verify the hypothesis that WBC favorably modifies athletes’ reaction to the effort and improves post-exercise recovery, but such trends emerged.
Highlights
Whole-body cryotherapy was initially intended as a treatment for several diseases, e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and ankylosing spondylitis
In contrast to acute responses, long-term adjustments require altered cellular functions, which are the basis of optimized performance of organs and the entire organism, and which include altered regulation of metabolic pathways as well as altered gene and protein expression
According to our and other previous reports [37,38,39,40, 47, 48, 53,54,55], two or three relatively well-resolved thermal transitions are observed in Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) profiles of blood sera from healthy individuals, depending on the solvent used
Summary
Whole-body cryotherapy was initially intended as a treatment for several diseases, e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and ankylosing spondylitis. This treatment covers a wide range of therapeutic applications. In contrast to cryotherapy, where a therapeutic aim is emphasized, the term ‘‘cryostimulation’’ is increasingly often used to highlight the stimulatory effect of cryogenic temperatures. It has gained popularity, among athletes, as a recovery strategy following different sports activities. The cryostimulation has been employed by elite and recreational athletes to attenuate the negative impact of strenuous physical activity on subsequent exercise.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
