Effect of Cold Water Immersion or Contrast Water Therapy on Muscle Soreness After Exercise

Abstract

Tissue damage leads to delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), often resulting in pain or discomfort that gradually increases within the first 24 hours post-exercise, and typically peaks at 48 hours post activity. Cold-water immersion (CWI) and contrast water therapy (CWT) are commonly used as interventions for reducing DOMS; however, it remains unclear which treatment is more beneficial. PURPOSE: To determine if post-exercise cold-water immersion decreases muscle soreness compared to contrast water therapy at 48 hours post DOMS inducing exercise. METHODS: Thirty-nine healthy college student volunteers (20 males; 19 females) with ages ranging from 18 to 23 years (M = 20.36; SD = 1.35) agreed to perform 5 sets of 20 drop jumps from a 0.6m box to induce DOMS. Subjects identified perceived muscle soreness on a 11-point (0 = no pain; 10 = most intense pain imaginable) numeric pain rating scale (NPRS) measured at baseline, immediately post exercise, and at 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours post exercise. Subjects were randomly assigned to a CWI (100 C) or CWT (1:1 ratio of 400 C and 100 C) intervention up to the iliac crest for 10 minutes immediately, 24, 48, and 72 hours post-exercise. An independent-samples t-test was used to compare muscle soreness between groups at 48 hours with an alpha level of 0.05 for statistical significance. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant difference in NPRS scores for the CWI (M = 2.90, SD = 1.92) and CWT (M = 4.32, SD = 2.41); t(37) = 2.04, p = 0.049, interventions at 48 hours. Further, Cohen’s effect size value was d=-0.66. CONCLUSIONS: CWI significantly decreased muscle soreness compared to CWT 48 hours post DOMS inducing exercise. CWI can be considered superior to CWT to decrease muscle soreness associated with DOMS 48 hours post-exercise. Additionally, the effect size indicates the intervention had a moderate effect. These results add to previous literature indicating CWI is more effective than CWT to treat muscle soreness.