Local cryotherapy is ineffective in accelerating recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage on biceps brachii

Abstract

The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the effects of local cryotherapy on the recovery from symptoms of exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) on biceps brachii. Nineteen untrained women performed an eccentric protocol of damage induction (2 sets of 10 repetitions) in both arms after the baseline data collection. The cryotherapy was applied for 20 min, twice per day, for 4 days following the eccentric exercise. Randomly, one of the subject’s arms was assigned as intervention, and received cryotherapy, the opposite arm served as control. As muscle damage indirect markers, we collected muscle thickness, and echo intensity, delayed onset muscle soreness, and peak torque at baseline (PRE), and at 24, 48, 72, and 96 h. Muscle thickness at PRE was significantly lower than all time points in both experimental and control arms. Echo intensity at PRE was significantly lower than 24, 48, and 72 h in the experimental arm, and significantly lower than all time points in the control arm. Muscle soreness assessed by flexion–extension, and by self-palpation of both the experimental and the control arms significantly increased compared to the PRE value at 24, 48, and 72 h. Peak Torque of both experimental and control arm was significantly lower than all time points after EIMD. None of the muscle damage indirect markers showed any significant difference between arms at any moment (p > 0.05). The results demonstrated that the protocol of cryotherapy utilized in the present study was not effective in enhancing the recovery from EIMD in untrained women.