Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the effect of water immersion (WI) on cardiac parasympathetic reactivation during recovery from handball training sessions in elite female players during a two-week training camp. On the first three days of both weeks, players completed a crossover design with one of three 60-min delayed post-exercise WI protocols or passive rest (PAS). Recovery interventions consisted of a period of 6-min cold-WI (10°C; CWI6) and two contrasting periods cold- and hot-WI (36°C): one session included 3 min cold + 2 min hot + 3 min cold and the other session 5 × 2 min with cold at the very end. Short-term measures of heart rate variability (HRV) were collected before and after handball training sessions, and after WI. Derived parasympathetic HRV indices collected daily showed lower values post-training compared to pre-training values (p < 0.0001, large ES). Individual handball training sessions revealed similar clear depression of the vagal tone throughout the training camp. The comparison between each WI protocol and PAS revealed significant time × condition interaction particularly for CWI6. All parasympathetic indices revealed higher post-recovery values in CWI6 than PAS (p < 0.001 –p < 0.0001, with large ES ranging from 0.86 to 0.94). Surprisingly, 60-min delayed post-training WI revealed for most of parasympathetic HRV indices higher values than pre-training. This study highlighted that post-exercise parasympathetic disruption was exacerbated in response to handball training, and the 60-min delayed WI recovery interventions improved parasympathetic reactivity. Cardiac vagal tone can be highly improved with CWI6 compared to PAS. For the purpose of HRV modulations, CWI6 is recommended for short-term recovery.
Highlights
Post-exercise recovery has been largely investigated in athletes including the water immersion (WI) modality as a simple and efficient method for restoring cardiovascular homeostasis
The data reported below were obtained for 16 players for CWI5×2 vs. PAS5×2, players for CWI323 vs. PAS323 and players for CWI6 vs. PAS6 after applying the exclusion criterion
The same trends were observed for CWI323 + PAS323 (p < 0.0001, moderate to large effect size (ES)) and CWI5×2 +
Summary
Post-exercise recovery has been largely investigated in athletes including the water immersion (WI) modality as a simple and efficient method for restoring cardiovascular homeostasis. Heart rate variability (HRV) is widely used to assess cardiac autonomic modulation and has become an indicator of overall recovery in teamsport athletes (Lukonaitienė et al, 2020; Stanley et al, 2013; Thorpe et al, 2017). The WI recovery modality is widely used during congestive training schedule (i.e., overload period) to minimize fatigue and improve recovery. When cold-WI is prescribed during longterm training periods, controversial effects have been reported (Broatch et al, 2018). While it increases the genetic expression of mitochondrial synthesis after endurance training, it may limit
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