The Acute and Longer-Term Effects of Cold Water Immersion in Highly-Trained Volleyball Athletes During an Intense Training Block.

Francisco Tavares,Tiaki Brett Smith,Matthew Driller,Mário Simões,Bruno Matos

doi:10.3389/fspor.2020.568420

Francisco Tavares, Tiaki Brett Smith + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2020.568420

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Abstract

Background: The use of cold water immersion (CWI) as a recovery strategy following exercise has drawn mixed findings over the last few decades. The purpose of the current study was two-fold; (1) to determine the acute effects of CWI within the training week, and (2) to investigate the longer-term effects of CWI over a 16-day period.Methods: In a randomized, controlled trial, 13 national-level volleyball athletes were allocated to two groups, an experimental (CWI, n = 7) and a control group (n = 6) during a 3-week national training camp. The experimental group were exposed to a CWI protocol after the last training session of each day (12 CWI sessions). Measures of lower (countermovement jump and squat jump height) and upper-body (medicine ball throw distance) power were collected pre- and post-training camp. Perceptual and neuromuscular performance measures (countermovement jump) were obtained during the training camp.Results: No significant differences between groups were observed for any measure (p > 0.05), however, small effect sizes were observed between experimental and control groups on day two of weeks one and two. Three weeks of training resulted in a significant decrease in countermovement jump height in the control group. A moderate effect size (d = 0.65) was found for countermovement jump performance between the experimental and control groups.Conclusion: Cold water immersion seems to provide little benefit to recovery in the acute setting (within the training week), however, chronically, there was a trend toward a benefit when implementing cold water immersion in well-trained volleyball athletes over 16 days.

Highlights

Muscle damage resulting from exercise has been shown to be related to a decrease in performance (Jamurtas et al, 2005)
No differences were observed between groups for any time point (p = 0.237 to p = 0.812), small effect sizes were observed between cold water immersion (CWI) and control (d = 0.52) on day two of weeks one and two, favoring CWI
Perceptual fatigue scores were significantly lower in comparison to baseline in the control group on day five of each week and for the CWI group on day five of week one (p = 0.004 to p = 0.041)

Summary

Introduction

Muscle damage resulting from exercise has been shown to be related to a decrease in performance (Jamurtas et al, 2005). The most commonly investigated acute outcome of exerciseinduced muscle damage (EIMD) is reductions in strength and power (Jamurtas et al, 2005). Athletes often generate intensive eccentric and concentric activities such as jumps and locomotive actions (i.e., acceleration and deceleration) (Polglaze and Dawson, 1992). An athlete performs up to 145 jumps per game (Polglaze and Dawson, 1992). The high values of muscle damage and consequent muscle soreness expected from volleyball competition (and training), will likely generate acute fatigue, resulting in temporary performance decreases (Freitas et al, 2017). The purpose of the current study was two-fold; (1) to determine the acute effects of CWI within the training week, and (2) to investigate the longer-term effects of CWI over a 16-day period

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