Abstract
Purpose:
Following resistance exercise, uncertainty exists as to whether the regular application of cold water immersion attenuates lean muscle mass increases in athletes. The effects of repeated post-resistance exercise cold versus hot water immersion on body composition and neuromuscular jump performance responses in athletes were investigated.
Methods:
Male, academy Super Rugby players (n = 18, 19.9 ± 1.5 y, 1.85 ± 0.06 m, 98.3 ± 10.7 kg) participated in a 12-week (4-week × 3-intervention, i.e., control [CON], cold [CWI] or hot [HWI] water immersion) resistance exercise programme, utilising a randomised cross-over pre–post-design. Body composition measures were collected using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry prior to commencement and every fourth week thereafter. Neuromuscular squat (SJ) and counter-movement jump (CMJ) performance were measured weekly. Linear mixed-effects models were used to analyse main (treatment, time) and interaction effects.
Results:
There were no changes in lean (p = 0.960) nor fat mass (p = 0.801) between interventions. CON (p = 0.004) and CWI (p = 0.003) increased (g = 0.08–0.19) SJ height, compared to HWI. There were no changes in CMJ height (p = 0.482) between interventions.
Conclusion:
Repeated post-resistance exercise whole-body CWI or HWI does not attenuate (nor promote) increases in lean muscle mass in athletes. Post-resistance exercise CON or CWI results in trivial increases in SJ height, compared to HWI. During an in-season competition phase, our data support the continued use of post-resistance exercise whole-body CWI by athletes as a recovery strategy which does not attenuate body composition increases in lean muscle mass, while promoting trivial increases in neuromuscular concentric-only squat jump performance.
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
2023
Publication Title
European Journal of Applied Physiology
Publisher
Springer
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences / Centre for Human Performance
RAS ID
54167
Funders
Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) High Performance Sport Research Funds (HPSRF)
Deakin University
Griffith University
Edith Cowan University
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Horgan, B. G., Halson, S. L., Drinkwater, E. J., West, N. P., Tee, N., Alcock, R. D., ... & Haff, G. G. (2023). No effect of repeated post-resistance exercise cold or hot water immersion on in-season body composition and performance responses in academy rugby players: A randomised controlled cross-over design. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 123, 351-359.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-022-05075-2