Recovery is a critical process for performance improvement. Accelerating the recovery processes allows us to increase the training load in subsequent sessions, thus facilitating greater adaptations. In addition, shorter recovery times will allow us to increase the frequency of training, which is especially important in some sports such as triathlon, in which several sessions are usually carried out in the same day. For this reason, athletes use a multitude of strategies to improve their recovery, from nutritional strategies such as taking supplements (e.g. post-workout protein shake) to physical strategies, such as active recovery (low-intensity exercise after training) or the application of other methods such as massage, compression stockings or electro-stimulation.
Benefits of post-exercise cold application
Cold immersion (more commonly known as ice baths) is one of the most popular recovery methods among athletes after a match or intense training. This method is used under the hypothesis that the application of cold decreases the perception of pain by reducing nerve-conduction velocity, also reducing blood flow and thus limiting the production of inflammation and edema. However, is it an effective strategy to facilitate recovery?
To answer this question, a meta-analysis (Leeder, Gissane, van Someren, Gregson, & Howatson, 2012) published in the prestigious British Journal of Sports Medicine that included 14 different studies showed that the application of post-exercise cold had a significant effect on the reduction of muscle soreness and on blood levels of creatine kinase (a marker of muscle damage associated with delayed-onset muscle soreness). In addition, a trend towards a better recovery of muscle function was observed, although not with as much evidence as in the other variables. Therefore, it seems that applying post-exercise cold may be an effective strategy for relieving fatigue and muscle soreness in the short term.
Points against the application of post-exercise cold
However, inflammation is a necessary process for training adaptations to occur. After an exercise session, to a greater or lesser extent, there will be stress for the body that will cause a series of processes at the cellular level that improve our abilities (e.g., muscle hypertrophy, increase in the number of mitochondria, etc.). Thus, by blocking inflammation with the application of cold, we may be slowing down these adaptation mechanisms (McPhee & Lightfoot, 2017).
In fact, recent studies have shown some long-term side effects of using cold as a recovery method. For example, a study published in the Journal of Physiology (Roberts et al., 2015) looked at athletes who strength trained for 12 weeks, performing active recovery (10 minutes of gentle pedaling) or cold water immersion (10 minutes at 10 degrees Celsius) after each session. The results showed a 3-fold lower gain in muscle mass when the subjects recovered with the application of cold. In addition, the group that actively recovered gained almost twice as much strength as the group that recovered with cold water immersion. On the other hand, the authors also determined the physiological mechanisms that explained these effects of cold recovery. To do this, they analyzed the acute anabolic and myogenic response (i.e., adaptation of muscle fibers) to a single strength training session when recovering actively or with cold water, finding that both were decreased in the case of cold application.
Conclusions
In conclusion, the application of cold (e.g. local application of ice or cold baths) may be recommended to accelerate recovery between sessions when the objective is to avoid muscle pain and decreased performance regardless of the adaptations produced by that session, such as to recover between matches of a tournament or after each day of a stage race. However, this strategy appears to block muscle adaptation signals to exercise, thereby reducing long-term strength and muscle mass gains. Therefore, it would not be advisable to include it in a general way in the planning if our objective is to improve performance. These results show the importance of the stress generated by exercise (inflammation, production of free radicals, etc.) for adaptations to occur, while strategies that reduce this stress (e.g., cold application, anti-inflammatory drugs or antioxidant supplementation) may also reduce the resulting gains. This time, the traditional saying "no pain, no gain" is true.
REFERENCES
- Leeder, J., Gissane, C., van Someren, K., Gregson, W., & Howatson, G. (2012). Cold water immersion and recovery from strenuous exercise: a meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 46(4), 233–240. //doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2011-090061
- McPhee, J. S., & Lightfoot, A. P. (2017). Post-exercise recovery regimes: blowing hot and cold. Journal of Physiology, 595(3), 627–628. //doi.org/10.1113/JP273503
- Roberts, L. A., Raastad, T., Markworth, J. F., Figueiredo, V. C., Egner, I. M., Shield, A., … Peake, J. M. (2015). Post-exercise cold water immersion attenuates acute anabolic signalling and long-term adaptations in muscle to strength training. The Journal of Physiology, 593(18), 4285–4301. //doi.org/10.1113/JP270570
AUTHOR
Pedro Valenzuela
Researcher in the Physiology Unit of the University of Alcalá and in the Performance Control Unit at the Sports Medicine Center (AEPSAD, CAR of Madrid).
Web: www.fissac.com
