Comparison of Swim Recovery and Muscle Stimulation on Lactate Removal After Sprint Swimming

Abstract

Competitive swimming requires multiple bouts of high-intensity exercise, leading to elevated blood lactate. Active exercise recovery has been shown to lower lactate faster than passive resting recovery but may not always be practical. An alternative treatment, electrical muscle stimulation, may have benefits similar to active recovery in lowering blood lactate but to date is unstudied. Therefore, this study compared submaximal swimming and electrical muscle stimulation in reducing blood lactate after sprint swimming. Thirty competitive swimmers (19 men and 11 women) participated in the study. Each subject completed 3 testing sessions consisting of a warm-up swim, a 200-yard maximal frontcrawl sprint, and 1 of 3 20-minute recovery treatments administered in random order. The recovery treatments consisted of a passive resting recovery, a submaximal swimming recovery, or electrical muscle stimulation. Blood lactate was tested at baseline, after the 200-yard sprint, and after 10 and 20 minutes of recovery. A significant interaction (p < 0.05) between recovery treatment and recovery time was observed. Blood lactate levels for the swimming recovery were significantly lower at 10 minutes (3.50 +/- 1.57 mmol.L-1) and 20 minutes (1.60 +/- 0.57 mmol.L-1) of recovery than either of the other 2 treatments. Electrical muscle stimulation led to a lower mean blood lactate (3.12 +/- 1.41 mmol.L-1) after 20 minutes of recovery compared with passive rest (4.11 +/- 1.35 mmol.L-1). Submaximal swimming proved to be most effective at lowering blood lactate, but electrical muscle stimulation also reduced blood lactate 20 minutes postexercise significantly better than resting passive recovery. Electrical muscle stimulation shows promise as an alternate recovery treatment for the purpose of lowering blood lactate.

The Effect of Electrical Stimulation on Blood Lactate after Anaerobic Muscle Fatigue Induced in Taekwondo Athletes

“…An alternative treatment, ES, may have benefits similar to those of active recovery in lowering the blood lactate, but it has not yet been studied [14][15]18) . The lactic acid concentration in the blood was more significantly decreased in the ES group than in the static resting group in this study.…”

“…Jang 17) reported that the lactate changed more significantly in the TENS group than in the resting group after anaerobic exercise. Neric et al 14) reported that after swimming-induced muscle fatigue, EMS (TENS) led to a lower mean blood lactate level (3.12 +/-1.41 mmol.L-1) after 20 min of recovery than with passive rest (4.11 +/-1.35 mmol.L-1). Blood lactate levels in submaximal swimming recovery were significantly poorer, however, at 10 min (3.506 +/-1.57 mmol.L-1) and 20 min (1.6060 +/-57 mmolL-1) after recovery without EMS.…”

“…Blood lactate levels in submaximal swimming recovery were significantly poorer, however, at 10 min (3.506 +/-1.57 mmol.L-1) and 20 min (1.6060 +/-57 mmolL-1) after recovery without EMS. Neric et al 14) reached the conclusion that EMS shows promise as an alternate recovery treatment for lowering blood lactate. It is likely that the electrical stimulation that was applied to acupoint in the study of So et al 18) had at least a heat effect rather than causing visible contraction of the muscle.…”

“…Some studies have reported a significant effect of electrical stimulation on muscle fatigue recovery [14][15][16][17][18] . There are limited objective data, however, on quantitative analysis of changes in the blood lactate [14][15]18) . Interferential current stimulation (ICS), one of the electrical muscle stimulation methods, is commonly used in pain control, as is Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS).…”

Effects of intermittent pneumatic compression vs. neuromuscular electrical stimulation on recovery following anaerobic exercise in male basketball players

“…NMES involves a series of stimuli, delivered superficially using electrodes placed on the skin. It has been suggested that sub-tetanic NMES could be effective for enhancing sports recovery owing to its analgesic effects on muscle soreness [23], and its role on post exercise muscle metabolite removal, secondary to increased blood flow and lymphatic drainage to the stimulated area [24]. Low frequency electrical stimulation is the commonly used mode for the recovery process because it induces light muscle contraction responsible for muscle pump effect & therefore enhanced muscle blood flow.…”