Cryostimulation for Post-exercise Recovery in Athletes: A Consensus and Position Paper

Abstract

Recovery after exercise is a crucial key in preventing muscle injuries and in speeding up the processes to return to homeostasis level. There are several ways of developing a recovery strategy with the use of different kinds of traditional and up-to-date techniques. The use of cold has traditionally been used after physical exercise for recovery purposes. In recent years, the use of whole-body cryotherapy/cryostimulation (WBC; an extreme cold stimulation lasting 1–4 min and given in a cold room at a temperature comprised from −60 to −195°C) has been tremendously increased for such purposes. However, there are controversies about the benefits that the use of this technique may provide. Therefore, the main objectives of this paper are to describe what is whole body cryotherapy/cryostimulation, review and debate the benefits that its use may provide, present practical considerations and applications, and emphasize the need of customization depending on the context, the purpose, and the subject's characteristics. This review is written by international experts from the working group on WBC from the International Institute of Refrigeration.

Angiostatic freeze or angiogenic move? Acute cold stress prevents angiokine secretion from murine myotubes but primes primary endothelial cells for greater migratory capacity

“…Altogether, results from our study and from other colleagues suggest that a direct and immediate effect of cold stress exposure on muscle and endothelial cells could rather be angiostatic whereas cold pre-conditioning might conversely enhance pro-angiogenic molecular and cellular responses once returned to warm conditions. Cold is already used as a post-exercise muscle recovering strategy to reduce local inflammation, to limit exercise-induced muscle damages and fatigue, and to restore performance ( Bouzigon et al, 2021 ; D’Souza et al, 2018 ; Hohenauer et al, 2018 ; Kwiecien and McHugh, 2021 ). Here, we suggest that cold could also be considered as a pre-exercise approach to “prime” the skeletal muscle tissue for greater exercise adaptive responses, particularly exercise-induced angiogenesis.…”

Editorial: Evidence to practice: Bridging the gap in environmental challenges (cold, heat, hypoxia) in sport and exercise: Acclimatization/acclimation, training, competitions, recovery, rehabilitation and therapeutic interventions

“…Cold exposure has also been used as therapy to reduce post-traumatic edema and inflammation, and to facilitate post-exercise recovery ( 5 ). However, whether frequent whole-body cryotherapy interferes with long-term adaptations to concurrent training remains debated.…”

The Effect of Repetitive Whole Body Cryotherapy Treatment on Adaptations to a Strength and Endurance Training Programme in Physically Active Males

“…Based on the findings of the aforementioned studies, it is plausible that repetitive cryotherapy treatments hinder resistance training adaptations more than endurance adaptations, a view supported by recent reviews (Bouzigon et al, 2021;Ihsan et al, 2021;Petersen and Fyfe, 2021). Physiological characteristics of resistance adaptations include increased motor unit recruitment, myofibril cross sectional area and increased number of sarcomeres (Schoenfeld, 2010;Del Vecchio et al, 2019).…”