Cycling time to failure is better maintained by cold than contrast or thermoneutral lower-body water immersion in normothermia

Abstract

A 30 min period of C15 was more beneficial in maintaining intense submaximal cycling performance than CT, T34 and AR; and CT was also more beneficial than T34 and AR. These effects were not mediated by the effect of water immersion per se, but by the continuous (C15) or intermittent (CT) temperature stimulus (cold) applied throughout the recovery.

Postexercise cold-water immersion improves intermittent high-intensity exercise performance in normothermia

“…The ergogenic effects observed in the present study are in agreement with previous studies reporting significant benefits on sustained intense endurance exercise performance immediately following a relatively short CWI period compared with passive and/or active rest in normothermia (Heyman et al 2009;Crampton et al 2013;Dunne et al 2013) and hyperthermia (Yeargin et al 2006;Peiffer et al 2010); but provide new evidence showing that a 5 to 10 min CWI intervention within a 15 min recovery period applicable to half-time intervals in normothermic lab conditions increases subsequent highintensity intermittent exercise performance compared with passive rest.…”

“…Importantly, the magnitude of the afterdrop effect, relative to the end-point of the 15 min recovery period, was identical in both CWI interventions, and during the intermittent high-intensity exercise protocol in Ex2, T core was ~0.5°C lower following both CWI trials compared with the passive trial. These afterdrop effects are consistent with previous similar studies (Crampton et al 2013;Dunne et al 2013). The drop in T core in the present study was accompanied by reductions in HR during the 12-min constant-load bouts, possibly due to a decrease in thermoregulatory strain (Parkin et al 1999;Marino 2002).…”

“…While it is possible that the performance benefits observed following cold water immersions could be induced by the hydrostatic pressure during water immersion, it is likely that this would have a minimal influence given that the time sustained during high-intensity exercise has been shown to be significantly shorter immediately after a post-exercise warm water immersion (34°C) compared with cold water immersion (15°C) in similar normothermic conditions to the present study (Crampton et al 2013). Given that water immersion during recovery is generally passive, in the present study we used a passive control condition.…”

“…Interestingly, a recent study aiming to avoid excessive muscle cooling by maintaining core temperature (T core ) via upper body exercise during lower-body CWI observed an augmented all-out cycling sprint capacity in subsequent sprinting bouts compared with lower-body CWI without upper body exercise (Crampton et al 2014); but despite the improvement, active recovery was still superior in maintaining sprint performance compared with both passive and active CWI protocols. On the other hand, high-intensity sustained submaximal endurance exercise appears to be enhanced when performed shortly after CWI compared with passive and/or active recovery in normothermia (Heyman et al 2009;Crampton et al 2013;Dunne et al 2013) and hyperthermia (Yeargin et al 2006;Peiffer et al 2010). This has been proposed to be mediated by an D r a f t increase in heat storage capacity (Kay et al 1999;Marsh and Sleivert 1999), an increase in venous return induced by the hydrostatic pressure or cold stimulus of water (Wilcock et al 2006) and/or reactivation of cardiac parasympathetic activity (Stanley et al 2012).…”

“…As a measure of performance we used an exhaustive exercise protocol which consisted of alternating 30-s of high-intensity with 30-s of low-intensity exercise to reflect the intermittent high-intensity efforts of team sport match play. Due to the effect of cold water immersion on tissue and core temperature and the suggestion that benefits of cold water immersion on concentric non-damaging submaximal exercise are derived via effects on cardiovascular function and/or perception of effort (Peiffer et al 2010;Crampton et al 2013;Dunne et al 2013), to explore the mechanistic basis of any CWIinduced effects on subsequent performance (i.e. time to failure and total work done), T core , heart rate (HR) and rates of perceived exertion throughout the entire exercise protocols were assessed.…”