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

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.

Throwing cold water on muscle growth: A systematic review with meta‐analysis of the effects of postexercise cold water immersion on resistance training‐induced hypertrophy

“…All studies included young adults (aged 20–26 years) of which 7 studies included only male participants (Fyfe et al., 2019; Horgan et al., 2023; Ohnishi et al., 2004; Roberts et al., 2015; Wilson et al., 2021; Yamane et al., 2006; Yamane et al., 2015) and 1 study included both male and female participants (Poppendieck et al., 2021). Four studies examined resistance‐trained participants (Horgan et al., 2023; Poppendieck et al., 2021; Roberts et al., 2015; Wilson et al., 2021) and the others employed untrained participants (Fyfe et al., 2019; Ohnishi et al., 2004; Yamane et al., 2006; Yamane et al., 2015). Six studies incorporated a parallel group design (Fyfe et al., 2019; Ohnishi et al., 2004; Roberts et al., 2015; Wilson et al., 2021; Yamane et al., 2006; Yamane et al., 2015), and the other two employed a within‐subject crossover design (Horgan et al., 2023; Poppendieck et al., 2021).…”

“…Three studies reported that training was directly supervised (Horgan et al., 2023; Poppendieck et al., 2021; Roberts et al., 2015), while the other 5 did not report whether training was supervised or unsupervised (Fyfe et al., 2019; Ohnishi et al., 2004; Wilson et al., 2021; Yamane et al., 2006; Yamane et al., 2015). Three studies exposed only upper limbs to CWI (Ohnishi et al., 2004; Yamane et al., 2006; Yamane et al., 2015), 2 studies exposed only lower limbs to CWI (Roberts et al., 2015; Wilson et al., 2021), and 3 studies exposed participants to full‐body CWI (Fyfe et al., 2019; Horgan et al., 2023; Poppendieck et al., 2021). Three studies applied CWI for 10 min (Poppendieck et al., 2021; Roberts et al., 2015; Wilson et al., 2021), 2 studies applied CWI for 15 min (Fyfe et al., 2019; Horgan et al., 2023), and 3 applied CWI for 20 min (Ohnishi et al., 2004; Yamane et al., 2006; Yamane et al., 2015).…”

“…CWI was administered 3 min post‐RT in 2 studies (Yamane et al., 2006; Yamane et al., 2015), 5 min post‐RT in 2 studies (Fyfe et al., 2019; Roberts et al., 2015), and 15 min post‐RT in 2 studies (Horgan et al., 2023; Wilson et al., 2021), while 2 studies only specified that CWI followed the last set of exercise (Ohnishi et al., 2004) and immediately followed each training session (Poppendieck et al., 2021). Three studies reported total lean body mass via DXA (Fyfe et al., 2019; Horgan et al., 2023; Wilson et al., 2021) with only 1 reporting distinct upper body and lower body measurements (Fyfe et al., 2019). For site‐specific measures of hypertrophy, 2 studies used biopsy of the vastus lateralis to analyze type I and type II muscle fibers (Fyfe et al., 2019; Roberts et al., 2015), 1 study used US of the vastus medialis (Poppendieck et al., 2021), 1 study measured leg circumference (Poppendieck et al., 2021), 1 study used MRI of the quadriceps (Roberts et al., 2015), 1 study used US of the forearm (Yamane et al., 2006), 1 study used US for wrist flexors (Yamane et al., 2015), and 2 studies measured forearm circumference (Ohnishi et al., 2004; Yamane et al., 2015).…”

“…The duration of the included studies ranged from 4 to 12 weeks. All studies included young adults (aged 20–26 years) of which 7 studies included only male participants (Fyfe et al., 2019; Horgan et al., 2023; Ohnishi et al., 2004; Roberts et al., 2015; Wilson et al., 2021; Yamane et al., 2006; Yamane et al., 2015) and 1 study included both male and female participants (Poppendieck et al., 2021). Four studies examined resistance‐trained participants (Horgan et al., 2023; Poppendieck et al., 2021; Roberts et al., 2015; Wilson et al., 2021) and the others employed untrained participants (Fyfe et al., 2019; Ohnishi et al., 2004; Yamane et al., 2006; Yamane et al., 2015).…”

“…Full model details, including prior distributions for all meta-analyses, are presented in the supplementary file tables (S1) with summary descriptions presented in text. studies (Fyfe et al, 2019;Ohnishi et al, 2004;Roberts et al, 2015;Wilson et al, 2021;Yamane et al, 2006;Yamane et al, 2015), 15 o C for 1 of the studies (Horgan et al, 2023), and between 14 and 15 o C for the last (Poppendieck et al, 2021). CWI was administered 3 min post-RT in 2 studies (Yamane et al, 2006;Yamane et al, 2015), 5 min post-RT in 2 studies (Fyfe et al, 2019;Roberts et al, 2015), and 15 min post-RT in 2 studies (Horgan et al, 2023;Wilson et al, 2021), while 2 studies only specified that CWI followed the last set of exercise (Ohnishi et al, 2004) and immediately followed each training session (Poppendieck et al, 2021).…”