Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato
Abstract
Content: The physiological effects of cyrotherapy include; decreased cell metabolism, vasoconstriction, decrease nerve conduction, decrease muscle spasms, and decrease tissue temperature. In immediate care of injuries, cryotherapy is used to prevent inflammation, stimulate delta-A nerve fibers to reduce pain, and slow cell metabolism, which will decrease secondary tissue death due to hypoxia. In competitive athletics some athletes and coaches believe that the use of cold water immersion will accelerate recovery and enhance subsequent performance. This accelerated recovery appears to be at odds with the known physiologic effects of cryotherapy.
Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not cold water immersion has an effect on the strength, power, or endurance of college-age male lacrosse athletes following an exhaustive exercise bout.
Design: Randomized controlled experimental design.
Subjects: Twelve male (mean age=19.9, SD =1.29) subjects from a University club LaCrosse team volunteered to participate in this study.
Setting: A university athletic training facility and equipment were used for data collection.
Results: Data collection is ongoing at this time; preliminary data via comparison of the means shows no difference in among the control and variable group subjects on objective measures. Subjectively all subjects in the experimental group reported feeling improvement in their post-test performance compared to their pre-test.
Conclusion: There was no difference between the control and variable groups on objective measures. Subjectively the subject‘s perception of improvement following cold water immersion could be due to the widespread belief in the use of cold immersion as a means of improving recovery
