The effects of postexercise cooling on muscle performance and soreness perception

It is common practice for athletes to treat their aches and pain after training with cold-water immersion. The purpose of this study is to determine if cold-water immersion affects an athlete’s postexercise recovery on muscle performance or pain perception. Twenty-two subjects were assessed on measures of pain and muscle performance tests and then randomly assigned to a cryotherapy or control group after performing plyometric exercises. Cryotherapy resulted in substantially less perception of pain 24 hr postexercise compared with the control, however, muscle performance was not substantially effected. Our results demonstrate that cryotherapy may be beneficial for reducing postexercise pain perception.