According to one definition, recovery is the time from finishing an activity to returning the body and mind to their normal state before training or competition, as quickly as possible. Recovery methods include physical treatments (like cryotherapy), medications, and planned nutrition.
A systematic review was done to explore the effects of Whole Body Cryotherapy on recovery after exercise in healthy, active people. Out of 16 analyzed studies, ten showed the effects of cryotherapy in lab settings, while six looked at its effects after training.
The findings show that muscular soreness was reduced in 80% of the participants. Two trials showed gains in athletic performance, and 71% of participants improved on several measured criteria.
Essentially, systemic inflammation, pain, inflammatory markers, and muscle injury markers were decreased. However, the procedure for cold exposure, temperature values, duration, and frequency of exposure are still being debated, with no conclusion being reached till now.
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Pain, stiffness, and muscle weakness that stay 5–7 days by the athletes after doing the intense exercise are the most common symptoms. It is very likely that muscle strength can affect athletes in these cases, especially during a difficult training session or several days of competition.
Lindsey et al. (2003) reported cardiovagal modulation of the heart as a result of acute whole-body vibration. This modulation probably plays a significant role in the typical improvement of the autonomic nervous system function with increasing resistance.
Symptoms include muscle injury, inflammation, and delayed onset muscular soreness or DOMS. This is because of the prolonged, intense exercise, which results in damaged muscle fibers. There are different approaches to healing, so the recovery time frame can fluctuate, but cryotherapy has shown to be the most effective treatment to heal faster.
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Whole body cryotherapy has become popular among athletes since it was first introduced as the best remedy to chronic inflammatory diseases. This may seem too harsh; in fact, temps as low as −110°C to −190°C are applied for 2 to 5 minutes.
Initially, cold water immersion had been used with temperatures as low as −15°C, but this way is more manageable for most people; it takes less time to finish than cold-water immersion does (11 to 20 minutes for immersion vs. a few minutes for cryotherapy).
Cryotherapy has been the beneficiary of studies that indicate to it as a healer of the reduced expression of the enzyme creatine kinase (CK) and the hormone cortisol. It`s also a possibility that the practice can suppress the post-exercise inflammatory response of the cytokines produced and guarantee quicker recovery.
They were the most effective with the one time a day 3 minutes with the ice bag used from the time the exercise had ended up to the third day and the average temperature was −140°C. In conclusion, more comprehensive research is needed to better understand the effects of cryotherapy.
Reference : Whole-body Cryotherapy as a Recovery Technique after Exercise: A Review of the Literature
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