Cooling makes recovery of muscle faster after eccentric-concentric than concentric exercise

Saulė Sipavičienė, Albertas Skurvydas, Irina Ramanauskienė¹, Žibuoklė Senikienė², Audronė Dumčienė

Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education, ¹Kaunas University of Technology, ²Kaunas University of Medicine, Lithuania

Key words: skeletal muscle; recovery; cooling.

Summary. The aim of the study was to establish the influence of muscle cooling on muscle recovery after concentric and eccentric-concentric exercise. Healthy untrained males (n=40) took part in this study. During the first experiment, subjects performed concentric and during the second – eccentric-concentric exercise. During both experiments, the subjects were divided into the groups. In the first group, the muscles of the lower limbs were cooled down after the physical load, while the muscles of the subjects of the second group were not cooled. The rectal, skin, and muscle temperature was repeatedly measured immediately after physical load and after cooling of the muscle. Before exercise and after 2 min and 4, 8, 24, 48, 72 hours after performing exercise, quadriceps muscle strength, generated by electrical stimulation at frequencies of 20 Hz and 50 Hz, and maximal voluntary contraction force were registered. Serum creatine kinase levels were measured before and 24 hours after exercise. In addition, the subjects subjectively rated their muscle pain on a 10-point scale 24, 48, 72 hours after exercise. The results show that cooling applied to muscles after concentric and eccentric-concentric exercise affected the indicators of muscle damage – the activity of creatine kinase was decreased and muscle strength recovered faster. The cooling effect is greater when it is applied after eccentric-concentric exercise.

Correspondence to S. Sipavičienė, Department of Applied Physiology and Sports Medicine, Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education, Sporto 6, 44221 Kaunas, Lithuania. E-mail: s.sipaviciene@lkka.lt

Received 12 December 2007, accepted 12 March 2008