Canterbury University. New-Zealand: After monitoring recovery interventions in the Crusaders Super 15
rugby camp last year, University of Canterbury scientists want to
investigate if immediate post-exercise cold water immersion is the main
contributing recovery factor.
Biological sciences researcher Associate Professor Steven Gieseg, PhD
student Angus Lindsay and summer school student Sam Carr are observing
the level of muscle damage and inflammation in fighters following mixed
martial arts fights.
They selected the full-contact combat sport that allows striking and
grappling because of its increasing popularity and physicality that
compares to, and if not overshadows, the level of trauma associated with
rugby.
The University of Canterbury researchers will examine people’s
recovery after fights at the Strikeforce Canterbury Fight Gym in
Christchurch, developing a new, cost-effective and simple analytical
technique that provides muscle quantity in a clinically relevant range
similar to that most likely observed in trauma victims.
“Following each of the contests, half the fighters will commence a
recovery protocol that requires them to submerge themselves in a cold
bath following the fight, and on the two mornings following, while the
other group will not,” Lindsay says.
“We hope to show that the group that completes the cold water
immersion will have significantly reduced levels of inflammation and
muscle damage that will reduce recovery time and allow for the
resumption of normal training sooner, and without compromising
performance.
“Overall, this type of research should clarify the effectiveness of
cold water immersion following exercise that induces significant
physical trauma. Importance of recovery interventions is to ultimately
decrease recovery time following intense exercise to allow for the
resumption of normal training and optimise performance and results.
“It’s about preventing non-functional over-reaching and over-training
syndrome which can cause under-performance. Research literature
identifies several key recovery protocols that have been shown to
increase performance in comparison to others, however the evidence
presented remains equivocal.
“These include cold water immersion, contrast water therapy, sleep,
massage, active recovery, stretching and nutrition. Most research uses a
carefully controlled design, however we observed the effect of real
world data on recovery protocol effectiveness in professional rugby.
“Rugby players consumed protein and carbohydrates, wore compression
garments, completed a cold water immersion and had eight hours sleep
following each game. The intervention occurred the following day to
identify whether the day after protocols had any effect on physiological
biochemical markers,” Lindsay says.
More than 720 students studied biological sciences at Canterbury last year, including 120 postgraduates.