Cold or hot (or placebo?) for recovery in football players ⚽️

Which recovery strategy works best.

Cold- and hot-water immersion are not more effective than placebo for the recovery of physical performance and training adaptations in national level soccer players

Study Details

This new two part investigated the effects of either…

❄️ Cold water immersion (CWI: 10 °C, 10 min)

🌡️ Hot water immersion (HWI: 42 °C, 20 min)

🚨 Placebo (6 min, sham laser)

…in competitive football players.

1️⃣ In Part I, 40 players were randomised to an intervention which was applied after a 90 min simulated soccer match

…with physical performance assessed before and after (0, 21 and 45 hr) ⏰

2️⃣ For Part II, 19 participants applied their respective recovery modality (~ twice a week) in their usual training

After 15 weeks, physical performance and body composition were assessed and compared to pre-intervention 🩻

Here is what they found ⬇️

Key Findings

All three modalities similarly affected the recovery of physical performance during the 21-45 hr post-match period 🤷‍♂️

Moreover, no significant effects on body composition or physical performance were found over the 15 week recovery intervention ❌

Conclusion

In highly trained football players, CWI and HWI do not improve post-match recovery of physical performance or body composition vs placebo ❌

Either water immersion doesn’t offer benefits to football players, or they really like lasers 🔍

Would “technology” have a strong placebo effect and “less technological” water immersion have a strong effect in modern day athletes? 🤔

Reference

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40498100/

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