Muscle regeneration is enhanced by hot (but not cold) water immersion 🌡️
Contrary to commonly held beliefs.
Muscle regeneration is improved by hot water immersion but unchanged by cold following a simulated musculoskeletal injury in humans
Study Details
This new study investigated the effects of three different thermal treatments…
❄️ Cold water immersion (CWI 15 min at 12°C)
➖ Thermoneutral (TWI, 30 min at 32°C)
🌡️ Hot water immersion (HWI, 60 min at 42°C)
…daily for 10-days after a significant muscle damage protocol 💥
Here is what they found ⬇️
Key Findings
Hot water immersion led to significant reductions in …
💥 Muscle pain (vs TWI)
🩸 Creatine kinase & myoglobin (vs TWI & CWI)
Cold water immersion did not improve perceived muscle pain or reduce circulating markers of muscle damage 🧊❌
Hot water immersion also led to greater expression of heat shock proteins 🧬
…which were blunted in CWI‼️
📈 Nuclear factor-κB expression (an indicator of muscle wasting) significantly increased in all conditions except HWI
🧬 Plus interleukin-10 (a promoter of muscle repair) was up regulated in HWI only
❌ None of the water immersions differed in recovery of force-generating capacity
Conclusion
Contrary to commonly held beliefs, hot water immersion/exposure appears more beneficial than cold water immersion/exposure in improving muscle regeneration after a muscle injury 🌡️✅
Heat appears to have significant benefits for both performance and recovery 🥵
Reference
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40437768/
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