The habit of famous athletes to immerse yourself in the ice is known how cryotherapya practice universally used in sport, which exploits the exposure of the human body a low temperatures to get benefits in terms of performance, such as Promote recovery or heal the pains due to training. It can be performed by exploiting different techniques: cryotherapy rooms for an exhibition of the entire body, ice compresses or bathrooms in very cold waters. Scientific research deepened the effect benefits of this practice, distinguishing them on the basis of short and long term recovery and the type of sport practiced, also finding some contradictions.
What is the cryotherapy in sport for and how it works
Intense training can cause Significant physiological disturbances and different. For example, it increases the temperature corporeal, i muscles suffer damage, they are lost liquids through sweating and energy reserves they run out. If all this system is not adequately restored before the subsequent sessions, the performance they will suffer to lead to serious consequences such as the surcharge.
That’s why the recovery plays such a crucial role. This can be generally divided into two categories: that acute oa short -term – which concerns the first hour after exercise – and that long -term – which affects, however, the days following physical effort. Here the cryotherapy comes into play which, as anticipated, has the purpose of accelerate the recovery process.
Short -term recovery with cryotherapy: benefits and contraindications
Let us now dwell on immediate effects, so those who could accelerate acute recovery.
The first and perhaps more considerable effect concerns the central nervous system. During prolonged exercise, especially in conditions of intense heat, the body temperature tends to get up and, as a consequence, the brain begins to limit the ability to activate muscle to protect the body from overheating. In this case, the cryotherapymanages to quickly cool the body, allowing the nervous system to recover its full functionality. It is also interesting what happens at the level of thebrain. It would seem, in fact, that practices related to exposure to low temperatures can change the electro-deceptive index αβwhich during the exercise in hyperthermia conditions tends to increase, leading to a decrease in the state of alert. The cooling would therefore seem to reverse this trend by improving the perception of effort.
The second benefit on short recovery concerns the cardiovascular apparatus. During training, the heart must work more because the blood is diverted outwards in order to encourage the heat dispersionreducing the bloodstream available for the muscles that work. Cryotherapy causes one vasoconstriction skin rapid that brings the blood towards central circulation, improving muscle oxygenation e reduce Cardiovascular stress. This translates into one decrease of heart rate, both during rest and during any subsequent exercise.
The third product of this practice concerns the Removal of muscle metabolites And it is probably the most controversial. Some theories argue that induced hypothermia, especially thanks to vasoconstriction, facilitates the elimination of metabolic waste (like lactate) from the muscles, favoring recovery. However, there is no evidence that cryostimulation can improve the total liberation of the blood lactate. Indeed, on the contrary, in some cases it would even seem to slow it down, without however affecting performance.
The fourth aspect concerns the autonomous nervous system. Cold therapy tends to stimulate the activation of the parasimpatic system which should theoretically encourage recovery. This could be counterproductive, however, if an exercise should be faced high intensity immediately after or shortly after the treatment.
Criotherapy and long -term recovery: pros and cons
Otherwise, in the case of long -term recovery (therefore advantages in the hours and in the following days) the discourse is complicated and the scientific tests remain limited so far.
The regular use of cryotherapy would seem to have, first of all, beneficial effects on the variability of the heart ratean important indicator of the athlete’s recovery status. Studies that followed athletes for intense training periods have shown that those who used to practice this therapy were able to maintain intensity higher training and showed indicators better physiological.
The second point in question concerns the Summary of glycogenor the restoration of muscle energy reserves. Here the results of the research are misunderstood: some do not underline any effect, while others suggest that too prolonged or intense cooling could even compromise the process.
Certainly the most interesting theme concerns the muscle damage induced by the exercise (DOMS). In fact, the vasoconstriction due to exposure to the cold reduces muscle edema, hydrostatic pressure (in the case of immersion in water) facilitates the drainage of fluids and the reduced tissue temperature relieves inflammatory processes. In addition, the cold has a analgesic effect direct that can improve perception subjective recovery. However, the effectiveness in this case depends strongly on type of exercise which caused muscle damage. In particular, a limited influence of cryotherapy was found in the case of damage induced by Eccentric monoarticular contractions (like many exercises in the weight room) and a greater impact in the case of operating methods intermittent/prolonged resistance on the whole body (typical of team sports).
It becomes crucial, therefore, better understand the scientific evidence at the basis of cryotherapy and customize the programs on the basis of the sport practiced and the characteristics of the athlete.
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