The Effect of a Periodized Contrast Water Therapy Protocol on Muscle Recovery Following a Bout of High Volume Resistance Training: Pilot Study

Contrast water therapy (CWT) has become a common post exercise recovery strategy among athletes to alleviate the delayed onset of muscle soreness and promote recovery. During CWT athletes alternate between cold and hot water immersion after a strenuous exercise bout. CWT can induce rapid changes intra-muscular hydrostatic pressure, which may alter blood flow in immersed musculature and improve the removal of metabolic waste products. However, a number of authors have concluded that further investigation of CWT is required to discover the optimal cold:hot ratio, temperature, duration and frequency practice (Vaile et al., 2008). The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of a periodized CWT approach, whereby the ratio of cold:hot water exposure was modified between sessions by systematically increasing hot and decreasing cold exposure durations.