Investigating Muscle Repair in Response to Icing Therapy Post Eccentric Muscle Damage Exercise

Wilfrid Laurier University45 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of our research is to investigate the effects of applying cold therapy, or "icing," to injured muscles in terms of strength recovery and muscle soreness amelioration following unaccustomed exercise.

The objective is to determine whether or not injured muscles that are subject to icing after eccentrically damaging exercise recover their strength quicker and/or have less muscle soreness than those that do not receive any icing treatment after damaging exercise and if any differences in effectiveness between two icing protocols exist. Baseline measures of peak torque of the dominant arm's elbow flexor muscles will be measured by concentric and isometric contractions prior to participants undergoing eccentric muscle damaging exercise. Participants will be randomly assigned into 3 different experimental groups of approximately 15 participants each. The first group will begin "Icing Protocol 1" at time 0 (or as close to). The second group will begin "Icing Protocol 2" six hours after their initial eccentric muscle damaging exercise. The remaining group will not receive any icing treatment; they are the control group. Participants will be brought back into the lab at specific post-exercise times (0h, 24h, 48h, 96h, and 7 days) to complete peak torque measures as they did with baseline measures prior to eccentric muscle damage. Measures of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) will also be taken at baseline and during scheduled follow up times for participants.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Muscle Damage

Interventions

Icing TherapyOTHER

Participants will be randomly assigned into 3 experimental groups. Icing Protocol 1 has participants apply cold packs under the supervision of the principal investigators to their elbow flexor region for 10 minutes on, 10 minutes off, followed by an additional 10 minutes on, starting at time 0. Icing Protocol 2 follows the same procedure but it begins 6 hours after the participant has completed their eccentric muscle damaging exercise and is to be done at home without the supervision of the principal investigators. Both protocols require the participants to repeat their icing procedures every 24 hours until their involvement with the study is finished, which is 7 days in duration. The third experimental group is the control group and will not participate in an icing therapy during the duration of the study.

the eccentric muscle damage exerciseOTHER

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 24 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Healthy students attending Wilfrid Laurier University with no previous history of upper body muscle damage and live in close proximity to the University so they can attend all lab sessions. Ideally they have not performed any upper body resistance training within the last 4 months. Exclusion Criteria: * Previous history of muscle, joint, or ligament injuries in the surrounding area of their dominant are elbow flexor region.