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Cold Water Recovery Essay

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Recovery after exercise is crucial, whether it may be competitive athletics or amateur sports. The way in which a person recovers can affect how a person feels by reducing the negative post-exercise effects such as muscle soreness/stiffness and general muscle fatigue. Cold water immersion will be the first recovery modality reviewed. This method seems to be the most widely used recovery tool within athletics. A review of other recovery methods such as contrast water immersion stretching, self-myofascial release, and massage will be completed to show as comparison to cold water immersion.
The participation of Cold Water Immersion after a taxing training session or competition seems to be ritualistic in athletics. Cold water …show more content…

Stretching, post exercise, is also a recovery technique used to combat the detrimental effects of exercise. According the study conducted by Beckett, Schneiker, Wallman, Dawson, and Guelfi (2009), a static stretching regimen of the lower extremity prime movers resulted in slower sprint times for test participants. Results also revealed that stretching had detrimental effects on the repeated sprint ability test. This study suggested that static stretching did not have a significant impact on athletic performance or post activity recovery. Participants who performed static stretching during their recovery period all recorded slower sprint and repeated sprint test times. Conversely, Ray, Lago-Peñas, Casáis, and Lago-Ballesteros (2012), studied the effects of stretching (passive recovery) twenty-four hours post exercise, on subsequent testing for professional soccer players. The researchers concluded that static stretching improved performance on counter movement jump test for participants, but had no effect on 20 meter sprint times and agility testing. This researchers suggested that the evidence found within this study is inconclusive, there is no definitive way to decide if stretching had a positive impact on athlete recovery. Stretching, although used by many practitioners and proven to aid in injury prevention does not seem to have a positive or negative affect on recovery from the studies

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