Effects of ice pack on muscleinjury induced by eccentric contractions

Creators Morita Shunsuke

Creators Sakurai Yuko

Creators Matoba Hideki

The purpose of this study was to examine whether local application of ice packs had positive effects on recovery from eccentric contraction-induced skeletal muscle injury and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Three male and 8 female healthy university students served as subjects. The subjects performed 20 eccentric contractions of elbow flexor muscles on 2 occasions, one with application of ice packs on the muscles immediately after eccentric actions (experimental trial) and the other without ice pack modality (control trial). Maximal isometric strength, relaxed upper arm circumference, flexed elbow angle and perceived muscle soreness were measured before, immediately after eccentric actions, after 30 min-long ice pack application, and 1 day after and 2 days after eccentric actions. Plasma creatine phosphokinase (CPK) activity was determined before, 1 day after and 2 days after eccentric actions. Repeated measure ANOVA showed significant cold treatment effect and treatment-time interaction were found for girth of upper arm. Girth of upper arm was significantly lower in the experimental trial than in the control trial. Moreover, ice pack treatment decreased the girth of upper arm to control values immediately after treatment. No treatment-time interaction existed for maximum isometric strength, perceived muscle soreness, relaxed elbow angle and CPK activity. It is concluded that cold treatment with ice pack modality has very little effects, if any, on the eccentric contraction-induced muscle injury and DOMS.

[ISSN]1349-810X

[NCID]AN00243950