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Skin temperature changes after exercise and cold water immersion

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Abstract

Purpose

The study aimed to investigate the change in the skin temperature after exercise-induced delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and after cold water immersion during a recovery period.

Methods

Randomized controlled trial. Thirty-nine participants were randomly divided into four groups: group 1 (G1) which performed aerobic exercise; group 2 (G2) only performed plyometric exercise; group 3 (G3) was submitted to plyometric exercise and cold water immersion (CWI) protocol; and group 4 (G4) was the non-exercised control group. Skin temperature (TsK) was collected in two regions of interest (forehead and anterior thigh) at rest (T-rest), immediately after exercise (T0), 10, 20, and 30 min (T10, T20, and T30), and 24 and 48 h (T24 and T48) after exercise using an infrared camera. In addition, isometric knee extension strength and DOMS were assessed at times T-rest, T0, T24, and T48 for all groups.

Results

A higher skin temperature was indicated in the anterior thigh muscles that performed plyometric exercise (G2). This thermographic change was accomplished by a decrease in the knee extensor strength immediately after performing exercises. In addition, it seems clear from our data that CWI was effective in reducing Thigh’s TsK until 30 min after exercise, but had no effect on the Thigh’s TsK 24 and 48 h after exercise. CWI attenuated pain inducted by muscle compression 48 h after plyometric exercise.

Conclusion

This paper presents evidence that plyometric anaerobic exercise leads to a higher skin temperature on the exercised muscle groups than aerobic exercise and that the application of CWI has no influence on muscle temperature 24 h after exercise while minimizing DOMS and the deficit of isometric force.

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Acknowledgements

The National Research Council—CNPq (Brazil), which funded this research project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Therapy, Federal University of Paraíba, Cidade Universitária, João Pessoa, PB, CEP: 58051-900, Brazil

    Yokiny A. Silva, Bruna H. Santos, Palloma R. Andrade, Heleodório H. Santos & José Jamacy A. Ferreira

  2. Federal Institute for Education, Sciences and Technology of Minas Gerais, Campus Governador Valadares, Governador Valadares, Brazil

    Danilo G. Moreira

  3. Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    M. Sillero-Quintana

Authors
  1. Yokiny A. Silva
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  2. Bruna H. Santos
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  3. Palloma R. Andrade
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  4. Heleodório H. Santos
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  5. Danilo G. Moreira
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  6. M. Sillero-Quintana
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  7. José Jamacy A. Ferreira
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Correspondence to José Jamacy A. Ferreira.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical Standards of the institutional or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or compatible ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.

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Silva, Y.A., Santos, B.H., Andrade, P.R. et al. Skin temperature changes after exercise and cold water immersion. Sport Sci Health 13, 195–202 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-017-0353-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-017-0353-x

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