Cold-water immersion and whole-body cryotherapy attenuate muscle soreness during 3 days of match-like tennis protocol

PURPOSE

This study aimed to investigate the effect of whole-body cryotherapy (WBC), cold-water immersion (CWI) and passive recovery (PAS) on tennis recovery.

METHODS

Thirteen competitive male tennis players completed three consecutive match-like tennis protocols, followed by recovery (WBC, CWI, PAS) in a crossover design. Five tennis drills and serves were performed using a ball machine to standardize the fatiguing protocol. Maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) peak torque, creatine kinase activity (CK), muscle soreness, ball accuracy and velocity together with voluntary activation, low- and high-frequency torque and EMG activity were recorded before each protocol and 24 h following the third protocol.

RESULTS

MVC peak torque (- 7.7 ± 11.3%; p = 0.001) and the high- to low-frequency torque ratio (- 10.0 ± 25.8%; p < 0.05) decreased on Day 1 but returned to baseline on Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4 (p = 0.052, all p > 0.06). The CK activity slightly increased from 161.0 ± 100.2 to 226.0 ± 106.7 UA L-1 on Day 1 (p = 0.001) and stayed at this level (p = 0.016) across days with no differences between recovery interventions. Muscle soreness increased across days with PAS recovery (p = 0.005), while no main effect of time was neither observed with WBC nor CWI (all p > 0.292). The technical performance was maintained across protocols with WBC and PAS, while it increased for CWI on Day 3 vs Day 1 (p = 0.017).

CONCLUSION

Our 1.5-h tennis protocol led to mild muscle damage, though neither the neuromuscular function nor the tennis performance was altered due to accumulated workload induced by consecutive tennis protocols. The muscle soreness resulting from tennis protocols was similarly alleviated by both CWI and WBC.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

IRB No. 2017-A02255-48, 12/05/2017.

The Impact of Recovery Practices Adopted by Professional Tennis Players on Fatigue Markers According to Training Type Clusters

Introduction: Modern tennis players face congested schedules that force the adoption of various recovery strategies. Thus, recovery must be fine-tuned with an accurate quantification of its impacts, especially with regards to training-induced fatigue. The present study aimed to examine the training type clusters and recovery practices adopted by elite tennis players under ecological training conditions. The respective impacts of training type clusters and recovery techniques on subjective variables, which reflect the players' recovery perceptions, were subsequently determined.

Methods: During 15 consecutive months, a total of 35 elite tennis players filled out questionnaires to report their daily training load, training session content, adopted recovery modalities after training, and perceived recovery.

Results: The hierarchical analysis identified three clusters: “combined tennis and S&C training,” “predominant tennis training” and “predominant S&C training.” Muscle soreness and perceived fatigue were not significantly different among these three clusters (p = 0.07–0.65). Across the 146 recorded training and recovery sessions, players primarily employed a combination of 2 or 3 modalities, with cooling strategies being the most widely used technique (87.6%). Mixed linear models revealed that independent of training clusters, cooling strategies significantly reduced muscle soreness (Δmuscle soreness: β = −1.00, p = 0.02). Among the cooling techniques used, whole-body cryotherapy induced a greater perceived recovery than cold-water immersion (p = 0.02).

Conclusion: These results showed that perceived recovery was not sensitive to training clusters or the associated acute training load. However, cooling strategies were relevant for the alleviation of tennis training-induced soreness. This study represents an initial step toward a periodized approach of recovery interventions, based on the interactions between training load, training contents, and perceived recovery.