Reduce Swelling
Training for the Olympics is no picnic. Sports injuries, swollen muscles, torn ligaments are all part of the elite athlete’s training.
Some take issue with the lack of rationale behind many recovery strategies and the lack of scientific evidence to support the efficacy of using ice and cold water to reduce swelling and muscle soreness.
“If you want to reduce pain and swelling and help with recovery in athletes performing at tournaments then you are better off with other strategies,” said Dr. Marco Cardinale on his blog, Sports & Fitness Science.
He advocates good, old-fashioned training. With increasing focus on delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) by conditioning coaches and physiotherapists, his concern is that athletes will forget the purpose of grueling training sessions: To improve performance.
As a scientist holding a PhD, Marco is qualified to voice his concerns:
The reason athletes endure extreme training is “to create an overload on their biological system to produce an adaptive response leading to a stronger muscle, a better cardio-respiratory system, stronger bones. They also do it to improve muscle biochemistry which leads to better muscle function.”
In its simplest terms he says that we want muscle damage, inflammation and swelling because they acts as signals to the athlete that his/her muscles are being remodeled.
In fact, recent studies have shown that applying cold (cryotherapy) to muscles after training reduces the training gains (Cheung et. al., Sports Med, 2003).
For more on the fascinating science of sports fitness, go to Marco Cardinale’s blog. He’ll discuss strategies to reduce pain and swelling and how to help in the recovery process in his next article.
