Cold and Warm Water for Performance Recovery

September 25, 2025 updated by: Ron Clijsen, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland

A Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Repeated Cold- and Warm Water Immersion on Performance Recovery

The overall aim of this study is, to evaluate the effectiveness of repeated cold- and warm water immersion on performance recovery after muscle damage.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Participants perform a muscle-damage protocol, which comprises 5x20 drop jumps. After the exercise protocol is finished, the participants will undergo one of three recovery interventions. Cold-water immersion, Warm-water immersion or the control-intervention. During the exercise protocol and the recovery intervention following parameters will be assessed: Blood oxygenation, Muscle oxygenation, heart-rate, skin temperature and core temperature.

Then, performance recovery will be assessed during the following 72 hrs (in a 24 hrs interval).

At each time-point, following measurements will be conducted: vertical-jump performance, maximum voluntary isometric contraction of the m.quadriceps femoris muscle, muscle swelling and delayed-onset of muscle soreness.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

30

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Switzerland
    • Kanton Graubünden
      • Landquart, Kanton Graubünden, Switzerland, 7302
        • University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 35 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Healthy participants
  • No surgeries
  • No previous injuries
  • Anticonceptiva allowed

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Acute injuries or current pain situations
  • Cryophobia
  • Fear
  • Pregnancy
  • Raynaud syndrome
  • Medication intake

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Repeated cold-water immersion
In this arm, the participants undergo repeated cold water immersion at 10°C for 2 x 5 min. Between the immersion, a break will be conducted 2.5 min. Participants will be immersed up to the iliac crest
Behavioral: repeated cold water therapy
This information can be found the description of the experimental arm.
Active Comparator: Repeated warm-water immersion
In this arm, the participants undergo repeated warm water immersion at 40°C for 2 x 5 min. Between the immersion, a break will be conducted 2.5 min. Participants will be immersed up to the iliac crestParticipants will be immersed up to the iliac crest.
Behavioral: repeated warm water therapy
This information can be found the description of the experimental arm.
Other: Control
In this arm, the participants undergo the control intervention which comprises to remain seated for 12.5 min. The participants, that will perform the muscle damaging protocol under hypoxia will also be treated with the control condition.
Other: control
This information can be found the description of the experimental arm.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Creatine-kinase (U/l)
Time Frame: baseline to 72 hours
using a blood sample (6 ml), creatine-kinase will be assessed
baseline to 72 hours
Maximum Voluntary Isometric Contraction (N)
Time Frame: baseline to 72 hours
maximun voluntary isometric contraction of the knee extensor muscle will be assessed.
baseline to 72 hours
Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness (DOMS)
Time Frame: baseline to 72 hours
delayed onset of muscle soreness will be measured using a 0-10 scale, where 0 indicated no soreness and 10 indicates maximum soreness of the knee extensor muscles
baseline to 72 hours
Muscle Swelling
Time Frame: baseline to 72 hours
swelling of the knee extensor muscle will be performed using a ultrasound device.
baseline to 72 hours
Muscle Blood Oxygenation
Time Frame: through recovery intervention up to 30 minutes
Muscle oxygenation saturation (SmO2) of the knee extensor muscle will be measured using near-infrared spectroscopy device. Oxygenated haemoglobin (oxyHb), deoxygenated haemoglobin (deoxyHb) and total haemoglobin (TotHb) were assessed in arbitrary units and SmO2 was calculated as oxyHb/TotHb x 100 value (%)
through recovery intervention up to 30 minutes
Skin Temperature (°C)
Time Frame: through recovery intervention up to 30 minutes
Skin temperature will be measured using a near infrared thermography camera
through recovery intervention up to 30 minutes
Core Temperature (°C)
Time Frame: through recovery intervention up to 30 minutes
core temperature will be measured using temperature pill that will provide real time values from the gastrointestinal region
through recovery intervention up to 30 minutes

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Ron Clijsen, PhD, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

October 1, 2021

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 30, 2022

Study Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 29, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 25, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

May 26, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

October 7, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 25, 2025

Last Verified

September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2021-00546

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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