Investigating Muscle Repair in Response to Icing Therapy Post Eccentric Muscle Damage Exercise

Wilfrid Laurier University

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Muscle Damage

Treatments: Other: Icing Therapy; Other: the eccentric muscle damage exercise

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02280668

4177

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of our research is to investigate the effects of applying cold therapy, or "icing," to injured muscles in terms of strength recovery and muscle soreness amelioration following unaccustomed exercise.

Full description

The objective is to determine whether or not injured muscles that are subject to icing after eccentrically damaging exercise recover their strength quicker and/or have less muscle soreness than those that do not receive any icing treatment after damaging exercise and if any differences in effectiveness between two icing protocols exist. Baseline measures of peak torque of the dominant arm's elbow flexor muscles will be measured by concentric and isometric contractions prior to participants undergoing eccentric muscle damaging exercise. Participants will be randomly assigned into 3 different experimental groups of approximately 15 participants each. The first group will begin "Icing Protocol 1" at time 0 (or as close to). The second group will begin "Icing Protocol 2" six hours after their initial eccentric muscle damaging exercise. The remaining group will not receive any icing treatment; they are the control group. Participants will be brought back into the lab at specific post-exercise times (0h, 24h, 48h, 96h, and 7 days) to complete peak torque measures as they did with baseline measures prior to eccentric muscle damage. Measures of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) will also be taken at baseline and during scheduled follow up times for participants.

Enrollment: 45 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 24 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Healthy students attending Wilfrid Laurier University with no previous history of upper body muscle damage and live in close proximity to the University so they can attend all lab sessions. Ideally they have not performed any upper body resistance training within the last 4 months.

Exclusion criteria

• Previous history of muscle, joint, or ligament injuries in the surrounding area of their dominant are elbow flexor region.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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45 participants in 3 patient groups

Control Group

Active Comparator group

Description:

Will perform the eccentric muscle damage exercise and will not perform any icing interventions post damage. These participants will be the control group.

Treatment:

Other: the eccentric muscle damage exercise

Icing Protocol 1

Experimental group

Description:

Will perform the eccentric muscle damage exercise and will begin the icing intervention immediately after the muscle damage. The icing protocol will be icing the elbow flexor muscles for 10 minutes with a cold pack followed by 10 minutes with no icing and another 10 minutes of elbow flexor muscle icing. The participants will perform this protocol every day at approximately the same time for the duration of the study.

Treatment:

Other: Icing Therapy

Other: the eccentric muscle damage exercise

Icing Protocol 2

Experimental group

Description:

Will perform the eccentric muscle damage exercise and will begin the icing intervention 6 hours post muscle damage. The icing protocol will be icing the elbow flexor muscles for 10 minutes with a cold pack followed by 10 minutes with no icing and another 10 minutes of elbow flexor muscle icing. The participants will perform this protocol every day at approximately the same time for the duration of the study.

Treatment:

Other: Icing Therapy

Other: the eccentric muscle damage exercise