Effect of postexercise recovery procedures following strenuous stair-climb running

This study compared the effects of hot/cold water immersion, static stretching, and no recovery (control) interventions on leg strength, rowing performance, and indicators of muscle soreness/damage in the 72 hours following strenuous stair-climb running. Club (n = 14) and elite (Sports Institute) (n = 6) rowers performed the training run on three separate occasions. After each run, participants completed a randomly assigned 15-minute recovery treatment, either hot/cold, static stretching, or control, which were repeated at 24 and 48 hours postrun. No significant strength or performance differences existed between the three recovery treatments for either group. Muscle soreness for both groups remained significantly elevated (p < 0.05) above baseline at 72 hours postrun. At 48-hours postrun serum creatine kinase levels had returned to baseline and at 72 hours postrun were below baseline in both groups. In conclusion, neither hot/cold nor static stretching accelerated recovery at 72 hours beyond that achieved by the control condition.