Cold Water Immersion, Heart Rate Variability and Post-Exercise Recovery: A Systematic Review
Galvez-Rodriguez C, Valenzuela-Reyes P, Fuentealba-Sepúlveda S, Farias-Valenzuela C, Salinas AE
Physiotherapy research international : the journal for researchers and clinicians in physical therapy · 2 citations
Review labels
Neutral facts our review recorded about how this study was done. They describe method, never whether we like the result.
How it was studied
- Design
- Systematic review (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Funding not disclosed
Publication
- Published
- 2025-02-07 · Physiother Res Int · vol. 30 · issue 2 · p. e70033
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Cited
- 7 citations · more than 87% of similar papers · 2.2× the field average
- References
- 52 works
- Access
- Paywalled
- Research areas
- Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control · Cardiovascular and exercise physiology · Exercise and Physiological Responses
- Keywords
- Immersion (mathematics), Heart rate, Medicine, Physical therapy, Physical medicine and rehabilitation, Internal medicine, Blood pressure, Mathematics
- MeSH
- humans, exercise, immersion, recovery of function, heart rate, randomized controlled trials as topic, cold temperature, athletes, post-exercise recovery
5 authors
From CL
- Cristian Gálvez-RodríguezUniversidad Santo Tomás
- Pedro Valenzuela‐ReyesUniversidad Santo Tomás
- Soledad Fuentealba‐SepúlvedaUniversidad Santo Tomás
- Claudio Farías‐ValenzuelaUniversidad de Santiago de Chile
- Alexis Espinoza-Salinas · correspondingUniversidad Santo Tomás
Abstract
Introduction
Physiological and psychological recovery, i.e., the balance between fatigue/stress and recovery and evaluated through heart rate variability (HRV), is essential for the good performance of athletes in all their activities. Cold water immersion (CWI) has been shown to reduce the negative effects of fatigue/stress by inducing physiological and biochemical changes that promote faster recovery. This study aims to analyze the scientific literature on the effects of CWI on post-exercise recovery, as measured by HRV in athletes.
Methods
A systematic review of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) was conducted following PRISMA guidelines. Databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, and MEDLINE were included it. The risk of bias of each study selected was assessed using Cochrane's guidelines for RCT.
Results
Twelve articles were included. All studies reported parasympathetic reactivation with CWI after physical exertion. Six studies demonstrated statistically significant results (p < 0.05) compared to a passive recovery, while eight studies reported moderate to large effect sizes.
Conclusion
The results of this study indicate that CWI after exercise may have a positive acute effect on parasympathetic reactivation, as measured by HRV.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher.
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