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The effect of different recovery methods on muscle swelling recovery after muscle fatigue

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Fan Zhang at Nanjing Forest Police College
Fan Zhang
  • Nanjing Forest Police College
Zhuying Wang
Zhuying Wang
Zhuying Wang
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The effect of different recovery methods on muscle swelling recovery
after muscle fatigue
Fan Zhang 1, 2, a, Zhuying Wang 2, b
1Department of Police Skills and Tactics, Nanjing Forest Police College, Nanjing 210023, China;
2Sports Science postdoctoral programme, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
azhangfan@nfpc.edu.cn, bwangzhuying@njnu.edu.cn
Keywords: muscle swelling; muscle fatigue; centrifugal motion; vibration recovery; cryotherapy. L
manuscripts
Abstract. This paper’s purpose is to investigate the effect of passive recovery (PR), active recovery
(AR), vibration recovery (VR) and cryotherapy recovery (CR) on muscle swelling Degree (SD) after
muscle fatigue. 20 healthy male college students were enrolled in the study. SD of the biceps brachii of
the non-handedness was measured. The differences and recovery effects of SD at different detection
time points were tested by one-way repeated measures ANOVA. Results shows that Continuous AR
of decreasing intensity cannot improve recovery of fatigue muscle and even increase SD after active
concentric contraction and passive pulling at constant speed in low intensity of 45 °/s. In addition, CR
can effectively control tissue injury and SD problem due to centrifugal motion.
1. Introduction
Muscle fatigue sourced from continuous muscle contraction will lower late exercise performance
and bring muscle injury response, and therefore, if effective recovery method is used within limited
time, it will be quite beneficial to re-performance improvement and exercise injury reduction. Among
them, muscle swelling is an important index to measure the effect of muscle recovery.In previous
research; it is found that if mild concentric contraction is implemented under muscle injury, elimination
of interstitial fluid accumulation within tumid muscle will be quickened [1], thus improving recovery
efficiency [2]. Vibration training rising recently belongs to passive recovery method that can generate
effect similar with active recovery without active muscle contraction, and this characteristics are quite
helpful to fatigue recovery. In addition, cryotherapy recovery can also be adopted to lower muscular
temperature and promote vasoconstriction, thus lowering blood flow volume, inflammation, tumidness
and ache conditions of injured muscle. But no matter what kind of recovery effect may vary with
method and time limit [3], and therefore final conclusion does not appear.
2. Research object and method
2.1 Object of study
20 male undergraduates having healthy body are subjects (they are free from cardiovascular disease,
high blood pressure and relevant viscera disease, and they can receive the maximum exercise test),
with average age (20.4±2.3 yrs.), average height (173.5±3.4 cm) and average weight (68.7±3.9 kg).
2.2 Experimental design.
Experimental design of repetitive measurement is adopted, and every subject accepts four different
fatigue recovery ways in anti-balance sequence method: PR, AR, VR, CR. Interval of experimental
procedure in every step shall be over 7 days to avoid that delayed onset muscle soreness disturbs
experimental result.
1) In phase of familiarization with actions, elbow joint shall bend to contract 10 times centripetally
and eccentrically repeatedly in 45°/s of angular speed;
2) In phase of measurement before fatigue, BBM Swelling Degree (SD) shall be measured in
sequence to avoid that mechanical property is affected by muscle manifestation test.
International Conference on Sports, Arts, Education and Management Engineering (SAEME 2017)
Copyright © 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 105
434
3) In phase of muscle fatigue, isokinetic exercise system of Biodex System Pro-4 is adopted, and
maximum contraction exercise shall be conducted centripetally and eccentrically repeatedly in 45°/s of
angular speed on bent of non-habitual elbow joint, and activity scope is 30~120° (it is 0° when elbow
completely stretches straightly), and muscles can be judged in fatigue until finally there are continual
three times where muscle force manifestation reduces to 50% MVC, and then exercise of constant
speed can be stopped.
4) In phase of measurement after fatigue, data of muscle SD shall be immediately measured.
5) In phase of intervening of recovery way, one of its recovery ways can be conducted in random
way: PR group shall rest for 10 minutes in still sitting gesture; concentric contraction exercise shall be
conducted for AR group in constant speed on isokinetic exercise system of Biodex System Pro-4. It
shall start in strength of 25% MVC, and the speed shall decrease by 5% MVC every two minutes, and
there shall be 10 minutes totally. For VR group, vibration training platform Power Plate Pro5 AIR™
shall be used to partially vibrate BBM, and vibration frequency shall be 30 Hz, amplitude being 2 mm
for 10 minutes. Ice compression shall be conducted on fatigue parts with LP ice pack (LP894; M:22.9
cm; 65% ice block filling) non-pressure device for 10 minutes for CR group.
6) In phase of measurement after recovery, SD of BBM shall be measured immediately.
7) Then experiment of another recovery way shall be conducted until totally recovery with interval
over 7 days.
2.3 Test data and collection.
1) Muscle swelling Degree. Biceps circumference can be measured with a tape, and the tape can
surround BBM muscle belly. The maximum biceps circumference (cm) shall represent SD degree.
2) Recovery effect. Values of SD at different measurement time points (before fatigue, after fatigue
and after recovery) shall be calculated, and then [(after recovery/before fatigue) ×100%-(after
fatigue/before fatigue) ×100%] shall be deemed as recovery effect of SD.
2.4 Statistical analysis.
Statistical handling shall be conducted via SPSS 19.0, and the result shall be represented with mean
value ± standard deviation (
SDX
). Difference of SD in all groups (PR, AR, VR, CR) at different time
points (before fatigue, after fatigue, after recovery) shall be compared respectively via repeated
measures of a single factor. Difference among groups of SD can also be compared, and posterior
comparison can be conducted via way of Bonferroni if standard reaching is significant. Statistical
significance level is P<0.05, and non-significance level is P<0.01.
3. Change of Swelling Degree after intervening of different recovery ways
3.1 Difference of different time points.
SD in all groups reaches significant difference at different time points (P <0.05). MSL in all groups
after fatigue is significantly more than that before fatigue (P <0.05) after posterior comparison, while
only SD in CR group after recovery is significantly less than that after fatigue (P <0.05) (Table 1).
Table 1. SD of different recovery methods at different time points
SD(cm)
before fatigue
after fatigue
PR
27.69±2.52
28.22±2.53a
AR
27.93±2.93
28.37±2.88a
VR
28.02±2.91
28.44±2.83a
CR
27.80±2.43
28.21±2.28a
Note:a represents significant difference before fatigue and after fatigue; b represents significant
difference before fatigue and after recovery. P<0.05.
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 105
435
3.2 Difference of recovery effect.
Recovery effects of all groups reach significant difference (P <0.05) (Fig. 1); SD after recovery of
AR(0.53±0.99 %) is significantly more than that of PR(-0.61±0.83 %) and CR(-0.76±0.89 %) (P
<0.05), while there is no significant difference (P>0.05) between VR(-0.7±1.43%) and other groups.
Fig.1 Comparison of the recovery effect of SD
Note: # represents significantly better than group PR; & represents was better than that of group CR.
P<0.05
4. Summary
After plenty of muscle exercise, phenomena such as fatigue, injury, etc will appear. Especially
muscle injury can be more easily caused after centrifugal exercise, which will lead to liquid containing
protein permeating and piling in muscle fiber and then producing SD[4]. It is indicated in researches
that phenomenon that there is obvious SD in upper arm is indeed caused after fatiguing exercise, and it
is consistent with the opinion proposed in previous researches[5] that fatiguing exercise causes muscle
injury and then promote swelling of bicep circumference. So these debris causing muscle swelling
shall be stopped to produce and eliminated speedily, so as to avoid imposing adverse influence on
exercise performance and feeling of comfort due to hurt from muscle swelling.
It is indicated in experimental results that CR can obviously relieve SD, and relieve effect of AR is
worse than PR and CR. It is pointed out in previous researches[6] that partial CR can reduce the
temperature of partial tissues, promote micrangium contraction, exert function of hemostasis and
detumescence, increase blood viscocity, reduce blood flow volume for wounded tissues. It can also
reduce enzyme activity of metabolism and correspondingly reduce tissue metabolism and reduce
oxygen demand volume (to avoid affecting other unwounded tissues due to lack of oxygen), then it can
further reduces injury and lower SD. Though it is recommended in previous researches that CR
duration shall be 15~20 minutes, only 10 minutes of ice compression is conducted on limb in this
research. But there are scholars pointing out direct ice compression on muscle belly of right leg for 10
minutes not adding pressure can obviously lower temperature of partial tissues. For muscle group in
this research is BBM belonging to small muscle group, then it is assumed that partial CR can
effectively control SD, and it has been proved in the experiment.
Besides, PR, AR, VR all do not reach obvious recovery effect, even average value of bicep
circumference increases after AR recovery. It is indicated that AR recovery not only cannot slower SD,
but it worsens the situation. Though it is indicated in researches that AR recovery can boost blood
circulation[7], then the reason why it is not consistent with this research may be that continual active
contraction after muscle injury cause ineffective rest for muscles of fatigue injury. It causes piling of
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 105
436
interstitial fluid over that eliminated, so the body cannot obtain fatigue recovery and negative effect is
caused.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by the Project of the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central
Universities under Grant LGZD201709, in part by the Project of China Postdoctoral Science
Foundation under Grant 2017M611849, in part by Jiangsu Qing LAN Project under Grant 2017, and
in part by Nanjing Forest police College Teaching Reform Project under Grant ZD17001 & YB17001.
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