Non-invasive Assessments of Subjective and Objective Recovery Characteristics Following an Exhaustive Jump Protocol

The overall goal of this experimental protocol is to induce muscular exhaustion in the frontal thighs with non-invasive subjective and objective recovery assessments. The testing of a local cryotherapy recovery modality is also demonstrated. This method can help answer key questions in the field of sports medicine and experimental interventions, such as post-exercise recovery studies.

The main advantages of this technique are that muscular exhaustion can be induced without using expensive devices and recovery characteristics can be assessed noninvasively. Generally, participants new to the exhaustive jumping protocol will struggle, not just because of its very high cardiovascular impact, but also because it demands excellent motor coordination. Recruit the participants using social media and flyers and select 18 to 30-year-old students who play endurance sports for two and three hours per week.

Exclude anybody experiencing pain or who had torso or lower extremity injuries in the last year. Also exclude diseased, medicated, pregnant, or applicants with skeletal deviations. One week prior to the experiment, instruct the participant to perform up to five CMJs on a jump mat with a one-minute break between each jump a CMJ is performed from an upright position with hands on the hips to eliminate arm swing.

Let the participants use their own range of motion and contraction time. The correct execution of the counter movement jumps is very important for the vertical jump assessment. Both hand should be placed on the hips and the knees should be extended on the vertical jump performance.

One week later, take a baseline measurement and then perform the exhaustive jump protocol and recovery intervention. The participant must not have participated in any exhaustive exercise in the last 48 hours and must not be experiencing any aches or pains. Start by taking measures of their body height, body weight and estimated lower body fat percentage.

Take the average of three measurements. Proceed with an three-second lasting squat at a 90-degree knee angle and then have the participant score the DOMS of their frontal thighs on a visual analog scale. Specifically, ask how sore are your frontal thighs?

The scale ranges from no soreness to severe soreness on a 10-cm span. Record the subjects'responses. Next, have the participants provide an RPE from an upright standing position using a six to 20 Borg Scale.

Ask, what is your actual level of perceived exertion? The scale ranges from no perceived exertion at six to maximum exertion at 20. Now have the participants perform up to 3 CMJs on a jump mat with a 30-second pause between the jumps.

The system indirectly calculates the jump height using time-in-flight data. From the highest jump, calculate the peak-power output. To begin, instruct the participant to prepare for the exhaustive jump without warmups.

The protocol entails completing three sets of 30 CMJs at any pace. During this protocol, two researchers should encourage the participant to visually inspect the quality of the jumps and give verbal feedback. Be sure that the participants touch the ground after each jump.

If a jump is not performed correctly, do not count it as a repetition. Between sets, allow a 30-second break for the participant to sit and have a drink of water. If the participant cannot finish the sets, the data will still be usable.

After completing the exhaustive jump protocol, have a blinded researcher apply the recovery application. While the participant is lying down, apply temperature application cuffs to each thigh over the quadriceps femorous muscles in complete contact with the skin. Do not press too hard.

Now tell the participants not to report the sensation they are about to feel and for 20 minutes, apply either the eight degrees Celsius cold modality or the 32 degrees Celsius thermo-neutral modality. Later, take off the thigh cuffs and shut down the device. For the recovery assessment, the researcher must be blinded.

The participant begins by reporting their RPE and DOMS scores as before. Then, have the participants perform up to three CMJs on a jump mat. From these jumps, calculate their PPO.

Now, instruct the participant to maintain their daily habits but to refrain from alcohol, sports, and other exercises for a recovery period of 72 hours. At exactly 24-hour intervals from the exhaustive jump protocol during recovery, collect the participants'RPE and DOMS scores and assess the participants'jump height from three CMJs to calculate the participants'PPO. After 72 hours of recovery, the participant can return to their normal activities.

In the present study, the participants'DOMS scores elevated significantly directly after the recovery application and after 48 hours for both treatment groups. However, the values did not return to baseline after 72 hours of recovery as expected. During the recovery period, the RPE values were significantly higher and returned to baseline in both groups after 24 hours.

Then, in the cold treatment group, after 48 hours, there was a trend for values to increase. Jump height and the related PPO, both decreased after the exhaustive protocol and recovery application. However, this trend was not significantly different from baseline values.

Once mastered, the exhaustive jump protocol and the treatment can be done within one hour and the follow-up measurements can take just 10 minutes. While attempting this procedure, it's important to remember to familiarize the endurance strength participants to the counter movement procedure at least one week prior to the experiment. Following this procedure, other methods like the assessment of maximum voluntary contractions can be performed in order to answer additional questions like how a local post exercise cryotherapy application might affect strength parameters.