| Title |
Should Athletes Return to Sport After Applying Ice?
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Sports Medicine, November 2012
|
| DOI | 10.2165/11595970-000000000-00000 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Chris M. Bleakley, Joseph T. Costello, Philip D. Glasgow |
| Abstract |
Applying ice or other forms of topical cooling is a popular method of treating sports injuries. It is commonplace for athletes to return to competitive activity, shortly or immediately after the application of a cold treatment. In this article, we examine the effect of local tissue cooling on outcomes relating to functional performance and to discuss their relevance to the sporting environment. A computerized literature search, citation tracking and hand search was performed up to April, 2011. Eligible studies were trials involving healthy human participants, describing the effects of cooling on outcomes relating to functional performance. Two reviewers independently assessed the validity of included trials and calculated effect sizes. Thirty five trials met the inclusion criteria; all had a high risk of bias. The mean sample size was 19. Meta-analyses were not undertaken due to clinical heterogeneity. The majority of studies used cooling durations > 20 minutes. Strength (peak torque/force) was reported by 25 studies with approximately 75% recording a decrease in strength immediately following cooling. There was evidence from six studies that cooling adversely affected speed, power and agility-based running tasks; two studies found this was negated with a short rewarming period. There was conflicting evidence on the effect of cooling on isolated muscular endurance. A small number of studies found that cooling decreased upper limb dexterity and accuracy. The current evidence base suggests that athletes will probably be at a performance disadvantage if they return to activity immediately after cooling. This is based on cooling for longer than 20 minutes, which may exceed the durations employed in some sporting environments. In addition, some of the reported changes were clinically small and may only be relevant in elite sport. Until better evidence is available, practitioners should use short cooling applications and/or undertake a progressive warm up prior to returning to play. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 27 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 7 | 26% |
| United Kingdom | 3 | 11% |
| Greece | 1 | 4% |
| Ireland | 1 | 4% |
| Italy | 1 | 4% |
| Australia | 1 | 4% |
| India | 1 | 4% |
| Canada | 1 | 4% |
| Unknown | 11 | 41% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 21 | 78% |
| Scientists | 4 | 15% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 4% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 4% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 147 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Portugal | 1 | <1% |
| Switzerland | 1 | <1% |
| Australia | 1 | <1% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | <1% |
| Canada | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 142 | 97% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Bachelor | 25 | 17% |
| Student > Master | 20 | 14% |
| Researcher | 19 | 13% |
| Other | 13 | 9% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 9 | 6% |
| Other | 24 | 16% |
| Unknown | 37 | 25% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 34 | 23% |
| Sports and Recreations | 27 | 18% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 17 | 12% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 10 | 7% |
| Social Sciences | 3 | 2% |
| Other | 10 | 7% |
| Unknown | 46 | 31% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 180. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 06 September 2023.
All research outputs
#223,437
of 25,371,288 outputs
Outputs from Sports Medicine
#203
of 2,874 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#1,336
of 285,215 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Sports Medicine
#20
of 783 outputs
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So far Altmetric has tracked 2,874 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 56.8. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its peers.
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