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Randomized trial · measured other health measures

Trial in 10 team-sport men: cold water in a break kept power from falling

Egaña and colleagues · Journal of science and medicine in sport · 2019

Original title: A 2.5 min cold water immersion improves prolonged intermittent sprint performance.

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What the study found

Points to benefit

After rest, work and peak power fell in the second half (TW: 5.04 ± 1.11 kJ vs 5.66 ± 1.02 kJ). After cold water they did not fall.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
10 people · 10 male team-sport players
What was tested
5 minutes or 2.5 minutes in 8°C water during a 15-minute break between two 40-minute cycling sprint sets, vs passive rest
What it measured
Other health or performance measures
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed.
Journal
Journal of science and medicine in sport, 2019
Source
PubMed record 31327650. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • –Small: 10 people. Small trials can miss real effects or find chance ones.
  • •Measured other health measures, not muscle recovery, mood and immune health itself.
  • •The PubMed record has no conflict-of-interest statement.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: muscle recovery and mood

    8

    1 benefit, 1 mixed, 5 no difference, 1 harm

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    8

    2 benefit, 1 mixed, 4 no difference, 1 harm

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    3

    1 benefit, 2 no difference

  4. Population studies

    3

    2 benefit, 1 mixed

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does cold plunging help recovery and mood?”

Eases soreness a little; mood unproven.

Confidence: low. Based on 30 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 7 papers on the same step: 1 benefit, 1 mixed, 4 no difference, 1 harm. This one found benefit. It differs from most of them.

  • Open item for a person: Strength and performance recovery relabeled real_outcome per topic; Egaña 2019 and Yoshimura 2022 kept as function (same-session tests).

Other papers on the same step

See all 30 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads agreed on every checked field. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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