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Pooled review (meta-analysis)

Pooled review of 68 studies: cold water hurt early sprints, helped later strength

Choo and colleagues · Journal of sports sciences · 2022

Original title: The effect of cold water immersion on the recovery of physical performance revisited: A systematic review with meta-analysis.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Mixed

Cold water helped endurance at 1 h (p = 0.01) but hurt sprint (p = 0.03) and jump (p = 0.04) early. Later it helped strength (p < 0.01, 24 h), jump at 24 h and 96 h, and soreness (p < 0.01-0.02).

The study at a glance

Type of study
Pooled review (meta-analysis)
Who or what was studied
68 studies · active people and athletes after exercise
What was tested
Cold water immersion after exercise, checked at times from under 1 hour to 96 hours or more
What it measured
Several kinds of outcomes
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed.
Journal
Journal of sports sciences, 2022
Source
PubMed record 36862831. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Pools the results of 68 studies.
  • •A pooled review is only as strong as the studies it pools.
  • •Measured several kinds of outcomes.
  • •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

This paper is not on the ladder. It is a pooled review (meta-analysis), and reviews and opinion pieces discuss studies that are already counted on the steps below.

↑ 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

  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
  • Part of the finding “Soreness eases, mostly in the first day”.
  • Part of the finding “Strength and performance recovery: mixed results”.
  • Summed up in “What reviews found”: Pooled sixty-eight studies of cold water after exercise. It helped endurance at 1 h but hurt sprint and jump early; later it helped strength, jump and soreness. Effects depended on the type of prior exercise.
  • Marked as a key paper in the research timeline: Largest review: sixty-eight studies of performance recovery.

Other reviews on this question

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 reviewer corrected 2 fields after reading the abstract. 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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