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Randomized trial · measured the question itself

Trial in 11 rugby players: no clear difference in next-day cycling after cold water

Dobashi and colleagues · The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness · 2026

Original title: Effects of cold-water immersion after rugby-specific training on endurance performance.

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

No difference

Time to exhaustion did not differ (485±72 vs. 518±77 s, P=0.107). Change from baseline was greater with cold water (both P<0.05). Placebo effect could not be ruled out.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
11 people · 11 male college rugby players
What was tested
8 minutes in 15°C water after a 180-minute rugby training session vs 8 minutes seated rest; cycling test 24 h later
What it measured
The question itself: muscle recovery, mood and immune health
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed.
Journal
The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness, 2026
Source
PubMed record 42741893. 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: 11 people. Small trials can miss real effects or find chance ones.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: muscle recovery, mood and immune health.
  • •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

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  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

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

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 reviewer corrected 1 field 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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