Differential scanning calorimetry reveals that whole-body cryostimulation in cross-country skiers can modify their response to physical effort

Abstract

In sport medicine, cryostimulation is used to help athletes to better support the training workload, to prevent the deleterious effects of strenuous exercise and to improve recovery. In this study, eight elite cross-country skiers had two experimental exercise sessions differing in that the second one was carried out after a series of 10 whole-body cryostimulation (WBC) treatments. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was applied to compare changes in athlete’s blood serum during both sessions. Mean DSC curves of serum collected in four stages of the training session: before exercise, after exercise, at 1 h recovery and after 24 h of rest have shown a similar nature of post-exercise changes and recovery regardless of the WBC. Statistically significant effect of the exercise, reflected in some parameters of serum denaturation transition, has been found. Too small number of participants in our study did not allow to verify the hypothesis that WBC favorably modifies athletes’ reaction to the effort and improves post-exercise recovery, but such trends emerged.