Effect of Acute Interset Foot Cooling on Lower Limb Strength Training Workout
in International Journal of Sports Physiology and PerformancePurpose: The authors investigated the effect of foot cooling (FC) between sets in a leg press pyramid workout with resistance-trained participants. Methods: A total of 12 resistance-trained men (age = 21.8 [0.6] y; training experience = 1.7 [1] y) performed a pyramid workout, including 4 sets of 85% to 90% 1-repetition maximum leg press exercise to exhaustion with interset FC or noncooling in a repeated-measures crossover design separated by 5 days. The authors immersed the participants’ feet in 10°C water for 2.5 minutes between sets. Results: Two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed that FC elicited significantly higher repetitions and electromyography (EMG) values of the vastus lateralis (simple main effect of condition) than did noncooling (P < .05) in the second (repetitions: 11 [3.5] vs 7.75 [3.2]; EMG: 63.4% [19.4%] vs 54.5% [18.4%]), third (repetitions: 8.9 [3.2] vs 6.4 [2.1]; EMG: 71.5% [17.4%] vs 60.6% [19.4%]), and fourth (repetitions: 7.5 [2.7] vs 5.1 [2.2]; EMG: 75.2% [19.6%] vs 59.3% [23.5%]) sets. The authors also detected a simple main effect of set in the FC and noncooling conditions on repetitions (P < .05) and in the FC condition on the vastus lateralis EMG values. Although the authors observed no time × trial interactions for the rating of perceived exertion, the authors observed main effects on the sets (7.7–9.6 vs 7.9–9.3, P < .05). Conclusions: Interset FC provides an ergogenic effect on a leg press pyramid workout and may offset fatigue, as indicated by higher repetitions and EMG response, without increasing perceived exertion.
Cai is with the Center for Physical and Health Education, Si Wan College, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Wang is with the Graduate Inst of Sports Pedagogy, University of Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan. Huang is with the Optimum Kinetics Inst, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Wu is with the Dept of Leisure and Sports Management, Cheng Shiu University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.
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