Local cooling with ice massage improves 4-km running time trial performance in a normothermic environment

In the last decades, with advance in exercise physiology and technology research, new strategies to prevent fatigue and increase performance has been development. Ice massage, a cooling strategy, has received notable attention. It was suggested that when it is applied in the skin provides a lower nerve sensory velocity conduction reducing the afferent feedback and promoting an efficient analgesic effect, which might reduce perceived effort and pain during open-loop exercise in a hot environment, but it effects on closed-loop exercise in a normothermic environment is unknown. As exercise-induced pain and exertion may, also, explain exercise tolerance and performance in a closed-loop exercise in a normothermic environment, we investigated in the present study the effect of ice massage on a 4-km running time trial in a normothermic environment. We, also, explored the effect of ice-massage on perceived effort and pain responses.
We demonstrated for the first time that ice massage before exercise decreased time to complete a 4-km running time trial in a normothermic environment. This reduced time to complete time trial was accompanied by a low perceived pain and a same perceived effort, which suggested that higher velocities was found at same effort. These findings open the possibility to apply ice massage in a practical sport environment to improve endurance performance.