An Intermittent Pneumatic Compression Device Reduces Blood Lactate Concentrations More Effectively Than Passive Recovery after Wingate Testing

Study background: With the advancement of technology, therapeutic modalities mimicking “cool down” have become an option for active individuals to try and decrease the recovery time between training sessions and competition. A wide variety of companies that manufacture these modalities have claimed their machines can decrease recovery time by decreasing lactic acid, a known cause of muscle fatigue following exercise. The aim of this study was to investigate an intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) unit as a recovery modality by evaluating its effectiveness in clearing blood lactate (BLa) when compared to alternate recovery methods following an anaerobic Wingate cycling test (WAnT). Methods: Twenty-one (n=21) female student-athletes between the ages of 18-25 years old participated in this randomized controlled clinical trial. All subjects participate in a lower extremity dominant collegiate club sport. Following a one minute WAnT, participants were randomly assigned one of three recovery interventions: IPC, active, or passive, each lasting 20 minutes. Objective data included subject’s height (cm), weight (kg), and resting levels of blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR) and blood lactate (BLa). Post exercise BP, HR and BLa were taken immediately following the WAnT and 20 minutes post recovery session. Results: Post recovery, the IPC group had a mean BLa significantly lower than the passive recovery group; there was no significant difference in BLa between the IPC group and the active recovery group. Conclusion: Results indicate that during the recovery phase, an IPC unit is more effective than passive recovery at removing BLa following anaerobic exercise. The IPC unit reduced BLa as efficiently as active recovery as carried out in the current study.