The effects of water immersion on recovery in Australian Football

ii Participation in a physically demanding team sport, such as Australian football (AF), can result in post-exercise physical performance decrements as well as increases in psychometric measures, muscle damage and inflammation. The use of both cold water immersion (CWI) and contrast water therapy (CWT) as a means of post-exercise recovery is becoming more prevalent in the team sport environment. Both modalities are utilised in an attempt to enhance physical performance recovery while reducing perceived muscle soreness and fatigue. Although increasing in popularity, conflicting evidence exists regarding their effectiveness. Comparisons within the same team sport population are lacking, while little information on the efficacy of either intervention exists in AF. Therefore, the effects of a single 14 min exposure of both CWI and CWT on restoring repeat 20 m sprint time, jump performance and psychometric measures was investigated following AF training (Study 1) and an AF match (Study 2). The effects of both modalities post-match on moderating the appearance of markers of muscle damage and inflammation was also investigated (Study 3). Australian football training and match participation reduced repeat sprint, countermovement an