A combination of cherry juice and cold water immersion does not enhance marathon recovery compared to either treatment in isolation: A randomized placebo-controlled trial

Isabella Difranco; Emma Cockburn; Lygeri Dimitriou; Katherine Paice; Scott Sinclair; Tanwir Faki; Frank A Hills; Marcela B Gondek; Alyssa Wood; Laura J Wilson

doi:10.3389/fspor.2022.957950

A combination of cherry juice and cold water immersion does not enhance marathon recovery compared to either treatment in isolation: A randomized placebo-controlled trial

Front Sports Act Living. 2022 Aug 19:4:957950. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2022.957950. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Biomedical, Nutritional and Sport Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
² Department of Natural Sciences, Middlesex University, London, United Kingdom.
³ London Sports Institute, Middlesex University, London, United Kingdom.
⁴ Faculty of Dance, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Purpose: Cherry juice (CJ) and cold water immersion (CWI) are both effective recovery strategies following strenuous endurance exercise. However, athletes routinely combine recovery interventions and less is known about the impact of a combined CJ and CWI protocol. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of combining CWI and CJ (a "cocktail" (CT)) on inflammation and muscle damage following a marathon.

Methods: A total 39 endurance trained males were randomly assigned to a placebo (PL), CWI, CJ, or CT group before completing a trail marathon run. Muscle damage (creatine kinase (CK)), muscle function (maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC)), and inflammation (interleukin-6 (IL-6); C-reactive protein (CRP)) were measured at baseline, immediately after marathon (only IL-6), 24 h, and 48 h after marathon.

Results: There were no statistically significant differences between groups and no group × time interaction effects for any of the dependent variables. Confidence intervals (CI) illustrated that CT had unclear effects on inflammation (IL-6; CRP) and MVIC, but may have increased CK to a greater extent than PL and CJ conditions.

Conclusion: There is no evidence of an additive effect of CJ and CWI when the treatments are used in conjunction with each other. On the contrary, combining CJ and CWI may result in slightly increased circulating CK.

Keywords: cryotherapy; endurance athletes; inflammation; muscle function; phytochemicals.