Intermittent Sequential Pneumatic Compression (ISPC) has become a popular recovery modality among athletes, particularly in high-performance cycling. This randomized sham-controlled crossover trial aimed to assess the effectiveness of a 30-minute high-pressure ISPC intervention compared to a sham condition on the recovery of trained cyclists following a strenuous cycling effort.
The study involved 21 male participants, with an average age of 22.8 years. Each participant underwent a 30-minute all-out time trial on a stationary trainer, after which recovery measures were taken at baseline, one hour post-intervention, and at 24 and 48 hours. The recovery markers assessed included isometric knee extension, cycling performance in a 4-minute time trial, quadriceps low-frequency fatigue, creatine kinase levels, and subjective measures of fatigue, recovery, and muscle soreness.
Results indicated that ISPC provided benefits in subjective perceptions of recovery, muscle soreness, and fatigue, as well as improvements in low-frequency fatigue scores and maximal voluntary contraction of knee extension. However, these subjective improvements did not translate into enhanced performance in subsequent time trials conducted 24 hours later. The performance measure showed no significant improvement (P = .18), and there was no relevant increase in creatine kinase activity following the fatigue protocol.
In conclusion, while ISPC may enhance acute subjective and neuromuscular recovery markers after a strenuous time trial, it does not appear to provide a performance advantage in short-duration cycling efforts 24 hours later. Nevertheless, its use could still be justified for accelerating perceptual and neuromuscular recovery in high-level cyclists.
What this study does not show
This study does not demonstrate that ISPC improves cycling performance in subsequent trials, despite subjective recovery benefits.
Evidence scorecard
- Analytic validity: established
- Clinical validity: established
- Clinical utility: partial
The evidence is based on a randomized controlled trial involving human participants.