Effect of five days of post exercise hot-water immersion on exercise performance in hypoxia

The effect of five-day post exercise hot water immersion protocol on time trial performance in hypoxia was investigated. Fourteen participants (age: 23 ± 4 years; VO2peak: 60.77 ± 12.40 ml·kg-1·min-1) were designated to either a post-exercise hot water immersion (HOT) or a control (CON) group. The participants completed five days of cycling at 50% VO2peak for 60 minutes, once completed each training session, participants in HOT immersed for 30 minutes in hot water. Participants completed a 16 km time-trial in hypoxia (FiO2 = 0. 1399 ± 0.25), before (TT1) and after training (TT2), to determine if post exercise hot water immersion improves cycling performance. There was no significant interaction (p= 0.118) or main effect for group (p= 0.778) or time (p= 0.080) on time to completion from TT1 (HOT: 1985.61 ± 259.06 s; CON: 1986.33 ± 207.47 s) to TT2 (HOT: 1900.64 ± 186.78 s; CON: 1969.07 ± 255.82 s). There was no difference in (p> 0.05) in heart rate or core temperature responses during the training protocol. This study did not find that post exercise hot water immersion protocol improved time trial performance in hypoxia.