Post-Exercise Treatments to Reduce Delayed-onset Muscle Soreness of Collegiate Student Athletes

Abstract

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) occurs in athletes often after a strenuous workout. For this study, two post-exercise treatments were used to see the effectiveness in reducing DOMS. The two treatments were foam rolling and water immersion. Participants initially consisted of 30 (15 participants in each group) student- athletes at a Division II University in the Midwest. Student-athletes completed a strenuous workout and received a postexercise treatment immediately after. Athletes then completed a survey 48 hours later in which they identified their area of soreness and rated their soreness on a scale of 0-10 (0 being no soreness to 10 being extremely sore). Twenty-six (12 in foam rolling and 14 in water immersion) completed the survey for a total of 4 times over a 2-week span. Data showed that DOMS significantly decreased in both post-exercise treatments groups and the effectiveness was not different in two groups. Thus, this experiment demonstrated that both post-exercise treatments are equally effective in reducing DOMS in athletes. Further research may help determine which post-exercise treatment is the most effective over a longer period of time.