Hydrotherapy as a recovery strategy after exercise: a pragmatic controlled trial Cuesta-Vargas, Antonio I. Travé-Mesa, Álvaro Vera-Cabrera, Alberto Cruz-Terrón, Dario Castro Sánchez, Adelaida María Fernández de las Peñas, César Arroyo Morales, Manuel Hydrotherapy Heart rate Fatigue Strength Blood pressure Body temperature Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01765387 Background Our aim was to evaluate the recovery effects of hydrotherapy after aerobic exercise in cardiovascular, performance and perceived fatigue. Methods A pragmatic controlled repeated measures; single-blind trial was conducted. Thirty-four recreational sportspeople visited a Sport-Centre and were assigned to a Hydrotherapy group (experimental) or rest in a bed (control) after completing a spinning session. Main outcomes measures including blood pressure, heart rate, handgrip strength, vertical jump, self-perceived fatigue, and body temperature were assessed at baseline, immediately post-exercise and post-recovery. The hypothesis of interest was the session*time interaction. Results The analysis revealed significant session*time interactions for diastolic blood pressure (P=0.031), heart rate (P=0.041), self perceived fatigue (P=0.046), and body temperature (P=0.001); but not for vertical jump (P=0.437), handgrip (P=0.845) or systolic blood pressure (P=0.266). Post-hoc analysis revealed that hydrotherapy resulted in recovered heart rate and diastolic blood pressure similar to baseline values after the spinning session. Further, hydrotherapy resulted in decreased self-perceived fatigue after the spinning session. Conclusions Our results support that hydrotherapy is an adequate strategy to facilitate cardiovascular recovers and perceived fatigue, but not strength, after spinning exercise. 2014-04-02T07:57:59Z 2014-04-02T07:57:59Z 2013 journal article Cuesta-Vargas, A.I.; et al. Hydrotherapy as a recovery strategy after exercise: a pragmatic controlled trial. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 13: 180 (2013). [http://hdl.handle.net/10481/31184] 1472-6882 doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-13-180 http://hdl.handle.net/10481/31184 eng open access Biomed Central