Ischemic Preconditioning: Modulating Pain Sensitivity and Exercise Performance.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether an individual's IPC-mediated change in cold pain sensitivity is associated with the same individual's IPC-mediated change in exercise performance. Thirteen individuals (8 males; 5 females, 27 ± 7 years, 55 ± 5 ml.kgs.min) underwent two separate cold-water immersion tests: with preceding IPC treatment and without. In addition, each participant undertook two separate 5-km cycling time trials: with preceding IPC treatment and without. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to assess the relationship between an individual's change in cold-water pain sensitivity following IPC with their change in 5-km time trial performance following IPC. During the cold-water immersion test, pain intensity increased over time ( < 0.001) but did not change with IPC ( = 0.96). However, IPC significantly reduced the total time spent under pain (-9 ± 7 s; = 0.001) during the cold-water immersion test. No relationship was found between an individual's change in time under pain ( = -0.2, = 0.6) or pain intensity ( = -0.3, = 0.3) following IPC and their change in performance following IPC. These findings suggest that IPC can modulate sensitivity to a painful stimulus, but this altered sensitivity does not explain the ergogenic efficacy of IPC on 5-km cycling performance.