Date of Award

Fall 12-1-2001

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Athletic Training

First Advisor

Mitchell L. Cordova

Second Advisor

Chris Ingersoll

Third Advisor

Jeffrey E. Edwards

Abstract

Context: Hot packs, light exercise, and or moderate exercise are used to heat soft tissue injuries before rehabilitation or competition for their desired effects. This comparison is beneficial to clinicians, so that they may be better educated on the use of the most effective therapeutic modality heating protocols when treating a soft tissue injury. Objective: To compare the application of a hot pack to light intensity exercise and moderate intensity exercise on peak temperature of the rectus femoris muscle, and the time at which peak temperature is reached. Design: A 1 x 3 factorial design was used in this study. The single independent variable was treatment with 3 levels: hot pack application (HP), low intensity exercise on cycle ergometer (LE), and moderate intensity on cycle ergometer (ME). The dependent variables were rectus femoris peak temperature and the time at which rectus femoris peak temperature was reached for each treatment application. Setting: This study was conducted in the exercise physiology laboratory at Indiana State University. Patients: Twelve healthy students volunteered for this study. Individuals were excluded if not free of any infection, edema, ecchymosis, or injury to the right rectus femoris muscle in the past 6 months. Intervention: The three treatment types selected were hot packs, light exercise (30-35% ofV02 max), and moderate exercise (50-55% ofV02 max). Main Outcome Measures: Peak intramuscular temperature and time to peak temperature were measured at 1 em below the adipose tissue layer. Results: It was revealed that when peak temperature and time to peak temperature were considered together, treatment was different (F4, 44=3.1, P=.03). Peak temperature was found to differ between treatment types (F2, 22= 4.1, P= .03). Moderate intensity exercise increased intramuscular temperature significantly higher than low intensity exercise. However, there were no differences found in time to reach peak temperature between treatments (F2, 22= 2.8, P= .08). Conclusions: Hot packs should be applied to local areas for at least 15 minutes in order to receive the maximum temperature increase from treatment. Also, cycle ergometer exercise is more advantageous at a moderate intensity than a light intensity to reach higher peak intramuscular temperature.

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