Effects Of Flotation-REST On Vastus Lateralis Muscle Oxygenation In Healthy And Concussed Athletes
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Flotation-REST (restricted environmental stimulation therapy) is widely adopted among athletes for recovery, performance enhancement, and injury risk mitigation. Despite evidence supporting its relaxation benefits, limited research has explored its influence on physical fitness and its potential role in concussion recovery. Understanding key indicators of improved physical fitness, such as heightened muscle oxygenation (MO2), is vital to comprehending the impact of flotation-REST. Given the prevalence and misconceptions surrounding sports-related concussions, there is an urgent need for innovative recovery approaches. PURPOSE: The project aimed at investigating the benefits of 5 weeks of flotation-REST on Vastus Lateralis (VL) MO2 in healthy and concussed university athletes. METHODS: A convenience sample of 12 healthy (23.9 ± 5.9 years old) and 6 concussed (21.7 ± 1.6 years old) athletes participated in 5 weeks of one hour flotation-REST sessions. Prior to and following each session, VL MO2 was assessed for 5 minutes while lying supine followed by 5 minutes in quiet standing.After testing for normality, 1) a repeated analysis of variance was carried out within subject across all 5 weeks, 2) a paired t-test was conducted pre-post flotation-REST for lying and standing, and 3) a multivariate analysis of variance was completed to compare the groups (p < 0.05). RESULTS: No difference was found pre-post within subject across all 5 weeks. A significant improvement was observed pre-post bath for each week, in both groups and conditions (Healthy lying t(19) = -5.26, p < 0.001; Concussed lying t(23) = -3.59, p < 0.001; Healthy standing t(51) = -5.91, p < 0.001; Concussed standing t(23) = -4.96, p < 0.001). There was no significant difference between healthy and concussed athletes. CONCLUSION: The relaxation effects of flotation-REST extend to VL muscle oxygenation in both healthy and concussed athletes, though this effect appears transient. While a reduction in VL muscle oxygenation is evident in concussed athletes, they do not seem to derive distinct advantages from flotation-REST. Future research should explore its impact on other physical fitness parameters, such as postural stability and heart rate variability. This work was supported by Mitacs through the Mitacs Accelerate program.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".