The Effect of Creatine Monohydrate Supplementation with In-and-Out of Water Recovery during HIIT on C-Reactive Protein, Lipid Peroxidation and Female Swimmers’ Performance

The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of creatine supplementation along with two types of recovery (in-and-out of water) on C-reactive protein (CRP) and malondialdehyde (MDA) as systemic inflammatory indices and lipid peroxidation and also swimming record in trained female swimmers. In this semi-experimental study, 16 trained female swimmers were divided randomly into two groups: in-water active recovery and out of water active recovery. They performed 6 bouts of 50m sprint swimming with 120s rest intervals actively in-out of water, in-and-out of water before and after 6 days of creatine supplementation. The three-way analysis of variance showed that 6 bouts of sprint swimming significantly increased MDA and CRP (P=0.001). Although the recovery type (in-and-out of water) had no significant effects on MDA, CRP and sprint swimming performance, creatine supplementation significantly reduced MDA (P=0.018) and improved swimming performance (P=0.006) in both recovery groups. It seems that specialized and non-specialized recovery strategies do not affect inflammation and stress inhibition resulted from HIIT, but creatine supplementation can reduce the systemic stress resulted from HIIT and maintain sprint swimming performance.