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Effect of Cryotherapy in Preventing Blistering and Tearing of Hands of Utah State University Male Gymnasts

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of cryotheapy versus no treatment in preventing blistering and tearing of the hands of twenty-six male college age gymnastics students at Utah State University.
The subjects were tested with a hand dynamometer to determine differences in grip strength between right and left hands. Two groups of thirteen subjects each were formed to equalize the differences in grip strength.
During the experimental period of four class sessions totaling two hours, subjects participated in various activities on the horizontal bar, parallel bars, anG rings which rec.,ui red simultaneous gripping by both hands. Whenever a subject experienced a burning sensation in the skin of his hands, he went immediately to tn ice water bath (100 C) and soaked one hand for thirty seconds. One group treated only the stronger hand, while the other group treated only the weaker hard. After treatment, the hand was dried and workout continued.
When the skin tore on a subject's hand, he reported to the recorder and treated the tear by carefully trimming away a ll the loose skin. He was a lso encouraged to apply a disinfectant. The tear was measured and given a classification as to whether it was a 1st, 2nd, or 2rd degree tear, with a corresponding weighted value. Training continued unless the tear was serious.
The data was subjected to the t distribution test for significance to de!ermine whether the cryotherapy was successful in preventing tearing of the skin on the treated hand. The res ul ts of the t test indicated a significant reduction in the amount of tearing that occurred on the treated hands of the subjects . Results of the t test for two sample means showed that there was no significant difference whether a subject treated the weaker hand or the stronger hand at the . 05 level of significance.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-4206
Date01 May 1975
CreatorsLarson, Wayne E.
PublisherDigitalCommons@USU
Source SetsUtah State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceAll Graduate Theses and Dissertations
RightsCopyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact Andrew Wesolek (andrew.wesolek@usu.edu).

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