SynthesisJournal of strength and conditioning research2026
The Impact of Aquatic Training on Athletic Performance and Physical Recovery in Competitive Athletes: A Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Journal of strength and conditioning research, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
abstractZheng, S, Wang, S, Cao, Q, and Li, H. The impact of aquatic training on athletic performance and physical recovery in competitive athletes: A meta-analysis. J Strength Cond Res 40(6): 723-737, 2026-To evaluate the effects of aquatic training on performance and physical recovery in competitive athletes, particularly its impact on explosive power, speed, agility, strength, aerobic capacity, and balance. This study used a meta-analysis approach to search relevant literature in the Web of Science and Scopus databases since their inception. The selected studies were limited to English-language articles that met predefined inclusion criteria. All included studies were randomized controlled trials or controlled experiments, with subjects being competitive athletes with a systematic training background. Standardized mean differences (SMDs) were used for data analysis, and statistical analysis was conducted using R (version 4.3.0). A total of 13 studies were included in the analysis, with 392 subjects. Aquatic training significantly improved athletes' explosive power (SMD = 0.79, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.0.50 to 1.07, p < 0.001), speed (SMD = 1.14, 95% CI = 0.89 to 1.38, p < 0.001), and agility (SMD = 0.47, 95% CI = 0.0.15 to 0.78, p = 0.004). However, the improvement in strength (SMD = 0.32, 95% CI = -0.32 to 0.96, p = 0.321) and balance (SMD = 0.42, 95% CI = -0.35 to 1.19, p = 0.282) was not statistically significant, and there was high heterogeneity in the studies on aerobic capacity (SMD = 1.92, 95% CI = -1.47 to 5.32, p = 0.267). In addition, aquatic training showed a modest yet positive effect on physical recovery, including improvements related to injury rehabilitation and fatigue relief (SMD = 0.38, 95% CI = 0.12 to 0.63, p = 0.004). As an effective supplementary training method, aquatic training significantly enhances athletic performance, especially in explosive power, speed, and agility. It has beneficial effects on injury recovery and post-training fatigue reduction. Although the effects on strength and aerobic capacity require further validation, aquatic training has proven to be an important tool in sports training and rehabilitation with promising application potential.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.