Tuesday Tip: Ice baths for recovery?

Tuesday Tip: Ice baths for recovery? 🧊

Common post workout recovery options include sports massage, active recovery and cold water immersion, with the latter gaining popularity as ice baths have become a must in “self-improvement/discipline” circles recently. Social media is full of celebrities and fitness personalities sharing their cold water immersion practices, with dedicated tubs/barrels etc.

But are they really any better than other recovery methods and could they even be hindering your recovery and strength gains?

Studies have shown that cold water immersion didn’t provide much benefit for strength related outcomes when compared to just resting or other methods of recovery such as massage. In fact it was less effective. Several studies have also found that ice baths can negatively impact muscle and strength adaptations. A recent overview of studies found that taking an ice bath immediately after a workout leads to less muscle growth than resistance training alone.

While taking an ice bath after your workout won’t completely prevent muscle growth, you might gain less muscle than if you didn’t. This is because the cold reduces muscle protein synthesis – the process the body goes through to build new muscle – by limiting blood flow to the muscles. If you decrease the amount of blood flowing to the muscles, you also reduce the availability of amino acids the body needs for muscle synthesis.

For competitive athletes, it may be a viable recovery option leading up to a competition in conjunction with adequate rest and food, particularly at time where fatigue needs to be quite low. So it may help give that extra push as far as feeling recovered goes and even slightly contribute to some performance increases. If you’re someone looking to increase muscle mass, cold water immersion should be used sparingly (e.g. only after very hard training sessions) as it can interfere with hypertrophy (muscle growth). Daily cold water immersion will not completely negate muscle growth, but may take away from your hard work in the gym, a trade-off that is not really worth the hassle as the recovery benefits don’t seem to be anything revolutionary . So the next time you see your favorite influencer present daily ice baths as a MUST DO for recovery and performance, remember that their claims are not really supported by the current scientific evidence.

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xx