Ice Bath For Muscle Recovery

Muscle soreness is a familiar and dreaded companion for competitive athletes in training.

Ice bath for muscle recovery.

A hard run creates micro tears in the muscles that cause an inflammatory response leading to pain and swelling. Ice baths also known as cold water immersion or cold water therapy can be an effective recovery method to flush out lactic acid diminish muscle soreness and leave athletes feeling fresh for their next training session. There were no differences when cold water immersion was compared to other popular recovery interventions he says. However while ice baths do reduce muscle soreness it only decreases the irritation by about 20.

Some research suggests ice baths may reduce soreness after workouts. For instance a 2019 paper published in the journal of physiology found that ice baths can hamper the. The ice bath reduced muscle soreness by about 20 he says. Don t speed up this process.

Subsequently as the tissue warms and the increased blood flow speeds circulation the healing process is jump started. Additionally studies seem to be inconclusive on the benefits of ice baths over other recovery methods such as compression post workout nutrition or taking ibuprofen. However newer research has found ice baths may not be a recovery cure all for your muscles. This will kill the muscle recovery process and make the ice bath useless.

A 2018 metanalysis of 99 studies looked at the effectiveness of several recovery methods including contrast water therapy. Ice baths are thought to limit this reaction by constricting blood vessels which. So the best active. Ice baths or cold water immersion cwi have long been used by high level strength and power athletes to enhance recovery from high intensity matches and training sessions.

When your timer goes off the first thing your going to want to do is jump into a hot shower.