Jumping into a bath full of ice or having a cold shower is a great way to recover from exercise, right? Well…maybe.
The research over the past ten years is divided. Some say it’s a good thing to sit in a bath full of cold water while others argue that you’re just wasting your time and getting cold in the process! So what are we to do?
I’ve looked at the similarities and differences between eleven scientific studies done in the last ten years (see reference list below) and have found that cold water immersion (CWI):
- Seems to have no beneficial effect on the structural damage done to the muscle
- Has no effect on perceived soreness (how sore you think you feel) if the athlete is untrained or not used to the exercise that has caused the soreness
- Has a positive effect on perceived soreness if the athlete is highly trained and/or used to the exercise that has caused the soreness
- May reduce strength for at least an hour afterward
However, many people say they can ‘feel’ the benefits of cooling sore muscles and joints, so is this a case of some science geeks overthinking the whole process? And if we found someone who believed that CWI helped them recover and compared them using CWI versus using no method at all, would we see a different result to the research? What the heck is going on here?!
For those who believe in getting cold, the key to recovery may actually depend on something else we’re doing.
1) Active recovery is more beneficial than CWI. You may be giving CWI the credit for your recovery when really it’s because of your active recovery workouts.
2) CWI may make you feel better for a little while…but see how you feel 24 hours later. You may be giving CWI credit for immediate alleviation of muscle pain because CWI temporarily increases warmth in the center of the body and increases blood flow and heart rate. However, this is because of a hormone release due to the cold skin temperature. It can potentially make you feel better but does little to nothing for muscle recovery.
So getting cold seems like a waste of time. But it’s important to note that no studies found any negative effects (apart from the immediate drop in strength, so don’t do it in your warm up), so if you like doing it, by all means go ahead.
Active recovery was often used in comparison with CWI and always kicked its ass! So always do your recovery exercises! It’s recommended that you perform light exercises for the damaged muscles one to two days after your heavy lifting day.
The lack of benefits coming from sitting in a cold bath may come as a shock to some of us, myself included, although I suppose it’s easy to get stuck in your ways both in training and recovery. Sometimes we do need a different direction. I’m interested to hear your thoughts on this, so get involved!
References
- http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a910769603
- https://www.thieme-connect.com/ejournals/abstract/sportsmed/doi/10.1055/s-2007-965118
- http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a713776107
- http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/adis/smd/2003/00000033/00000002/art00005
- http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2005.00437.x/abstract
- http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a910769603
- http://bjsportmed.com/content/41/6/392.abstract
- http://jap.physiology.org/content/43/2/216.abstract
- http://www.springerlink.com/content/d7bfe2wglh9xbcef/
- http://www.jsams.org/article/S1440-2440%2808%2900038-8/abstract
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2659079/
- http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a909773437
- http://www.springerlink.com/content/h73570484h828127/
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Anthony Shaw is the owner and strength and conditioning coach at Raw Strength Gym, a gym for athletes based in Warrington, England, United Kingdom. Check out his website at 
I’m surprised alright. I always seem to recover faster when I use icepacks on an area or have cold shower…
I honestly dont care if it helps or not. No way are you getting me to jump my sweaty ass into a tub of ice after training. I will deal with DOMS.
Interesting. I’m a fan of CWI when I’ve played a hard basketball game, but not post-lifting. This is just personal preference, though.
Can you make the references hyperlinks?
I don’t know anyone that takes an ice bath for their muscles (it’s for your joints).
come on thats a gimme. Only sleep and food can speed recovery.
I agree with JasonD. We used ice baths in college during 2-a-days and it felt great. I would also stretch and ice at the same time my groin, quads, and hamstrings at night and would feel fully recovered in the morning. After training, I prefer contrast showers.
Interesting article. Anthony, what are your thoughts on contrast showers as opposed to CWI by itself? I’ve heard people swear by it, but I don’t seem to get great results. I’d be interested to see if there was any legitimate research done on it.
Im sort of interested was this supposed to be for or against cold therapy? Seems its in favor of active recovery without CWI while the last two articles seemed to support the notion that CWI is effective for reducing DOMS and helping to return baseline performance after strenuous exercise.
Some of the articles had me scratching my head a little..whats the reasoning for icing 7 times after a simple arm exercise? I read the ‘dont ice before training article’ and just thought ‘duh’.
Ive always used ice baths and ice massage for recovery and the effects are tremendous. After a hard leg workout (throws, cleans, sleds) if i didnt ice down my knees would be incredibly inflamed that night and I would have a hard time sleeping. All my athletes report a similar experience of feeling much better the night of and the next day after a hard session followed by a ice bath. Even if its a placebo effect, which doesnt seem the case, Id rather have my athletes feeling better and ready to go hard again then complaining of how sore they are and becoming unmotivated.
/2cents
“CWI temporarily increases warmth in the center of the body and increases blood flow and heart rate”
Isn’t this some of the supposed physiology behind recovery workouts being good? How many times have we heard a lifter say hes just doing something “for bloodflow”? Is their any truth to this? How was the recovery measured in those studies? Is it really possible to measure recovery quantitatively?
There are a lot of questions that I think are left unanswered here. But it’s certainly a great question!
I wonder if the increased vasoconstriction is part of the mechanism purported to enhance recovery. In essence, “squeezing” the blood through and removing any waste that could have built up.
I think the benefits to ice baths are for joint swelling and bruising. When I played semi-pro Rugby I used to take ice baths after matches and some training sessions finding that it helped keep contusions and bruising from getting out of control. Contrary I haven’t seen too much difference in ice baths for muscle recovery. I prefer using elastic bands for active recovery, light resistance with high repetitions and stretching. And as is stated above, rest and food help. Also see D-Ribose if your DOMS is getting too frequent.
Interesting, I’ve been using CWI for a while and love it. But maybe it’s not so much the cold but rather the absence of hot that does the trick. I notice when I take a hot shower after training the soreness is definitely increased. Maybe I can just take lukewarm showers and spare myself some torture.
Ted,
Not just for the joints. When you jump in an ice bath, you constrict blood flow to your muscles. Once you get out and warm up, or do a contrast shower, you get a rush of blood and nutrients to your muscles. Sounds good to me.
Just because “research” says no, doesn’t mean they’re right.
I have used ice baths since I began playing college athletics (football). I am a firm believer in the ice bath because once introduced to them I recovered much quicker and it just took away the overall soreness. I felt much fresher in my next activity and my body began to have a withdraw affect after I stopped doing them. I began to use them for my feet (because of a broken bone in my foot) and later dipped my entire body in them. After a two-a-day practice this is an effective way to both calm your body down and help elevate the recovery process.
Also, although I do believe a lot of what is put on here I am having trouble with some of the research because I do not consider any .com websites to be very credible sources. I see you have a few up there and i’m just wondering if those are very truthful. They may be pretty good i’m just not one for researching with .com websites.
Thanks for the response guys, I think a follow up article on the exact methods used in these research studies is needed as a lot of good points have been raised.
Dan P, I agree, if it helps you keep doing it! This is also linked to an interesting point by AC that CWI could be used for the treatment of bruises/sprains as an anti-inflammatory measure, I will have to take a further look into that aspect, I also play rugby and I regularly ice and use cold showers so I am in no way saying to stop using CWI if it helps you. It’s more than likely that the subjects used in the research were not strongman, powerlifters or individuals with constant heavy loading on the joints, so this point is extremely valid for further research
Gabe, I’m not sure about contrast methods, if used to increase bloodflow I have a feeling that active recovery would be a better alternative, especially if you aren’t getting results with it at the moment.
Tuck, all article links are for legitimate scientific journals, I also wouldn’t trust any old website!
What kind of active recovery exercises can you perform? If you are a division 1 athlete and are in season what kind of active recovery exercises can you do for your hamstrings, quads, low back, etc? I understand stretching and rolling out is very beneficial, but ice baths are used regularly by athletes across the world.
Thanks to all of you guys for your input!!! I also always thought, that icebaths are to stop or work against inflammatory processes. I used it a lot during my achilles tendonitis and I felt a lot better after my practices or workouts.
I never thought about it as a method against DOMS so I am not wondering why those studies showed those results. But I still believe in icebaths and I am waiting for more articles like that, because you always have to question things like that….
Thanks for your work!!!!
Cold showers and ice baths or even an Ice pack on the neck and upper traps have been shown to help with sleep if done before bed. That said wouldn’t that in turn help recovery if it’s helping you sleep?
Ice cold Beer administered internally seems to do the job for me plus it helps with the Bloat…..
I am also interested to hear what you think about contrast. I have done cold tub, with sauna contrasting and felt fantastic after 3 days of 2-a-day intense training sessions. My understanding was that the contrasting helped to more actively flush the blood in and out of the extremities, filtering it faster,a nd removing waste by-products of lifting (i.e. lactic acid, etc).
CWI…”Has a positive effect on perceived soreness if the athlete is highly trained and/or used to the exercise that has caused the soreness”
why is every1 acting as if CWI doesnt work? If you regularly work out then it reduces DOMS
Weird that there was no mention of vasoconstriction and dilation, contrast temperature treatment, or even nutrient/waste product flow…. Reading this after I just read the HFCS article… disappointing
wierd how you failed to mention lactic acid? i thought the business with cold baths (or alternate hot and cold showers) was meant to help flush lactic acid out of the muscles to stop it eating away muscles after excersise, for that reason and only that reason. everyone knows it does nothing to help the aches and such the day after. well anyone thats tried it anyway..