Ice bath for recovery - Opinions?

XavierNusum

Hey everyone,

2 questions for you all.

1) What are your thoughts about using ice baths for recovery? Go all out, I'm asking for opinions AND facts, so if you can link me to info that would be appreciated as well.

2) If you use ice baths for recovery, what temperature and duration do you use and why?


I know with most things if you have no clue WTH you're doing you could get yourself in a bad spot so I thought I'd ask before taking the plunge. (see what I did there)

Thanks in advance for your responses.

cheshirecatastrophe

CONTRA-indicated (i.e. not) for weightlifting/strength training.

Jury is still out for runners.

If inflammation is part of the body's natural healing/recovery process from microtrauma, it seems to me that it would not be useful there, either, but I'll wait for Science.

There are some situations in which you want to ice a traumatic injury.

ETA: The strength training study looked at an all-male group. Women and men sometimes react differently to different training stimuli (for example, women don't display the same ability-to-metabolize-fat gains as men from working out in a fasted/glycogen-depleted state), so it's impossible to say for sure whether this would apply to women as well.

XavierNusum

Well there you go. I'm glad I asked. I really don't want to delay recovery.

Thanks for the information!!