Ice Water Immersion Proves Advantageous as a Post-exercise Recovery Technique

Plunge into Ice Water to Relax your Muscles

Worldwide, athletes are recommended to go for an ice bath to recover after a competition. Ice water immersion is increasingly practiced by athletes who indulge in diverse sports and there are many theories backing it.

Ice Water Immersion

Water is one of the best form of therapy and ice water immersion therapy also has water as its base. Athletes are suggested to take a post-match plunge in an ice bath at 12-15°C and this practice is believed to reduce muscle pain and soreness after a match or a training session. Few athletes go one step ahead and alternate between immersing themselves in cold and warm water, each lasting for a period of between 1 and 5 minutes. In general, athletes use ice water immersion for anywhere between 5 and 20 minutes.

There are not many study results backing the advantages of using ice water immersion therapy as a recovery option and in fact, some even feel that this technique actually causes muscle soreness the next day after immersion in the ice bath. Is it the placebo effect that is hyped or is there really some advantage of an ice water immersion?

Study

For the common man, a massage or external oil application would suffice to relieve pain after some brisk walking but for an elite athlete who is focused on building muscles, any attempt to mitigate inflammation could be counterproductive.

American Council on Exercise (ACE) sponsored a three-part study that analyzed whether timing and duration of cold water immersion impacts recovery for both, athletes and regular exercisers. Each participant completed four different testing sessions in random order with at least 96 hours between two sessions. Every session contained the same sets of workouts performed for a definite number of days and then the study participants were involved in any of the following:

• A control session with no cold-water immersion
• A 10-min cold-water immersion soon after exercising
• A 10-min cold-water immersion some two hours after exercising
• A 20-min cold water immersion soon after exercising

One needs to remember that all the participants led sedentary lifestyles and none of them had performed resistance training at least in the last six months. Results showed that:

• Cold-water immersion after exercising is a much more efficient technique than no immersion at all
• There was no decrease in endurance or performance following an immersion on the second day of testing whereas, recovery without cold water immersion resulted in decreased endurance and performance
• All three sessions except for the control sessions proved to be beneficial and contribute towards recovery

Study results show that cold water immersion is an effective recovery strategy, even up to two hours after exercise and hence, can not only be an aid to elite athletes but can also be used by any of us. The only concern is that, it must be twisted to fit our busy lifestyles.

Takeaway

Competitions, races and training practices impose too much stress on an athlete’s body that causes fatigue which is succeeded by improved performance. Any post-exercise routine impacts fitness, sports performance and strongly affects muscle recovery. An ideal post-workout recovery plan includes:

• A cool-down period that helps to gradually tune your body to normal temperatures instead of abruptly stopping the process
• Proper rest for the recovery to happen
• Post-workout stretches to help the muscle recover faster
• A healthy, well-balanced diet containing the right mix of macronutrients. For a proper sports diet plan, you can get in touch with well-acclaimed nutritionists/dietitians at www.firsteatright.com who are more than ready to supervise and monitor your progress at every junction.
• Drinking enough fluids to compensate for the lost water content
• massage

All these can be followed by alternate hot- and cold-water baths or shower. This kind of a versatile and well-balanced approach is always better than a single recovery technique (such as only relying on an ice-water bath or so).