Ice baths are a very common form of recovery after a hard training session, but could they actually be hindering our improvements??
A recent study investigated the effects of post exercise cooling on muscle protein synthesis.
Their findings suggest that cold water immersion severely blunted skeletal muscles adaptive response to training, therefore compromising the efficiency, and effectiveness of exercise training.
Ice baths can be useful when we are deep into a competitive season, when feeling our best is most important, however when we are training for improvement – we may be better off giving the ice baths a miss.
REFERENCES:
Fuchs, Cas & Kouw, Imre & Churchward-Venne, Tyler & Smeets, Joey & Senden, Joan & Lichtenbelt, Wouter & Verdijk, Lex & Loon, Luc. (2019). Post-exercise Cooling Impairs Muscle Protein Synthesis Rates In Healthy Young Males: 2012 Board #168 May 30 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 51. 543. 10.1249/01.mss.0000562130.34883.4f.
