Do Ice Baths Really Improve Muscle Recovery? Read this before trying it

“Cold water immersion,” more commonly known as “ice baths,” is commonly used by professional athletes after sporting events.

Diving in “ice” water (usually around 10 ° C) for 5-10 minutes is believed to improve muscle recovery and future athletic performance, but what is the science behind these claims?

We Asked 5 Exercise Physiology Experts: Do Post-Exercise Ice Baths Improve Performance? Here is what they said.

What happens to muscles when they are cold?

Many people use ice packs or a bag of frozen peas at home to reduce pain and swelling if they have stretched a muscle.

Johanna Lanner, expert in muscle physiology at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, explains how it works:

“Cooling i) reduces the transmission of nerve impulses and thus reduces the level of pain perception and ii) induces constriction of blood vessels in peripheral tissues (eg muscles), resulting in reduced pain. diffusing fluids which may help reduce acute exercise-induced inflammation. “

Llion Roberts, an exercise physiology expert from Griffith University in Australia, says: “Cold water immersion is also known to help restore heart rate variability, the variation of millisecond periods between successive heartbeats.

Interestingly, ice baths can influence our minds as well as our muscles. James Broatch, an exercise physiology expert at the University of Victoria in Australia, undertook a research study comparing “the effects of an ice bath with a placebo that participants were led to believe was. as effective as an ice bath “.

In the placebo condition, the participants took a hot bath with what they thought was a special “recovery oil”, but which was in fact just a skin cleanser.

Broatch says that “participants in the ice bath and placebo conditions rated their belief in the benefits of their assigned recovery condition in the same way, which in turn resulted in a similar recovery in strength. leg extension for 48 hours after exercise. ”

What effect do ice baths have on muscle recovery after exercise?

Lanner says that ice baths are effective in “reducing the symptoms of late-onset exercise-induced muscle pain, that is, pain and stiffness experienced in muscles for several hours to several days ( usually 24 to 72 hours) after unusual or strenuous exercise “.

For this reason, ice baths are commonly used for muscle recovery after athletic competitions.

What effect do ice baths have on physical performance?

As ice baths help muscles recover, it may follow that they can improve athletic performance. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple – Hakan Westerblad, an expert in cellular muscle physiology at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, says that “Scientific studies show varying results regarding the effect of post-exercise ice baths on subsequent performance, with results ranging from minor positive effects, via no effects, to negative effects. “

One of the problems with measuring the effect of ice baths on physical performance is that there are many different types of exercise, such as endurance or strength training.

Roberts says “surprisingly enough, after strength training, immersion in cold water can actually hinder the benefits of the exercise.”

He and his colleagues “have seen significant reductions and / or weakening of the desired results of strength training, such as increased strength and muscle mass, as well as cellular improvements in muscle. This was probably due to the fact that the cold water negatively interfered with the natural protein. and the cellular responses that occur in the muscle after each strength session. “

The effects on endurance training can be very different. Christopher Mawhinney, a sports science expert from Mahidol University in Thailand, says: “Interestingly, there is some evidence to suggest that exercising muscle cooling increases the cellular signal that activates mitochondrial biogenesis.”

Mitochondrial biogenesis occurs when cells increase their number of mitochondria, which are structures that release energy. One of the positive effects of endurance training is mitochondrial biogenesis, so ice baths could help amplify this benefit.

The effects of ice baths on physical performance differ depending on the type of exercise involved.

Rogers sums up: “Cold water immersion after strength training should be undertaken with caution or avoided. Its use following one-off circumstances such as major sporting events or endurance exercises is recommended, and may even provide additional benefits for subsequent performance of endurance exercises.

Bottom Line: Don’t use ice baths to improve your strength training, but they could be helpful for endurance training.

Article based on 5 expert answers to this question: Do Post-Exercise Ice Baths Improve Performance?

This expert response was published in partnership with the independent fact-checking platform Metafact.io. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter here.