Ice Bath

[Young Scrappy]

I play in a competitive basketball league. I work out on a regular basis and push myself pretty hard. Would I benefit from an ice bath? I never tried it when I played hs football. Has anyone on the board experimented with ice baths? I don't mind the pain if there is a serious benefit to my well-being.

 

[texas_jack]

Just ice the parts that hurt. You don't need to ice your whole body.

 

[Working Stiff]

I ran track in colllege and used to use the ice bath fairly often. It's really unpleasant, and I'm not sure it actually did anything. But some people will tell you that it works wonders.

 

[Young Scrappy]

Originally Posted by texas_jack

Just ice the parts that hurt. You don't need to ice your whole body.

From my understanding it is not injuries. It's supposed to speed recovery along with other benefits.

 

[Althis]

In my time at the training room in college, I've seen numerous athletes take ice baths. They're supposed to help with the lactic acid and recovery speed. I've seen professional swimmers use them for muscle recovery purposes too, so I guess it's worth a shot.

 

[ginlimetonic]

If you a note saying you had your kidney removed for the black market, i heard post op, ice bath works wonders...

 

[Monaco]

While ice definitely helps with inflammation, I doubt you need it all over your body. Injuries come with the territory, I messed up my knees before age 20 and decided that anything with jumping is going to be stopped for my long term well being.

 

[SUPER K]

Our health club has a "cold plunge" pool, about 15' X10', just waist deep, kept at about 55 degrees. Very popular with the runners and tri guys. Helps flush the lactic acid. I have found it really helps after those long runs or bike rides

 

[prep333]

Ice baths are unreal. I dummied my back one day deadlifting, stopped on the way home from the gym picked up 5 bags of ice from the gas station and poured them in a cold bath. Sat in there for about 15 minutes. Thought I was going to shrivel up in there and die, but it definitely accelerated my healing.

 

[Working Stiff]

Just to clarify: ice baths have nothing to do with lactic acid. Icing reduces inflamation and encourages blood flow, which can help with recovery.

 

[privateer]

Originally Posted by Working Stiff

Just to clarify: ice baths have nothing to do with lactic acid. Icing reduces inflamation and encourages blood flow, which can help with recovery.

+1

I don't know about blood flow (not saying its true, not saying its false), but the other two are simple scientific facts.

Sports medicine is full of common knowledge that is plain wrong. Hopefully threads like this expose it!

 

[Timbaland]

I just do contrast showers instead. It helps with recovery after hard workouts.

 

[sho'nuff]

ice bath would also be a killer way to burn some mass calories and get real cut up

 

[Totino]

I've done it in the past after hard track/XC workouts, the benefit was zero soreness.

 

[Gattopardo]

After a hard leg weights or plyometric jump session my rowing team would often stand in the river just off the dock in water up to the tops of our thighs. It made it possible to go up and down stairs the next day. I was told that the increased blood flow to the muscles would help flush the lactic acid out faster, but this did seem a little like broscience (of the more plausible sort, though). Either way, the anti-inflammatory effect certainly had its benefits.