Ice Baths

Ice Baths are one of the most used recovery tools for any sort of sport. 

If it’s jumping into a cold pool, heading to the ocean for a dip in winter, getting into a specialised ice bath or making your own from a bin, it is often the first thing people think of when it comes to recovery. 

But, do you actually know the purpose behind them? 

Or the best way to use them? 

Or even the best time to use them? 

Firstly, I personally believe that Ice Baths have quickly become one of the most overused techniques out there. They aren’t used correctly. And people don’t actually understand when, why and how to use them. 

If you don’t know why then let's get into it. 

The purpose of an Ice Bath is to restrict blood flow to your extremities, which helps decrease total body inflammation. This happens through a process called VASOCONSTRICTION, which is when your blood vessels constrict and stop the blood from getting out away from your torso. This happens because the body wants to keep all your vital organs warm and working. Your body will detect the cold stimulus and choose to protect your vital organs and risk losing a limb (very extreme I know). When you then get out of the ice bath your blood vessels will expand and the blood will be able to get pushed back out to your limbs, warming your entire body up. 

Here’s the thing, the ice bath doesn’t have to be as cold as you think it does. Just because it has the word ICE in it does not mean it has to be 0 degrees. It actually doesn’t need any ice in it at all. For an Ice Bath to be effective it only needs to be between 10-15 degrees and you only need to be in there for 10-15 minutes. 

Let’s break this down. 

Your core body temperature is around 37 degrees. So if the temperature of the Ice Bath is 10 degrees this is 27 degrees colder than your body temperature, which is a huge difference. And is enough for your body to do its thing and get the response after. Making an Ice Bath any colder increases the temperature gap and can increase your risk of shock or will lead to a decreased time in the ice bath which will decrease the results. 

The other thing to take into consideration with Ice Baths is when you're using them. Is it after a main training session? Or are you looking at getting into one after a gym session? Is it Pre-Season or is it In-Season? How close to your next game are you? Or have you just played? 

Remember the main purpose of an Ice Bath is to decrease total body inflammation. This means that we want to do it after a game or a main training session, because we want to decrease the stress that the game or training has placed on the body. But if we are in pre-season we are looking to stress the body, so getting in an Ice Bath after every session may not be the best idea. I would recommend getting in an Ice Bath 1-24 hours after games/competitions and during recovery weeks. After our 24 hour window we want to look at getting the blood flowing around the body, so getting into a cold tub of water is going to do the complete opposite. 

So what about post gym sessions? This could be one of the worst times to get into an Ice Bath. When we go to the gym we place stress on the body, which results in the body releasing a growth hormone into the bloodstream which goes to the muscle and starts repairing it (Making the muscle stronger and bigger). So thinking back to the start, getting in an Ice Bath will VASCONSTRICT the blood vessels and stop the blood from leaving the vital organs. This will result in the muscles not receiving the growth hormone it’s looking for post gym session. So after gym sessions you should be staying away from the cold. Keep your body warm and your blood vessels open. 

So next time you go to get into an Ice Bath think about what you’re doing.