Ice baths after workouts: Does cold help with muscle recovery
After an intense workout, athletes often immerse themselves in icy water, hoping to regain strength faster and reduce muscle pain. However, cold baths do not always give the expected effect, and thermal procedures can have a different effect on the processes occurring in the muscles after exertion. About which method of recovery turned out to be more effective and why changes in the body do not always mean an improvement in physical fitness — in the material of Izvestia.
The cold was no better than the heat
Researchers from the University of East London compared several ways to recover from intense physical activity. The results of the work are published in the Journal of Thermal Biology (JTB). The experiment involved 40 healthy, physically active adults, who were randomly divided into four groups.
After performing exercises that caused temporary muscle damage and delayed soreness, the participants used different recovery methods. The first group spent 30 minutes in hot water at a temperature of +42 degrees, the second — 15 minutes in cold water at a temperature of + 9 degrees. The third group was exposed to hot air at a temperature of +30 degrees for 30 minutes, and the fourth passively recovered at room temperature.
Immediately after physical exertion, muscle strength decreased by about 36% in all four groups. Over the next 72 hours, she gradually recovered, but the researchers found no statistically significant differences between the recovery methods. Thus, immersion in ice water did not provide a clear advantage over thermal procedures or passive rest in terms of the main functional indicator — the return of muscle strength.
What was happening inside the muscles
Although the recovery methods did not lead to significant differences in the return of muscle strength, the physiological reactions of the participants differed. After exposure to heat, the researchers recorded an increase in the expression of the heat shock protein HSP72. This protein is involved in cellular defense reactions and is associated with processes that help the body respond to stress and support tissue repair.
Another indicator was the concentration of muscle type creatine kinase CK-MM, a marker used to assess muscle damage. After thermal procedures, its level returned to its initial values faster than after immersion in cold water. This indicates differences in the physiological reactions of the body depending on the chosen recovery method.
At the same time, changes in biological markers did not mean that participants exposed to heat regained muscle strength faster or got rid of soreness. After 72 hours, none of the methods provided a complete recovery of subjective indicators of pain and muscle soreness. Therefore, it is not enough to evaluate the effectiveness of procedures based on individual laboratory parameters alone.
Why do heat and cold act differently?
The study's lead author, Freya Bain, a lecturer in sports science and exercise physiology at the University of East London, noted that cold baths remain one of the most popular ways to recover among both athletes and people who engage in physical activity in their free time. However, the results show that thermal procedures cause different physiological reactions after intense exercise.
Freya Bane
We observed an increase in the expression of heat shock proteins and a faster return to baseline levels of some markers associated with muscle damage in hot conditions. However, it is important to understand that these reactions did not lead to a significantly faster recovery of muscle strength or a reduction in soreness over the next 72 hours.
According to the researcher, the results highlight the complexity of recovery processes: changes at the physiological level do not necessarily lead to an immediate improvement in physical performance. In other words, the body may react to the procedure in a certain way, but this does not guarantee that a person will return to previous results faster after training.
The authors believe that additional research is needed to assess the possible benefits of thermal procedures. In particular, the question remains whether regular heat exposure can have a long-term effect that cannot be detected after one workout and during three days of observation.
What does this mean for athletes?
The results of the study do not confirm that ice baths are superior to other methods of recovery after intense exercise. At the same time, they do not prove that cold procedures are useless under any circumstances: scientists compared specific methods in certain conditions and evaluated the changes within 72 hours.
The experiment involved healthy, physically active adults, not exclusively professional athletes. In addition, the researchers studied the response to a particular intense load, so the data obtained cannot determine how different procedures affect recovery during regular training, preparation for competitions, or returning to physical activity after injury.
The main conclusion of the work is that physiological reactions and functional recovery are not the same thing. Thermal procedures changed some indicators related to cellular protection and muscle damage, but this did not provide a significant advantage in restoring strength or reducing soreness during the follow-up period. More research is needed to understand which recovery method is best suited for different training tasks.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
