Atheletes and health enthusiasts have been engaging in bathing in ice cold water for a long time. Many people who have taken an ice bath have probably wondered (me included) is it really worth it? The more scientific name for this recovery process is cold-water immersion (CWI) and it is thought to have many benefits (Allan & Mawhinney, 2017). These benefits include a reduced perception of pain, changes in blood flow, skeletal muscle temperature drop, limiting hypoxic stress, less inflammation and oxidative stress (Allan & Mawhinney, 2017).
Although the above list might make it seem worth it, the actual benefits of CWI, especially when thinking about inflammation and oxidative stress, are being argued (Allan & Mawhinney, 2017). When considering atheletes wanting to recover from a workout one has to think about all physiology. Even though oxidative stress and inflammation may seem "bad" in some ways that are actually important in cell signaling and remodeling after exercise in muscles (Allan & Mawhinney, 2017).
In order to see whether or not CWI has a major impact on the inflammation response a study was done. Peake and colleagues set up a study involving nine young men (Allan & Mawhinney, 2017). In this study the efficacy of CWI post-workout was compared to an active recovery treatment post-workout (Allan & Mawhinney, 2017). The results of this study showed that CWI has no impact on the inflammatory process and on cellular stress (Allan & Mawhinney, 2017). Knowing this it seems that ice baths may be less effective than people believe them to be.
Allan, R., & Mawhinney, C. (2017). Is the ice bath finally melting? Cold water immersion is no greater than active recovery upon local and systemic inflammatory cellular stress in humans. The Journal of physiology, 595(6), 1857–1858. https://doi-org.dml.regis.edu/10.1113/JP273796
I have been told by so many coaches over the years about the importance of ice baths in recovery. It so interesting to see that it may have been no greater than active recovery without freezing. While reading your post I began to think back on my lacrosse playing days and wondered if there was a genetic basis for why I tolerated ice baths so much worse than many of my teammates. I did find that there is a protein called alpha-actinin-3 that the loss of provides better cold resistance and muscle heat generation. Immediately I determined that my genes must code for extra alpha-actinin-3.
ReplyDeleteWyckelsma VL;Venckunas T;Houweling PJ;Schlittler M;Lauschke VM;Tiong CF;Wood HD;Ivarsson N;Paulauskas H;Eimantas N;Andersson DC;North KN;Brazaitis M;Westerblad H; (n.d.). Loss of α-actinin-3 during human evolution provides superior cold resilience and muscle heat generation. American journal of human genetics. Retrieved November 28, 2022, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33600773/