Over the past decade, submerging yourself in cold water for a cold shock response has gained some serious popularity.
This practice, known as cold water immersion or cold plunging has shown to bring about a variety of benefits for most avid gym goers. This practice brings down your core body temperature which in helps catalyze muscle growth and muscle recovery.
Continue reading to learn all about how cold water plunging helps you recover from high-intensity exercise and avoid post-workout muscle soreness.
How Does A Cold Plunge Help with Muscle Recovery?
Ice baths are an excellent tool for muscle recovery. There are many cold plunge benefits. For starters, when you hop into ice-cold water after a hard workout, it triggers a process called vasoconstriction.
During this, your blood vessels constrict and become more narrow. Vasoconstriction helps decrease inflammation and swelling in your muscles, giving them a chance to recover faster and stronger.
Not only does the cold water help with recovery, it also helps flush out metabolic waste products. These include lactic acid that can build up during rigorous exercise.
Moreover, the low temperature of the water can numb any pain or soreness you might be experiencing. This could potentially save you from a minor injury.
So, the next time you hit the gym, consider taking a dip in an ice bath to give your muscles a little extra care to prep them for the next workout.
Understanding Muscle Recovery
Understanding muscle recovery is essential for getting the most out of your demanding workouts and preventing major and minor injuries. Below are seven workout recovery tips to help you fully recover quickly and efficiently after a tough session:
Prioritize rest and good sleep: Sleep is the most important way to recover by a mile, your muscles need time to repair and rebuild, so incorporate rest days into your weekly workout routine.
Give yourself at least one or two days off each week. Make sure to sleep 7 to 9 hours every night to allow your muscles to recover and grow stronger.
Fuel Up with Proper Nutrition: Eating a high-protein balanced diet that also includes healthy fats and complex carbohydrates is key to the recovery process.
Proteins provide the building blocks for muscle-building and repair, while carbohydrates replenish glycogen stores which are responsible for giving you energy, and healthy fats support overall recovery.
Lean meat, pasta, and avocadoes are excellent examples of each of the macronutrients mentioned.
Stay Hydrated: Being hydrated also holds a huge amount of importance, it cools your body down and helps you train and recover with healthy organs.
Drink plenty of water, preferably with electrolytes, throughout the day to help transport nutrients to your muscles and flush out unhealthy toxins.
You should aim for a minimum of 8 glasses (64 ounces or 2 liters) of water every day, and even more if you’re engaging in intense workouts regularly.
Stretch and Foam Roll: Stretching is also a great way to catalyze the recovery process. It helps improve flexibility and alleviates pain and muscle tension.
Foam rolling can help reduce muscle soreness and improve blood circulation. Incorporate both into your post-workout routine now and then to aid in recovery and prevent tightness.
Active Recovery: On your rest days, engage in light physical activity to promote blood flow and enhance recovery. Your body naturally pushes blood better with a higher heart rate, which is highly beneficial for muscles.
Indulging in activities like walking, swimming, or gentle yoga can help reduce muscle stiffness and promote healing without putting too much strain on your muscles.
Prioritizing Mental Health and Stress Response: When it comes to building muscle, you must prioritize your mental health to reduce the effects of stress hormones.
Being stressed leaves a significant amount of gains on the table, the same applies to muscle soreness and recovery. Taking care of stress will give you a variety of mental health benefits like a clearer mind and a higher amount of dopamine throughout the day to boost mood too.
Cold Water Immersion: Cold water immersion by using ice baths or cold plunge tubs are also a great way to help with muscle soreness and recovery. Although very cold temperatures are not for everyone, cold water immersion after an intense session is excellent for the immune system and has many other potential health benefits.
If you feel you aren’t ready for ice-cold baths, you could always try swimming in cold water as a more subtle cold plunge.
Remember, recovery is a personalized process, so listen to your body’s response and adjust these tips to what works best for you.
By prioritizing rest, proper nutrition, hydration, stretching, and active recovery, you’ll be well on your way to recovering fully and efficiently after those challenging workouts
How Does Cold Water Affect The Body
When it comes to answering how cold plunges help recovery, the answer is simple, when you submerge your body in cold water during an ice bath, it triggers a series of physiological responses inside your body that lead to better blood flow to muscles that have been put under stress form your exercise.
The cold water causes vasoconstriction, in this process, your blood vessels constrict and narrow. This helps to reduce blood flow to the surface of your skin and redirect it to your vital organs, ultimately causing delayed onset muscle soreness.
Due to this, your heart rate and blood pressure may slightly increase. The cold water also stimulates the release of endorphins, which are natural painkillers that can help alleviate and relieve muscle soreness.
Cold plunging also reduces inflammation and swelling in your muscles, further aiding in the recovery process.
Overall, cold immersion and cold exposure can have an amazing impact on your body by promoting blood circulation, reducing muscle soreness, chronic inflammation and enhancing recovery.
It’s an excellent idea to mess around with the benefits of cold therapy every once in a while and find out if it’s for you.
Evidence Shows That Cold Plunges Have Great Health Benefits
Cold plunges and cold exposure in general have been gaining popularity for their incredible health benefits. Research suggests that immersing yourself in cold water or feeling cold shock, can have a significant positive impact on your physical and mental well-being.
Studies have shown that the reduced body temperature from cold plunging can help reduce muscle inflammation, enhance muscle recovery, and improve circulation.
It can also boost your immune system by strengthening white blood cells, increasing alertness, and improving mood by triggering the release of endorphins and happy hormones.
So yes, there is a variety of evidence that suggests there are many potential benefits of cold water therapy and deliberate cold exposure.
Grapplers Graveyard is one of the best places to learn about this recovery method. They have over 50 articles on their site related to the topic all written by Cameron Allen who has been cold plunging since he was in High School.
