Triathletes often think, "how much training can I do?" What rarely comes to mind is, "how much and how well can I recover after training?"
One of the best ways to aid recovery is through ice baths. Ice baths are when one submerges part of there body in cold water.
Body Bath
Why are ice baths needed?
While exercising small micro tears are created. To help aid these micro tears the body pumps more blood to these areas so white blood cells can repair the damaged tissue. This creates swelling.
These micro tears are actually a good thing, as the body will repair the damaged muscle to be better at handling the given training stimulus that was place on them. These tears how ever can cause delayed on set of muscle soreness (DOMS) along with swelling as stated earlier.
Ice baths are a great way to combat these side effects created through triathlon training. Ice baths will help to close the micro tear damage. This means swelling is kept to a minimum. The baths also help to flush out any excess waste products as more circulation happens due to the cold submersion.
How can you set up and use an ice bath to beneficial in recovery?
Often athletes and coaches use large trash buckets to hold the cold water and ice. This allows athletes to soak there legs. The water should not be super cold as research has show adverse effects on the muscles and there recovery if the temperature is 40F (5 C) or below.
Best results have yielded from temperatures in the range of 50 to 60F degrees (10 to15 C). The submersion should be 5-12 minutes.
Ice packs to mimic the same environment as ice baths do not work as well. Ice packs have been shown not keep to muscles temperature low for as long after exposure, as the muscle temperature warms up much more rapidly due to blood flow rushing back quicker.
Ice baths are something that I have used and has made my legs feel great after long work outs. A few studies have also concluded beneficial results in using cold water submersion in lessening recovery time.
Why Do Triathletes Need Ice Baths?
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