Does a cold shower for the legs really enhance recovery?

Hum. I can only say from my experience. I dip my legs in ice water 15 mins after my much running at the end of the day. It's been good to me. Usually up to the hips. Stops the ghost calf firing. I get multiple calf spasms when doing "big" miles. Happens during sleep. Last for a few secs painful enough to remember after waking up. Maybe it's just me, it's allowed my to stay injury free. Condolences to my injured running brothers. Many great sub 2:10 marathon guys will never be heard from due to injury.

I used to just have a regular shower then switch to cold at end for legs. It definitely helped reduce tighness in calves

The advantage over the ice bath is you just flick the switch on the shower. It might not be quite as cold but in winter you get a good effect

anecdotal at best. A cold shower isn't cold, it feels cold.

An ice bath is only 50-60 degrees, which will lead to some actual constriction of the blood vessels, followed by relaxation, letting new blood help the recovery process.

A cold shower will be "colder" than the body, and promote a bit of recovery, but compared to an ice bath, might as well not bother.

'but compared to an ice bath, might as well not bother'

Who in the real world outside of pro's have time for that

Outside summer & esp in winter cold only in shower is cold enough

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Who in the real world outside of pro's have time for that

Outside summer & esp in winter cold only in shower is cold enough

College runners, good high school runners, anyone with access to ice and a bath tub?

it's not that hard, nor does it have to be that time consuming... few inches of water and some ice, BAM, ice bath.

Just knocked out five miles and took a fantastic dump. Feel about five pounds lighter.

Lots of guys do this while on nofap.

how so.... wrote:

anecdotal at best. A cold shower isn't cold, it feels cold.

An ice bath is only 50-60 degrees, which will lead to some actual constriction of the blood vessels, followed by relaxation, letting new blood help the recovery process.

A cold shower will be "colder" than the body, and promote a bit of recovery, but compared to an ice bath, might as well not bother.

Ice baths inhibit recovery any way you slice it. Get a massage.

I know so many people love ice baths but they did nothing but make me ill. After doing a track session in the winter, cooling down, standing about for a little bit, travelling back - I'd want to get food, the last thing I'd want to do at that point is to get into a bath full of ice. The times I tried it I ended up feeling sick - just basically getting cold to the point I couldn't get warm again. It just felt like it was hammering my system. I've wondered if a better compromise is sitting fully clothes with just from the knees down in an ice bucket, as at least then you could attempt to stay warm. But whenever I tried icing injuries, I always ended up hurting myself more. It just doesn't agree with me. I agree with it for the first 48 hours after an acute injury, but not sure otherwise.

Are you the type of person who will change their mind when presented with new evidence? Or do you hold to your anecdotal experiences and form strong opinions based off little events that have happened to you?

Just so you know, the body adapts to cold like it does to running. If you ice bathed for a couple weeks you would have no such reaction—it’d likely even start to feel good. Maybe you’re too weak to climb that barrier though?

Jack Foster rinsed his legs off with a water hose at the end of runs. Saying if it was good enough for race horses, it was good enough for him.

https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/on-the-run-1979

brickrunnin wrote:

how so.... wrote:

anecdotal at best. A cold shower isn't cold, it feels cold.

An ice bath is only 50-60 degrees, which will lead to some actual constriction of the blood vessels, followed by relaxation, letting new blood help the recovery process.

A cold shower will be "colder" than the body, and promote a bit of recovery, but compared to an ice bath, might as well not bother.

Ice baths inhibit recovery any way you slice it. Get a massage.

There is data showing that ice baths may inhibit the adaptations that we want from exercise, but there might be situations where it is advantageous. For instance, I would not recommend them for pre-season training, but during the season or at a meet where you might run heats, I could see a runner feeling like they are beneficial. Let's say you run the 1500 prelims on Monday, soak that night and then run finals on Wednesday (and maybe you are doubling so have to do that again). Some people might expect to feel better and perform better and thus might. (David Martin, performance physiologist for the 76ers refers to this as the expectation effect ---I think that is the term, if not it is the idea).

Here are two interviews with Alex Hutchinson and Christie Aschwanden that you might like.

my legs feel 10x better next day if i take a cold shower post-wo

Ice bath for legs shortly after a damaging bout (e.g hard effort of downhill running) = reduced severity / duration of DOMS

Cold shower or ice bath will NOT enhance or quicken recovery. It's giving your retired power. There is scientific evidence for this.

Ice cube wrote:

Cold shower or ice bath will NOT enhance or quicken recovery. It's giving your retired power. There is scientific evidence for this.

Yes it's more mental, cold feels great but I've been doing it for decades and I'm always hurt. However, doing really hot water straight afterwards does help.

Subway Surfers wrote:

Ice cube wrote:

Cold shower or ice bath will NOT enhance or quicken recovery. It's giving your retired power. There is scientific evidence for this.

Yes it's more mental, cold feels great but I've been doing it for decades and I'm always hurt. However, doing really hot water straight afterwards does help.

+ 100 !

Ice > hot water

Sam, wrote:

Hot water > ice

Fixed it.