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Subzero Shenanigans
Adventures in Cold Therapy
A growing trend that we have witnessed in the health and wellness space is that of cold-water immersion. All over social media you will find various influencers dunking themselves in freezing water claiming it will do everything from boost your exercise performance, build stress resistance, cure depression, and help you shed pounds. Obviously icing down an injury has been around for a long time, but it seems cold-water immersion has gotten a major PR boost as of late. So we thought on this episode of the podcast/newsletter we would try and dive into the literature on cold-water immersion and see what we find.
First we took a look into the literature on cold-water immersion (CWI) as it relates to soreness (DOMS), power, and strength outcomes. When you compare CWI to simply resting after a workout, CWI did not really provide much benefit for strength related outcomes. It was effective at promoting recovery for soreness, power, and perceived recovery, but it was nothing to write home about. Another study looked at comparing CWI to to other therapies such as: cryotherapy, contrast water treatment (holt and cold), massage, active recovery, and warm water immersion. CWI was found to be better than other modalities for quite a few outcomes, but these results were only statistically meaningful in a few instances, such as for soreness at 48 hours post workout. So yet again, it can be effective, but it is nothing earth shattering. Also, a big caveat is that if you are someone who does resistance training, CWI has been shown to blunt certain training adaptations that occur from resistance training. So it should be used sparingly in this regard.
We then discuss the issue of Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) as it relates to CWI. BAT is a more metabolically active form of fat, and healthier people tend to have more BAT than less healthy people. There is this idea that increasing BAT will increase energy expenditure and this can help with things like weight loss and overall metabolic health. It does seem that CWI can activate BAT, but how much the volume of BAT changes remains unclear, and we argue that your time could be better spent exercising which can increase BAT activation.
Finally we discuss the issue of CWI as it relates to mindset and building stress resilience. Most of this idea comes from a study from 2000 that showed a dramatic increase in dopamine and noradrenaline levels after performing CWI for an hour at 57 degrees fahrenheit. We discuss whether or not this is practical, is it a stretch to think that 5-10 minutes in a cold tub would produce the same benefit, and why not just exercise which has also shown increases in these levels.
Simplified Takeaways…
Can jumping in an ice tub be beneficial for relieving muscle soreness (DOMS-delayed onset muscle soreness)? Yes-mostly when done 24-72 hours after a bout of training.
Will jumping in an ice tub boost my strength, power, and flexibility better than just resting? No.
Can jumping in an ice tub possibly hurt the ability of my muscles to grow after lifting weights? Yes.
Will jumping in an ice tub increase my volume of BAT (brown adipose tissue) making me a lean, mean, fat-burning machine? Probably not.
Well then, what can boost my volume of BAT? Exercise.
Will jumping in an ice tub significantly boost my levels of dopamine and noradrenaline making me a mental health warrior who is immune to the daily stresses of life? We think that is a pretty big leap to make based off of current literature.
Well then, what will boost these levels and aid in my mental health? Exercise.
Oh, so you’re saying I might be better off spending my time exercising? Yes.
But what if I get great joy out of sitting in an ice cold tub and it makes me feel like I accomplished something? Then go for it!
Further Reading…
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