What the Brr.
Cold Water Immersion Is It Worth It?
Cold water Immersion or Cold exposure is deliberately introducing your body to cold environments like a cold shower or jumping into a freezing lake in the middle of winter.
Why would anyone put themselves through that?
It is energising and can enhance your mood
Cold exposure activates the sympathetic nervous system triggering physiological responses like the release of dopamine, Epinephrine and norepinephrine . epinephrine (aka adrenaline) and norepinephrine make us feel alert which can help us feel energised and and stay focused throughout the day. Dopamine is capable of enhancing your mood as well as helping maintain focus and energy levels.
Helps with Muscle Soreness
A meta-analysis of cold-water immersion and its effects on recovery found that cold exposure can be a highly effective recovery tool after high-intensity exercise or endurance training.
The study found that cold water immersion demonstrated positive outcomes for muscle power, perceived recovery, and decreased muscle soreness.
Another study involving 20 participants found that Athletes who soaked in a pool of cold water reported less muscle soreness than those who had no hydrotherapy after exercising. A similar study on cyclists who completed intense training sessions also found they had decreased soreness after they were immersed in cold water.
However cold water has been shown to limit some hypertrophy gains. If Hypertrophy is your goal (Muscle gain) it’s best to wait 6-8 hours after training.
Cold for injuries
Dr Mirkin the creator of R.I.C.E (Rest. Ice. Compression. Elevation) acknowledged changes in the research and retracted ice from his initial protocol. It appeared that both ice and complete rest may delay healing, instead of helping.
It turns out inflammation is kinda important for proper healing and injury recovery as it helps kill off and remove damaged tissue. Unless you have prolonged or severe inflammation it’s probably best to avoid icing injuries and cold water exposure during the initial recovery period.
Obviously depending on the severity of the injury you should speak to a physiotherapist about the best way to recover properly from injury.
Cold and the Metabolism
Cold exercise can help burn more calories as the body expands energy to increase its core body temperature. Although the number of calories burned is not that great it converts white fat to brown fat which is far more metabolically active.
Resilience and Grit
Constant exposure to cold even when you don’t want to can help build resilience and grit. This happens from some process that happens within the brain (Far too complicated to go into detail in this article). Resilience and grit though go far beyond the cold waters helping you stay calm and keep a clear mind when confronted with a stressor in the real world.
ConclusionÂ
Cold water can be beneficial for your mood, energy and focus. Help recover from intense training and build mental resilience. However, for hypertrophy gains and injury recovery, its best to avoid the cold.
References
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-022-01644-9
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21710292/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4706272/
https://www.healthline.com/health/cold-water-therapy#weight-…
https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter/the-science-and-use-o…
https://www.hubermanlab.com/topics/heat-exposure-and-cold-ex…