Plunging into freezing cold water after a workout or run isn’t so enticing. But scroll through your social media feed, and you’ll find countless pictures and videos of people braving a cold ice bath or experiencing cold exposure in a frozen lake.
Indeed, top podcasters like Andrew Huberman and Joe Rogan praise the benefits of ice baths for rejuvenating their bodies and boosting their health. But is this true?
Ice baths, also known as cold water immersion or cold exposure, are a form of cryotherapy. Reaching
a chilly 10-15°C degrees, the practice involves taking a dip for 10-15 minutes to
reduce muscle pain and soreness. However, there’s growing evidence for the overall health benefits of ice exposure, whether you’ve just finished a workout or not.
Benefits of Ice Baths and Cold Exposure
1. Help Your Muscles Recover Post-Workout
2. Reduce Muscle Soreness
3. Build Up Your Brown Fat Stores
4. Minimize Your Injury Risk
5. Soothe Your Body for Sleep
6. Boost Your Immune System
7. Soften Your Skin
8. Improve Your Mental Health
1. Help Your Muscles Recover Post-Workout
Think of ice baths, and you probably picture an athlete climbing into a bathtub filled with water and ice cubes after a competition or marathon. They’re not just gluttons for punishment. One of the key benefits of cold exposure is its effect on post-exercise recovery.
Here’s how it works: When you enter cold water, your blood vessels constrict (vasoconstriction), reducing blood flow to the extremities. That eases pain and soothes any swelling or inflammation.
However, the real effect occurs when you get out. The sudden change in temperature causes the blood
vessels to reopen rapidly, flushing the muscles of metabolic waste products.
2. Reduce Muscle Soreness
Soreness is a common complaint after exercise. Whether it’s an overworking muscle or simply DOMS (delayed onset muscular soreness), it’s a side effect of muscular inflammation.
Ice baths stop this inflammatory process dead in its tracks. In one review, cold therapy effectively reduced muscle soreness after exercise. (However, differences in cooling methods, temperatures, and other factors prevent us from identifying an optimum protocol.)
Another systematic review of 32 randomized control trials (the highest standard of evidence) found that
cold therapy reduces pain in patients with DOMS.
3. Build Up Your Brown Fat Stores
Fat is your body’s store of energy. When we get cold, we burn more energy. It’s, therefore, little surprise that a recent paper revealed that cold exposure reduces fat stores, lowering people’s risk for diabetes.
Interestingly, not all this fat is burned away. Because of chronic cold exposure, the body converts harmful white fat into healthy brown adipose tissue (BAT). Unlike its white counterpart, BAT stores more energy in less space, is packed with iron-rich mitochondria (cellular powerhouses) and produces heat without shivering.
Some research indicates that brown fat burns calories and may control blood sugar levels, decreasing
the risk of type 2 diabetes.
4. Minimize Your Injury Risk
Many of the ice bath benefits work together. Less muscle soreness, faster recovery, and reduced inflammation all limit your injury risk. The more comprehensive your recovery, the better you’ll perform the next time you hit the gym or track. Inflammation, in particular, is a major impediment to recovery, soaking up your body’s energy reserves.
5. Soothe Your Body for Sleep
If sleep were a drug, everyone would take it. Sleep is when your body heals, repairs damage, and builds back better. Moreover, any skills you practised or learned during wakefulness are processed and coded into your brain during sleep. After 7-9 hours of sleep per night, you’ll return stronger, faster, and brighter.
Contrary to the cozy, warm picture we have of sleep, optimal sleep only comes after your body cools down. Lowering your body temperature through cold exposure (especially after a workout) will prime your body for bed.
6. Boost Your Immune System
Athletes sometimes talk about experiencing fewer respiratory infections when following a cold-water immersion protocol. “An ice bath a day keeps the doctor away,” to paraphrase the old saying. What’s the evidence?
In a 2016 study, people who took cold showers were almost 30% less likely to call in sick for work or school. One possible cause is the link between cold exposure and stress. So-called “non-infectious stress” (like plunging into an ice bath) helps boost levels of essential immune cells. Winter swimmers, for example, have significantly high concentrations of immune compounds and cells.
7. Soften Your Skin
Hard, difficult things aren’t usually associated with getting softer. Run twenty miles and the soles of your feet will thicken and toughen up. Ice baths are the exception. Because cold exposure causes small arteries and veins to constrict, it tightens and reduces the appearance of pores and puffiness.
Indeed, inflammation is one of the principal causes of blotchy, itchy skin. A key benefit of ice baths is the ability to stop this inflammation, easing any discomfort. The result is smoother, softer, and clearer skin. However, taking an ice bath if you have open wounds isn’t advised.
8. Improve Your Mental Health
What’s the link between the cold and feeling good? Usually, we associate happiness and well-being with the sun and summer. Cold and ice, on the other hand, are excellent metaphors for depression and low mood.
And yet, several studies indicate an improved mood as an ice bath benefit. A 2022 study, for example, noted that people who took a 20-minute soak in 55 °F (12.8 °C) water felt more self-esteem and less tension and anger.
Moreover, just five minutes of cold-water immersion in slightly warmer water, 68 °F (20°C), boosted alertness and reduced nervousness and stress. As the study concluded, “The results indicate that short-term whole-body cold-water immersion may have integrative effects on brain functioning, contributing to the reported improvement in mood.”
Learn more about the benefits of ice baths and cold exposure in our guides and articles. Also, contact our team for more information related to sports recovery.
