drtbear1967
Musclechemistry Board Certified Member
Tag the coolest (❄) person you know .
Ice baths and cooling body parts after excercise are methods used by some athletes to enhance their results.
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Interestingly the evidence that exists isn't strong enough to support this method. Significantly lower increases in strength and muscle size where noted in groups cooling their arm after exercise compared to people not cooling.
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The cooled group did, however experience less exercise-induced muscle soreness and felt less tired after training. Since it is very hard to create a "blind" control group to cooling, it is hard to say if this perception is a placebo effect of not.
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For now we know that there are negative effects on strength and size. The improvements in muscle endurance were not statistically significant, but tended to be higher in the cooled group.
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Ice baths effectively reduce post exercise pain caused by inflammation. The trade-off is that reducing inflammation will also stagnate muscle growth in the long run.
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This is similar to the consequences of using anti-inflammatory NSAIDs to reduce muscle soreness and as we've said before: if used in moderation, the negative effects are minimal.
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Ice baths and cooling body parts after excercise are methods used by some athletes to enhance their results.
.
Interestingly the evidence that exists isn't strong enough to support this method. Significantly lower increases in strength and muscle size where noted in groups cooling their arm after exercise compared to people not cooling.
.
The cooled group did, however experience less exercise-induced muscle soreness and felt less tired after training. Since it is very hard to create a "blind" control group to cooling, it is hard to say if this perception is a placebo effect of not.
.
For now we know that there are negative effects on strength and size. The improvements in muscle endurance were not statistically significant, but tended to be higher in the cooled group.
.
Ice baths effectively reduce post exercise pain caused by inflammation. The trade-off is that reducing inflammation will also stagnate muscle growth in the long run.
.
This is similar to the consequences of using anti-inflammatory NSAIDs to reduce muscle soreness and as we've said before: if used in moderation, the negative effects are minimal.
______________
