Timing is everything. The sooner you apply ice the quicker your body will recover.
Applying ice immediately after high intensity exercise will speed up your recovery time and improve your performance the next day.
Applying after 3 hours will still help your recovery but not as much.
For the best results combine ice and compression. Together they speed up and deepen the muscle cooling.
To reduce muscle soreness there seems to be a relationship between temperature and duration. But method also matters:
Ice baths 11-15 mins at 11-15°C
Ice packs leave the freezer between 0°C to -25°C, apply for 10-20 mins
Cryo-chambers can reach -140°C. For timing follow operator instruction
Too long or too cold and you risk burning your skin. Too little or not cold enough and you do not elicit the physiological changes that assist recovery.
Combining ice and compression cools the muscle faster by both improving the contact and impacting the blood flow to the area.
By cooling the muscles faster, you reduce the energy demands on the body that are required to regulate temperature. Instead that energy, oxygen and nutrients are utilised in tissue repair.
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