Cold Baths

RubyK

Do you take cold baths after a long run? About how many minutes in it should you be aiming for?

My legs were sore after doing intervals on Wednesday, so I just did an easy 4.5 miles on Thursday, and I took Friday off. Did 13.25 miles on Saturday, and could really feel my legs tired and sore for the most part.

So I decided to try my first ever cold bath, to see if it would help the legs. It was torture, and I didn't last more than about 3 mins in it :eek: before hopping into the hot shower. But, my legs felt 100% better afterwards, and I've not felt any tiredness or soreness in them since.

It did take me hours to heat up after it, and as awful as it was at the time, I would try it again.

liamo123

RubyK wrote: »

Do you take cold baths after a long run? About how many minutes in it should you be aiming for?

My legs were sore after doing intervals on Wednesday, so I just did an easy 4.5 miles on Thursday, and I took Friday off. Did 13.25 miles on Saturday, and could really feel my legs tired and sore for the most part.

So I decided to try my first ever cold bath, to see if it would help the legs. It was torture, and I didn't last more than about 3 mins in it :eek: before hopping into the hot shower. But, my legs felt 100% better afterwards, and I've not felt any tiredness or soreness in them since.

It did take me hours to heat up after it, and as awful as it was at the time, I would try it again.

Ruby I take ice baths regularly and find them great to relieve tiredness and soreness.. I usually have a book or magazine to read and after the initial shock when I hop in I find that reading i takes my mind off the cold....I usually stay in 4 about 20mins and then have warm shower...

RubyK

liamo123 wrote: »

Ruby I take ice baths regularly and find them great to relieve tiredness and soreness.. I usually have a book or magazine to read and after the initial shock when I hop in I find that reading i takes my mind off the cold....I usually stay in 4 about 20mins and then have warm shower...

20 mins :eek: Jebas! I lasted a pathetic 3 mins!

I had a book with me, but I couldn't read it! Body and brain freeze set in immediately!

Cabaal

When I suffered awful shin splints when I first started running last year a cold bath was the only thing that allowed me to be able to walk the next day.

Most I managed was 30min but generally 15min on average.
It gave such relief that it was well worth it.

Tried it recently and found it awful hard to even manage 4min,

I really must start doing it after long runs again though

token56

I may be wrong on this but I was of the impression that ice baths themselves are not useful unless followed by a hot shower/bath. I also thought the best practice was to repeat a few times to try flush out the muscles. I remembering watching some program before with David Gillick in it and it showed him and his training partner after training alternating between hot and cold baths a couple of times. Can't imagine it was very nice but they didn't stay in either bath that long I think.

Edit: Actually here is the video, ice bath part starts at around 7 min, he says 2 min in the hot, 2 min in the cold repeated 3 times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIp5toNNCw4

Just to say I also think it depends on why you are using the ice baths. Mixing it with hot showers/baths is obviously for flushing the legs and trying to promote circulation of the blood and like in the video you dont need to do either for that long, just repeat a couple of times. But if using ice to reduce swelling for an injury or something then thats a different purpose. Although promoting circulation in the area will also help after reducing the swelling.

hot to trot

Most recent research shows that there is no benefit in recovery or injury prevention in ice baths. It has some benefit in pain relief and psychological. Having said that, individuals report personal benefit. The only way you will know is if you only chill ONE leg, and compare:D

When I started long runs I used to be so cold that I would have a hot shower when I came in afterwards, but rinsed off the legs with cold water. I find that after a marathon , maybe a few hours later I often feel my body is a bit feverish as if I am getting the flu. That is when I really want to cool down .

iamjenko

Training for Dublin marathon last year i used to always take ice baths (10mins) after my LSR. I thought i got some benefit from it. However, i noticed late in the summer that it seemed to have more effect if i had it late in the day after a morning run.

Found this article at the weekend....seems to back up what i found to a small degree!

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=21202&PageNum=1