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Ice Baths

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Lingsface

Lingsface

Norm Smith Medallist
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May 9, 2005
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Are Ice baths only effective for a certain time after doing exercise or is having one because your sore benefical as well.
 
generally speaking from HSC PDHPE knowledge of a couple of years ago, ice is beneficial for up to 48 hours from 'time of injury', so for general soreness it would probably be useful for up to 48 hours from exercise (i stand corrected if anyone else knows otherwise)
 
Not much fun when standing in one whens its the middle of winter and its well under 10 degrees. But they are effective and you do pull up well after a game or training.
 

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If it's too difficult or not really possible to organise an ice bath for yourself, I've always found that jumping into the shower after exercise and standing underneath with the cold water going full-blast for a few minutes works well to refresh and cool down the muscles as well. It's probably not anywhere near as effective as an ice bath (especially for anything more than general soreness), but it's decent and refreshing IMO. A bit tough to pysch yourself into doing it in the dead of Winter though :p
 
its most useful straight after the game but can also be used in the 48hrs after as this time corresponds with the inflammatory period for soft tissue injuries. this method reduces the pain and inflammation of strenuous muscular activity and impact injuries you may have recieved during the course of it. when you are all warm you may not realise the hammering you just copped and ice baths can shorten the recovery as opposed to waking up sore and restricted the the next day
 
In my experience (limited as it may be) - ice baths do very little for actual injuries, but are marvellous for reinvigorating you.

In the days before over-limts for junior players, and proliferation of limited overs cricket, I can remember bowling 30+ overs on quite a few occassions. An ice-bath, followed by a long shower (gradually thawing out) gave me enough of a boost to get through another 10 over spell after lunch.

Again at the end of the day, before heading home to bed - and the next day I could usually walk around pretty free.

Without the ice-bath/hot showers combo, I'd be lucky to get 20 overs in, and couldn't move the next few days.

So general soreness = big tick. Actual injury recuperation = not in my experience, but for others may be different.
 
twentydollarnote said:
The idea is to have a ice bath straight after exercise and its supposed to prevent you gettting sore.
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Might want to check your reasons for an ice bath buddy!

Ice baths are to clot the blood when it is bleeding, so any strains or tears can recouporate quicker, to the poster who said about bowling overs, any action you do strains or tears muscle, so it may be a 2 minute repair to the muscle but without the ice bath it may have been a 24 hour repair.

With the blood clotting, you also need to move the dead blood so, for actual injuries not just soreness. so for genuine injuries you need to hot/cold, so be in an ice bath, get out the ice bath and jump straight into a warm-hot bath and sit in there for 10-15 mins and then jump back into the ice bath to again reclot to wounds.

Calf strains are the best examples of this, ice for 24 hours, then ice-warm wheatbag-ice for 10-15 mins each and do the 30-45 min cycle through out the following 24 hours and you will be good to go within 48 hours depending on the strain of the calf!
 

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John Annear runs his own little physio clinic in Subi, he using the hot and cold theory after the injury has occured.

Eg, if you roll an ankle and the flood builds up, he recommends an ice bath on the area for 2 minutes, followed by a hot shower and the process is repeated.

Basically serves as a natural pump mechanism to remove any fluid in the area. Worked for me.
 
Swiftkid said:
John Annear runs his own little physio clinic in Subi, he using the hot and cold theory after the injury has occured.

Eg, if you roll an ankle and the flood builds up, he recommends an ice bath on the area for 2 minutes, followed by a hot shower and the process is repeated.

Basically serves as a natural pump mechanism to remove any fluid in the area. Worked for me.
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Played footy Saturday in wet boggy conditions, worked Saturday night at the bottleo, ran for the juniors on Sunday, woke up Monday, legs super heavy, back quite sore and stiff, went to the C's and D's training session Monday night, 20 kgs of ice in a bath, from the freezing ice bath to having four shower heads of straight hot water on me, 10 mins in each, for a hour, I have woken up feeling as fresh as ever and looking forward to a hard slog at training tonight!

*not to popular with the C's and D's as after they finished training there was no hot water left...
 

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Slatteryexpress said:
It was my understanding that having ice baths then hot showers flushed the lactic acid out of the body, as the blood vessels constrict. I'm not too sure about helping it solve injuries though.
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Not to replenish injuries, but to help minipulate bloodflow, it helps speed up the healling process.
 
the soreness exerienced after intense training is known as DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) which may last for 48 hours. some athletes have notced benefits with taking ice baths but there is actually not scientific approach in preventing DOMS. all you can do is assist in the soreness such as cooldown streches, ice baths perhaps, pain killers.

This is due to your muscle fibres being damaged while training hard and there has been some evidence to stat it is due to calcium leaking through to the muscles. but ice baths have been effective in some cases
 

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