Contrast Baths

This is the conclusion reached by a study published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine. The study compared four methods for recovery after exertion: cold water baths, hot water baths, contrast baths and rest. Cold water and contrast baths are the ones that gave the best results towards recovery.

It should be noted that the improvements are not stratospheric, around the 0,1 and 2% performance is improved after these baths of cold water, but for competitions that are continuous in days, such as cycling laps or intense training followed, that percentage is quite important.

It seems that the worst thing to recover after a good physical beating is hot water baths or absolute rest, this has to do with the venous return and the cleaning of metabolites after the effort. On the other hand, both cold water baths and contrast baths (minute of hot water followed by minute of cold water and so on) do notably improve recovery and predispose better to another subsequent effort.

For more details, say that in the study the temperatures used were 15 degrees in cold water and 38 in hot water, so we already know after training, no hot water that rather gives low tension and put the shower with cold water.

Many athletes are increasingly using these methods after training, and it is just as important as training is recovery to be ready for the next day. Of course this is not a panacea, but one more supplement to help the body recover along with the alimentation, rest and other methods.