For now, a cold plunge before a workout is best for exercising in hot temperatures but could limit exercise performance if your muscles get too cold. A cold plunge after a workout can offer some recovery benefits but could limit strength gains over time.
A good strategy: Reserve cold plunges for cardio or rest days—and if you want to plunge on the same day as a resistance training session, experts like Andrew Huberman, PhD, recommend doing it beforehand or waiting at least four hours post-exercise so you don't blunt your gains.
If you have an overuse injury, which is common for athletes, both ice and heat can help you manage the pain and keep the injury from worsening. In the case of overuse, apply heat to the injury before your physical activity, then use ice on the area after the physical activity.
Powell, a vascular surgeon, says cold plunging is safe if you're reasonably fit and have no history of arrhythmias, high blood pressure, diabetes, poor circulation or heart problems. He also advises that anyone with Raynaud's phenomenon, which causes decreased blood flow to the fingers, avoid cold plunging.
Taking a cold plunge in an Ice Barrel can activate the brown adipose and muscles in your body. Once activated, irisin and FGF will be released (irisin and FGF are cold-induced endocrine activators of brown fat function in humans). These two hormones burn up the white fat tissues resulting in weight loss.
The morning hours can be an excellent time to dive into a cold plunge routine. With the body just awakening from sleep, the shock of cold water triggers the sympathetic nervous system, giving you an instant energy boost and heightened alertness.
Likewise, cold plunges can reduce cortisol levels, which can help put the body in a more relaxed, sleep-prone state. Researchers at the University of Oregon found that the benefits of cold therapy could potentially aid sleep and included reduced heart rate, blood pressure and cortisol.
If you can handle a cold shower, studies indicate that "pre-cooling," especially before cardio sessions, helps to increase the body's capacity for prolonged exercise at higher intensity levels.
Cold Exposure and Muscle Growth
In short, yes, the cold can slow down your gains if you're timing it wrong. According to a study, exposing muscles to cold temperatures, like those in an ice bath, 'could' limit the activation of key signalling pathways responsible for muscle protein synthesis.
The simple answer is that it's preferable to use the ice bath after the sauna. Heat therapy makes us healthier by increasing our stress levels and raising the body's adaptational responses.
Keeping ice on an injury for too long — more than 20 minutes — can cause tissue damage and injure areas of poor circulation.
In conclusion, cold and heat therapies are both effective for enhancing muscle recovery and reducing muscle damage with heat being superior immediately after exercise and cold at 24 hours after exercise. Cold is superior for pain relief immediately after exercise and at 24 hours.
While cold plunging has numerous benefits, staying submerged for too long can introduce potential risks. Prolonged exposure to colder temperatures may lead to hypothermia, where the body loses heat faster than it can produce, resulting in symptoms like shivering, confusion, and fatigue.
For now, a cold plunge before a workout is best for exercising in hot temperatures but could limit exercise performance if your muscles get too cold. A cold plunge after a workout can offer some recovery benefits but could limit strength gains over time.
These results suggest that physical exercise increases TS level in serum by increasing LH and NA levels, but these tendencies were not found with cold water stimulation.
After a cold plunge, dry off and warm up by getting dressed in dry clothes. You can sip a warm beverage and move to a heated area. But don't head straight for a sauna or hot tub, because the extreme heat could cause too much stress on your body.
How Long Should a Cold Shower Be? A cold shower should be 2-3 minutes long and no longer than 5-15 minutes. Start out by taking a cold shower for 30 seconds and gradually increase it to 1 minute and then 2-3 minutes.
Still, if you do want to hop in the sauna before or after a workout, experts typically suggest doing so afterward. In some cases, a pre-workout sauna might alleviate a little joint or muscle stiffness before exercise, but preliminary studies point to greater recovery benefits from post-exercise saunas.
The direct impact of cold showers increasing testosterone levels are not strongly supported. Some studies suggest that cold exposure might influence hormone regulation to some extent, but more research is needed to definitively establish any significant link between cold showers and increased testosterone levels.
Reduce Inflammation & Muscle Soreness
A recent study showed that cold plunges are effective in reducing inflammation and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). DOMS refers to the muscle soreness that occurs 1-2 days following an intense exercise session.
You can do cold plunging every day. However, if you're doing it after training, daily plunges could compromise the potential for long-term performance improvements.
Cold plunging can be done either before or after exercise. A pre-workout session boosts alertness and reduces inflammation, while a post-workout session is ideal for reducing soreness and speeding up recovery.
If you're feeling more tired than usual, your body could be struggling to recover from the cold-induced stress. While cold plunges are intended to invigorate and refresh, too much exposure can have the opposite effect, leaving you feeling drained and exhausted instead of rejuvenated.