The Wonders of the ICE BATH !!!
Some of you witnessed Coach Pam slipping into a luxurious Rubbermaid tub full of ice water during class last week. Though it may have looked like she just wanted a front row seat for WOD watching, she was actually doing a body good. Ice baths work wonders for post-WOD recovery and you only need about 5-15 minutes to reap the benefits.
Historically speaking, cool kids have been doing ice baths for quite some time. In fact, those beefcake Spartans felt hot water was for the weak and unmanly. When they took baths, they used only cold water because they thought it tempered the body and made it vigorous for ass kicking. Now maybe Coach Pam was preparing to kick some serious ass, but there are also more scientific reasons for freezing your bejeepers off.
Ice baths have been shown to speed recovery and decrease soreness after a tough workout, mainly by constricting the blood vessels. Intense exercise actually causes microtrauma, or tiny tears in your muscle fibers. These tiny tears stimulate muscle cell activity to not only repair, but stimulate muscle growth. On the down side, they are also linked to delayed onset muscle soreness (aka: DOMS) which pops up between 24-72 hours post WOD.
So what does the ice bath do?
- Constrict blood vessels: flushing waste products (lactic acid) out
- Reduces swelling
- Reduces DOMS
- Once you get out of the ice bath, rewarming increases blood flow speeding up circulation and improving the healing process
So, now you have a new fun activity to do in your downtime. Whether you want to become a manly Spartan, or you just want to “walk normal” after 150 squats, its time to fill that bathtub with ice water and get chilly.
WOD:
STRENGTH DAY!!!
A. OHS 3-3-2-2-1-1
B. a little somethin’ somethin’ for Marsha’s belated birthday 🙂