So, how about that Cold Plunge?
Recently, the cold plunge has been a hot topic of discussion. One of the primary questions around cold plunge lately is if it hurts muscle gains. The short answer is no, not if it’s done right.
If you’re lifting weights to gain muscle, or do heavy strength training, here are some notes to follow (from plunge.com):
Wait a few hours. Wait a few hours (2-4 hours) after you work out before you cold plunge. This allows your muscles to recover on their own before introducing cold water therapy.
Plunge on rest days. Plunging on rest days ensures you receive that cold water boost and that it definitely wont interfere with any muscle adaptation.
Strategic use of cold. If you’ve done a really big work out and are experiencing inflammation and discomfort, a recovery based plunge can be worth it for enhancing performance and reducing pain so that you can get back to it faster. Switching things up is healthy and encouraged, you don’t always have to follow a set and predictable routine.
Keep in mind, even though cold plunging is newer to the pubic eye, it is far from a new discovery. According to the National Institute for Health and The History of Cryotherapy (https://tinyurl.com/4j8b9fk9), studying the beneficial effects of using cold-water immersion on human physiology dates as far back as 3500BC with the Edwin Smith Papyrus which has many references to cold being used for therapeutic purposes. In ancient Egypt, cold therapy was used to assist in relieving pain and reducing inflammation. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates, a renowned Greek physician, used snow and ice to treat various injuries and skin conditions. In ancient Rome, cold water immersion was frequently used to improve blood circulation and overall health.
In 1978, Dr. Toshima Yamaguchi extensively studied the use of cold therapy to reduce inflammation. Throughout the 1970s cold therapy was used to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis and to aid in a broader range of ailments by reducing pain and inflammation overall.
In my own experience, cold plunging can assist with stress, especially helping to regulate anxiety. When you immerse yourself in the cold water, your body starts going into a panic state but your mind knows that you are controlling the situation and can exit at any time. As you lower yourself into the water slowly, you remind yourself that you are safe, that this is a choice and that you are not, in fact, in any danger. Once you overcome the fear and submerge yourself in the water, you have physically taught yourself a valuable mental lesson. Then, in daily life, when you have those same feelings of anxiety arise, you can remind yourself of what you learned during the physical experience of cold-water immersion - that you are safe, that you are in control and that you are not in any danger.