How quickly do you recover after workouts? Is there anything that you can do to help the process? Aside from eating properly after your workout, the temperature of your bath or shower post-workout can have an effect on your recovery and your performance in your next workout.
Researchers from the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra confirmed the benefits of cold water recovery.
They measured the effects on sprint performance for five days of endurance cycling. Tests were done in water at 59 degrees (15 celsius) for 14 minutes, 100.4 degrees (38 celsius) for 14 minutes, alternating between cold water only, both hot and cold water, and rest only.
Cold water baths improved performance by 2.2 percent, time trials by 1 percent. Contrast baths (alternating hot and cold) improved performance by 1.4 percent and time trials by 1.7 percent.On the other hand, in hot water baths, performance fell by 3.7 percent and by 3.4 percent with rest only.
In conclusion, the study showed that cold and alternating baths post-training had a small positive effect on performance, and hot baths decreased performance.
