Extreme cold is really hot stuff

It’s a craze, some say and it’s a load of nonsense, according to others, but thousands of the world’s best athletes are using it and greatly believe in its benefits – as do I. The ice bath – also known as cryotherapy (not because some cry like a baby when entering the cold water mind you) has now shown to have so many beneficial results that it cannot and should not be ignored as an essential recovery method.

A Scandinavian journal of science in sports states: “The use of cryotherapy, ie the application of extreme cold for the treatment of injury or disease, is widespread in sports medicine today,” and goes on to claim is “used to reduce the recovery time as part of the rehabilitation programme”.

The American Journal of Physiology agrees with this, saying that cold-water immersion “after resistance exercise, allows athletes to complete more work during subsequent training sessions, which could enhance long-term training adaptations”.

The question now is, “how cold is cold enough” and even more importantly, “for how long”? It seems the norm for the temperature of an ice bath is between 12 and 15 degrees Celsius, but reports out of Australia suggest about 15 minutes in 15 degrees Celsius is the most successful time and temperature for the best ice bath results.

In the United States they suggest an ice bath that is as cold as 8 Celsius, must be used for 11 minutes.

The only way you are going to know which one works for you is if you try each of them out.