Pointless ICE BATHS: torture
New research shows no evidence to support the use of ice baths but the ritual remains part of many sports. Cate Broughton reports.
Professional rugby player Kieran Moffat, 28, isn’t a fan of the post-match ice bath. Bodies already brutalised on the pitch are subjected to a different sort of pain as part of the entrenched ritual.
‘‘It’s not nice. You’ve got cuts, normally all over you, so that stinging cold feeling and working your way up to your waist.
‘‘So it’s an initial shock that takes your breath away but then you kind of get like a stinging feeling in your body. A good half way through you sort of numb out but up until that point it’s not nice.’’
Despite being an ice-bath veteran, having succumbed to them since the age of 16, the former Otago and Southland Stag player said they had not become any easier over the years.
‘‘You always dread it but it’s just one of those things, it’s part of your job. You basically do what the trainer tells you to and that’s part of your recovery.’’
Moffat said he didn’t know any player that didn’t hate ice baths, but they were part of ‘‘doing the shit work together’’, just like a hard training session. ‘‘You can see your team mates going through something uncomfortable for what is perceived to be the benefit of the squad.’’
The gruelling post-game ice bath has become so entrenched in team sports culture that even 13-year-old footballers are subjected to the arguably tortuous practice.
While the stakes for the All Blacks are higher than for 14th grade club football teams, the practice and theory of post-match ice baths are the same.
The accepted wisdom goes that not only does it repair muscle faster but it brings players together in a united act of pain and sacrifice for the team.
The theory behind the postmatch ice bath ritual says that the cold slows down or suppresses muscle inflammation and pain and improves subsequent performance.
But a recent study by sports science academics from Australia, New Zealand and Norway has clearly debunked the theories.
Auckland University Liggins Institute professor of nutrition David Cameron-Smith, who worked on the study, said there was no evidence to support the use of ice baths.
‘‘It actually slows your recovery and reduces your strength gains. So if you are trying to get stronger and bigger don’t jump in an ice bath, think of other forms of recovery.’’
The study compared the effect of cold water immersion and gentle exercise following a hard resistance workout by analysing muscle from the participants, the first time human muscle had been studied in this way.
Participants spent 10 minutes on each recovery type immediately after finishing the workout. Muscle biopsies were taken from their legs at two, 24 and 48 hours after exercise.
Cameron-Smith said while the results showed there was no scientific justification for using ice baths that did not mean they had no other value.
‘‘There is always some ritual associated with winning and losing and it’s part of that kind of ritual process and wind-down process.’’
Second-year sports science student, coach, football player and enthusiastic ice baths proponent Tyler Logan, 20, said he had been using ice baths with his teams for three years. This season he will introduce his Cashmere Technical 14th grade players to the post-game practice at one of their three-day tournaments.
After a hard day of up to three games Logan gets his young players to sit in a bath of icy water back at the accommodation.
Sometimes garbage bins filled with icy water are brought in if there are not enough baths available. Players are told to squat down in them to ensure the water is at waist level.
Logan said for younger players it is about getting them in to good habits.
‘‘They will never really want to do it . . . realistically what teenager wants to jump in a bucket of ice? But once they’ve done it they are usually pretty good about it and they know it helps.’’
He said the practice was well established.
‘‘We’re finding more and more now that the younger players coming through see it as a normalised thing and there’s less and less resistance to it.’’
He’s convinced the practice has helped him recover and play better.
‘‘Obviously it’s pretty cold but I think it works. I’ve definitely found it helps just get rid of muscle aches and feels like it lightens your feet up a little bit again, gets rid of the soreness.’’
He admits it would take more convincing for him to give the ice baths away.
‘‘If someone can show me a better method that will help my players then I will adopt that because at the end of the day you just want to help your players stay on the pitch.’’
Cameron-Smith said he would ditch ice baths and opt for gentle exercise as post-match recovery.
‘‘What we do know is you’ve just got to keep your muscles moving.’’
He suggests players keep muscles moving with light exercise for as long as the game they have just finished.
Nutrition including hydration and the right balance of protein and carbohydrates were also important as part of a recovery strategy, Cameron-Smith said.
University of Canterbury sports science lecturer Dr Carl Petersen said more research was needed before ice baths, or hot cold immersion therapies were abandoned.
‘‘The current thought is that contrast therapy is probably more effective, so alternating between the hot and cold, instead of just cold.’’
He was unconvinced by the study as it was a small sample size and used a short time period of 10 minutes for the recovery methods.
‘‘When more studies are done with a larger subject number then we will get more of an idea.’’
Assistant coach of the women’s Black Sticks and former Black Sticks player Chris Leslie said the players used ice baths in recovery and ‘‘swore by them’’.
However, he was ‘‘bloody glad’’ the practice was not in existence during his own playing career from 1984 to 1990.
‘‘Back in my day the hot and cold was a hot pie and a cold beer.’’
In hockey, ice baths started as part of the post-game routine at the Sydney Olympics and were now used by the national teams, national league teams and under 21 teams.
These days the players alternated between ice baths and hot showers.
Leslie was aware of the research debunking ice baths but said even if it only provided a psychological boost or placeboeffect, that would be a good thing.
Sports science was always evolving and he was open to change.
Arranging facilities for ice baths while away on a tournament wasn’t always easy and teams that opted for ice baths had to bring their own kiddie paddling pool or find and clean out wheelie bins.
‘‘If there were studies showing there’s other ways of doing it, it would probably be silly not to give it a shot.’’
Moffat is still not sure if ice baths have improved his performance.
‘‘It’s hard to say. I work off what my trainer tells me to do, what the perceived evidence is in it and so I think there is that placebo effect of you are doing something to help your body so if you believe it’s going to help your body then one way or another it potentially will,’’ Moffat said.
For now, he said the dreaded ice bath was a ‘‘non-negotiable’’ part of professional rugby but players wouldn’t miss them if the science convinced coaches to change tack.
‘‘Players will be rejoicing all over the world if this comes back to be a load of shit because they won’t have to do it anymore.’’