Ice baths: decision is yours

Proving a research theory can be quite daunting for any potential academic student or professor. Once you have come up with a great topic to try to validate or disprove you then have to follow strict protocols during the research process to try and not be biased in any way.

Once the research data is available, you then launch your findings to the community for a peer review study. You will find that the more famous your findings are on a social popularity scale, the more scholars will try disproving you for various personal vindictive reasons.

Research is one thing but in the case of athletes, sometimes you don’t know why it works. The research might sway in the opposite direction but personally you believe it helps you. A few years back I had a knee op on both my knees due to coaches not teaching me the right fundamentals when I was growing up. In my early varsity days I relented and went for an op only to have the doctor tell me I would never play sport again.

That was a hard pill to swallow when I had been playing sport since the tender age of five and now was studying it as well. Let’s just say I wish I was playing against that doctor in a full contact sport when he promised me after the op I could still play sport. Several years later, through sports science, I managed to play at the highest televised league for basketball in the country and we came second in the final.

Coming back to my introduction opening; there is tons of research for and against ice baths and quite frankly you can take a stance on either side. Ice baths are what kept me together especially when our French coach Franck Belen decided to push up to the max. There have been days when I was too tired coming home after dropping off some of my fellow players at home where I just didn’t get into an ice bath and go straight to the showers.

Let me tell you, I would be walking like a granny in the mornings – very sore and swollen. Research sometimes doesn’t measure the real value of using something. If I did not feel noticeably better immediately, and even 24 hours later after an ice bath, there is no amount of money that would get me doing it just for the sake of it. As an athlete, we do things that benefit us and what we feel works, based on trial and error. We keep doing the things that work and we move away from the things that don’t.

My main point is, that no matter what the research says, don’t take everything as gospel. Try it out, see if there are any improvements to your performance, recovery or positive mental state and then decide whether to continue or not.

For many years taking a protein shake has been the hottest topic post work-out and marketing companies have pushed the agenda. But did you know that having a double expresso right after your high intensity workout or match can help reduce post-pain by up to 48%, according to a study at the Georgia State University?

The Journal of American Medical Associations also did a study and found that when combining caffeine with pain relievers helped pain sufferers reduce the same amount of pain with 40% less drugs needed than non-caffeine drugs alone.

It is important to consider that caffeine might be a tool to use in your postrecovery strategy before a protein shake. Proteins are the building blocks to repair muscle after a hectic workout and must still be consumed within 45 minutes after exercising.

The best way to validate research is to try it out. The next time you have a massive leg day and you know you are going to be walking around like a cowboy from DOMS for the two days, try caffeine first, then protein and then on a separate week try protein only. See if there is a marked difference which adds value to your recovery.