Get 17% Stronger In The Bath

Soak up the heat to improve your performance and boost recovery

Amazingly, we are not kidding

AS THE NIGHTS DRAW IN and the mercury dips, the prospect of an ice bath becomes even less appealing than it normally is. So here’s some news to warm your cockles: jumping in a hot bath might do more to improve your running performance and recovery. In a recent study, elite steeplechasers soaked in a 40C bath for 40 minutes three times a week. At the end of the study, participants had raised levels of red blood cells – the oxygentransporting vehicles that make running feel easier. In another study, participants showed a 17 per cent boost in strength after 11 days of sitting in a heat chamber – a sauna will do – for an hour at a time. Training for a race in warmer climes? A hot bath can help here, too. Scientists from the Extremes Research Group at Bangor University found a postrun hot soak on six consecutive days helped athletes acclimatise to running in the heat and helped them to take an impressive 4.9 per cent off their 5K time.