|
 Researchers found that cold or ice baths can impede the generation
of new protein in the muscles, according to the report published in
the Journal of Physiology.
"The take-home message from our study is that athletes aiming to
grow and/or repair their muscles should avoid cold water immersion
after exercise," said study leader Cas Fuchs, a researcher at
Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
Athletes often assume that cooling is good for recovery after a
workout because they say "they 'feel' better after post-exercise
cooling," Fuchs told Reuters Health by email. "They feel less muscle
soreness and believe that they are able to recover faster, and
thereby being able to exercise faster again."
But feelings can be deceptive, Fuchs said. While cooling can
knock-back muscle swelling and soreness, "in our study we found that
post-exercise cooling lowers the ability of our muscles to make new
proteins that are essential to repair and build our muscles," he
explained. "Therefore, if you want to repair and grow your muscles
after a workout, it is smart to avoid cooling."
To take a closer look at the impact of a cold or iced bath after
workouts, Fuchs and his colleagues recruited 12 healthy young men,
with an average age of 21, for a series of experiments. After the
men did some lower-body weight lifting - leg presses and extensions
- they were asked to place one leg in icy water and the other in
room temperature water. Afterward, the men consumed a protein drink.
When the researchers examined muscle biopsies from the men's legs,
they found less protein synthesis in the cooled leg than in the one
that had been in room-temperature water. "Less muscle protein
synthesis very likely translates into less muscle building in the
long-term," Fuchs said.
[to top of second column] |
While the new study is interesting, "I can't imagine anyone's
practice changing because of one small study," said Dr. Melissa
Leber, an associate professor of orthopedics and director of
emergency department sports medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine
at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
"Elite athletes all the way from high school to college to pros use
ice baths to help with recovery," Leber said. "They all have ice
baths in their training rooms to help legs recover so they can train
the next day."
This article suggests "that unless there is an injury, like a muscle
pull or tendonitis, this is not the best way to recover and it
potentially hinders muscle building," Leber said. "They feel that
it's possible that cold water baths are not doing what we intend
them to do."
But, said Leber, "the study has a huge limitation: there are just 12
athletes. Plus, they are only testing resistance training not
aerobic exercise."
And while it might be argued that the findings would be pertinent
for weight lifters, "they are not typically the ones who are going
to use ice water baths," Leber said, adding that ice water baths are
more typically used by people doing sports such as soccer and
football.
Leber would like to see more studies on the topic. "It's an
interesting possibility for future research, she said. "Maybe we
will need to find a way for better recovery than just ice water
baths after exercise."
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2OUgKJM Journal of Physiology, online
December 1, 2019.
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
