I'm Still Bullish on Cold Showers
So I've been doing some looking around the internet for some information about cold showers since it's something that I've been practicing pretty inconsistently for a while now. But when I do get on a streak for a while they actually feel pretty good.
So I had to find out what was actually on in my body, and unfortunately, I found nothing that supported what I believed to be the benefits of taking cold showers or using cold therapy in general for recovery. I usually start off with my hot shower and go cold for a while at the end, which is similar to how some of the studies are set up. But they found that although it's a pretty popular thing there was no evidence that cold showers help with recovery or performance in any significant way.
I'm freaking heartbroken, but I still like cold showers a lot. They're still real to me, even if they're not so real to science.
The idea I had was that cold showers would help with inflammation. I also thought it might affect your blood flow in some therapeutic way or something like that but nothing...
smh...
If for nothing else I still like my cold showers as a breathing exercise. The only way to make them not suck is to breathe deep until you get to a point where you're breathing relaxes. How well can I control my breathing as my body adapts to this cold water?
But what do you think?
Is it all a bogus waste of time?
Should I go to ice baths instead?
Are ice baths still something you want to stick with?
Juliff, L. E., Halson, S. L., Bonetti, D. L., Versey, N. G., Driller, M. W., & Peiffer, J. J. (2014). Influence of Contrast Shower and Water Immersion on Recovery in Elite Netballers. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 28(8), 2353-2358. doi:10.1519/jsc.0000000000000417
Cochrane, D. J. (2004). Alternating hot and cold water immersion for athlete recovery: A review. Physical Therapy in Sport, 5(1), 26-32. doi:10.1016/j.ptsp.2003.10.002
