It’s an extremely common practice (especially among athletes) to use cold water or “ice-baths” as part of their post-workout recovery process. However, multiple recent research studies have discovered that immersing your muscles in cold water after resistance training actually significantly inhibits protein synthesis, thus decreasing the muscle growth that the workout would otherwise have stimulated!!
For example, in one study published in 2020, researchers had participants engage in two weeks of leg workouts, and after each workout had half of the participants put their legs in cold water (46° Fahrenheit), and the other half put their legs in “thermoneutral” water that was about body-temperature (86° Fahrenheit). They also had every participant ingest protein after each workout that was intrinsically labeled (on a molecular scale), so that researchers could perform muscle biopsies of the participants and see how much of that protein had been incorporated into new muscle growth.(See “Figure 5” image from the study below)
After just two weeks, they found that the participants who had used post-workout cold-water immersion had an average of 31% less leg muscle growth than the control (neutral water) group!!! And these results have since been replicated and confirmed by multiple other research groups.
APPLICATION: If you want to maximize muscle growth, DON’T take an ice-bath or engage in any other cold-water treatments for at least a 5-HOUR PERIOD after each workout!
Relevant Research Article(s):
1) Postexercise cooling impairs muscle protein synthesis rates in recreational athletes
2) Cold water immersion puts the chill on muscle protein synthesis after resistance exercise
3)Independent, corroborating evidence continues to accumulate that post-exercise cooling diminishes muscle adaptations to strength training
Related Dr. Gains YouTube Video(s):
1) 6 Reasons Why WEIGHT Training is BETTER Than CARDIO For Long-Term Weight / Fat Loss (25+ Studies) 🔥
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