The Surprising Benefits
of an Ice Bath: How to
Maximize Recovery
If you’re an athlete, then you know the importance of recovery. After a hard workout, your body needs time to heal and rebuild so that you can perform at your best the next time around. One method of recovery that is often overlooked is the ice bath. In this blog post, we will discuss the benefits of taking an ice bath and how to maximize your workout recovery!
5 Benefits of an Ice Bath For Recovery
Ice baths have a large popularity among athletes as their benefits go far beyond muscle relaxation. Here are five good reasons to jump into ice baths now:
1) Cold Exposure is considered the best way to heal.
In ice bath helps relax muscles, reduces swelling, helps breathe and boosts moods. Is this a surprise? The best athletes are choosing ice bathing to improve and strengthen their active recovery and fitness.
2) Ice Baths Helps You Sleep Better
The cortisol concentration was found to decrease depression symptoms and to reduce instances related to sleep-related disorders. Ice bathing helps boost your nervous system and results in less fatigue as well as decreased stress levels. Having an easy night sleep is facilitated by the body's natural tranquilizers, nervous system. Athletics must get the proper sleep to achieve optimal health and promote the natural healing process.
3) Cold Water Immersion May Help You Improve Sports Performance
If you've done a workout in a hot, humid climate, it'll improve your performance. An ice bath before a long race will lower your core body temperature and thus increase your performance. When you get in an ice bucket before a race or game it can reduce shivering and improve performance that you have to win the event.
4) Ice Baths Soothe Sore Muscles
After training you need to give your body time for muscle recovery. Those athletes between races may be required for more-rapid rehabilitation. Ice bath treatment will increase muscle healing by reducing swelling in the arteries. Ice bathing is used in the rehabilitation process to heal the damage from intense physical exercises. When your veins are submerged in ice water they constrict and when you leave the water they deform.
5) Trains You for Stressful Situations
When someone is feeling threatened, their brain releases chemicals that make them feel better. This is called the "fight or flight" response. These reactions to environmental stress are used to train the brain to handle the stressful situations of everyday life. After a temperature shock, our bodies can calm down. This happens because the shock reduces the levels of inflammatory cells and cytokines, which are related to stress and depression.
Portable Ice Bath
Because traditional ice baths are time consuming to set up and some don’t tolerate the full body cold immersion.
A new portable recovery device offers the benefits of an ice bath and gentle compression through a convenient method via Aquilo Sports. At MOTUS, we use Aquilo Recovery Pants that are made to fit snugly on the legs, like a pair of pants. They come in a range of different sizes in order to provide a comfortable fit for all body types.
Once the garment is applied, the legs fill with circulating ice water, surrounding all of the leg muscles. You stay completely dry in the process while your skin temperature drops to the optimal temperature. Meanwhile, the addition of the water causes the garment to expand and add extra compression for the complete benefit.
Compression and cold temperatures are two key tools for faster recovery, and our full leg ice compression therapy has both. Patients who are looking for faster recovery can get the benefits of both ice cold water and compression therapy at once by wearing a pant-like device that applies low temperatures and compression in a clean, controlled, and convenient way.
How Does Aquilo Recovery Pants Work?
Together, ice and compression therapy stimulate the flow of nutrients and fresh blood, reduce edema, and encourage faster healing.
The way by which cold exposure reduces swelling to an area is simple. After an injury or surgery, the body increases the flow of fluids to the affected area. This is what leads to swelling, and it can also cause pain and stiffness. The low temperatures of ice compression therapy counteract this response by narrowing the blood vessels, which reduces blood flow, and in turn reduces the swelling.
Meanwhile, the compression acts as a pump for the blood and lymphatic fluid, and stimulates their flow. This helps oxygen and nutrients to travel to the area, and helps remove cellular waste.
With the swelling reduced and the nutrients increased, the injured tissues have what they need to recover more quickly and efficiently.
Our full leg ice compression therapy is useful in many circumstances, from professional athletes wanting improved recovery, to patients dealing with chronic conditions like lymphedema. Ice compression therapy might also be appropriate for you if you’re recovering from an injury like a sprain or a tear. Athletes can put full leg ice compression therapy to use, whether they’re injured or just looking to recover after an intense workout. A recent study from 2017 looked at the effectiveness of cryocompression therapy on performance and recovery in resistance exercises.
It found that the ice compression therapy “resulted in an enhanced recovery process in recreationally resistance trained men.” Aquilo tested their Recovery Pants on athletes, and found that the application reduced muscle damage and decrease muscle soreness, which allows them recover faster, improved sleep, and left the athlete feeling more energetic and ready to perform.
In addition to addressing general post-workout fatigue, our full leg ice therapy is used to treat injuries like ankle sprains, muscle tears, or knee sprains without the hassle of ice bath submersion of the entire body.
Full leg ice compression is commonly applied to patients who are undergoing surgeries like ACL repairs or knee arthroplasty. If you have a similar procedure on the horizon, it might be beneficial for you to consult with your medical professional about whether ice compression therapy may be applied to recover faster.
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3 Ways to Level Up Your Rehab and Injury Prevention With Us
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