Not exactly cold plunges, but there are studies on ice baths and data that exists on this for recovery (with the caveat that most studies of recovery products or modalities are small and often heterogenous or difficult to apply to other situations) shows that not only are ice baths not of benefit for recovery, but they are counterproductive and limit training adaptation. But as with most recovery products, if it gets you to actually take time to recover and you believe it is helpful (the placebo effect is significant with most recovery products, even with the knowledge that it is purely placebo) there may be some personal benefit.

i don't do it myself but those i know who do tend to pick up a cheap chest freezer and fill that up with water

Its been Proven that ice baths after exercise is rubbish and stalls the recovery process to reduce inflammation for 24-48 hours.

You are better off having a warm bath or spa.

However cold water immersion is great for the body in general especially of a morning.

So what are you actually doing cold water for?

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Thank you for your insight. I have read conflicting reports regarding athletic performance, and of course am open to learning more. In my very limited experience, the cold plunge seemed to help with sleep. Also, I just seemed to make me feel good - very subjective, and limited experiment.

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

Why not just take a cold shower? Less work/effort.

At least up here in the tundra, the cold water coming from my shower is around 50 degrees.

Source(s)?

I believe there are *some* studies suggesting a link between cold water immersion and mental health improvements.
My GP (Primary care Doc) even quizzed me a couple of years back about my open water swimming, and said there were some articles in medical journals relating to it which t he'd read (no I don't have refs).

Also an n=1 unscientific example, a friend who struggled with 'long covid' particularly chest pains / a tight chest for over a year after infection (early 2020 infected, before vaccines or too much was known) found by chance that cold water swims alleviated the symptoms for quite a number of hours / the remainder of the day).

+1. While I think David lives in North Carolina, I would think that his tap water, even in the summer, is around 75-76* F, which is pretty cold unless you are swimming pretty hard. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Yes, I swim hard :-)

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

But you would not swimming if you were just taking a cold shower, which even in mid-summer is plenty cold enough for me, since I'm just standing under it. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I've been doing the cold shower thing of a morning for about a month on and off, definitely improves circulation and has a calming effect.

Cold showers may help

My 2-cents… a bath tub with a bag of ice works just fine for me.

It may be placebo or anecdotal, but I swear by ice baths after races. When I finished IM Lake Placid two weeks ago, I sat in an ice bath for thirty minutes two hours after finishing and had zero soreness or DOMS. My housemates who did not partake were hobbling around the day after and their soreness increased for the next two days. When I have a rough patch in training where DOMS shows up, I get and ice bath going and the next day I am ready to roar again. I also know that race day nutrition matters and when I get it right, it probably helps reduce soreness too. Regardless if there is science either way, I am a believer.

Install a nice soaking tub in your house and buy a commercial ice machine. Skip the dedicated cold tubs. I also take a hot soak at night once or twice a week with magnesium flakes for 15-20 mins. The hot soak definitely helps with sleep and I feel less sore after a big workout. Also, the ice baths generally make me feel better (I will do it once a week). Not sure if the ice baths have any recovery benefits, but mentally they do. Side note: nut houses a long time ago would make patients take ice baths because it improved happiness among patients. Van Gogh was required to take ice baths for his depression. YMMV. Don't cut off your ear.

It seems like ice baths are bad for strength gains (as the anti-inflammatory promotion stops the swelling that muscles need to grow) but for endurance exercise its actually pretty good for reducing things like DOMS and general soreness. Quite a few ice bath benefits here with some research to back it up but like I said here this says its not great if you're trying to pack on muscle.

I keep seeing these small, cold- plunge blow up pods popping up on my social media for ads. They look perfect for cold plunges in-between sauna sessions. My husband has been building me a wood fired sauna and we were thinking of getting one for this use. They are cheap, like under $150. Worth a try for that price.

Here's one

Iced Plunge (@icedplunge) | Instagram

Might feel good after a long run or long bike day.

I used to sit in cold streams after a long run back when I trained solely for marathons. And also sitting in my bathtub with ice cubes and cold water.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Any chance the Smiley Sprint has a few of the portable ice baths in addition to the post-race massages??? :)

Hmmm . . . be careful what you tempt me with!! I will do anything for our athletes at http://www.SmileyTriathlonFestival.com

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

listened to a huberman podcast about cold plunge and saunas and the advice was cold plunge first thing in the am and sauna in the evening. also, cold plunge within 6 hours of exercise is no bueno. that said........I'm convinced nobody knows wtf they are talking about. It's all pseudo science, but people should do what makes them feel better.

I got a blow up ice bath a while ago. Filled it up in my living room thinking id watch some tv while in it. It was awesome until I was done and realized all that water weighed about 500lbs lol. Took a lot of scooping water before I could finally get it outside enough to pull the plug. I still laugh at myself for that sometimes

Dude.

I don't know if any folks here ever took a Green Tortoise Bus. I took one round trip, 1991, Portland-SF and then back a week later. They had a compound in either Northern CA or Southern OR where we stopped for maybe 2 hours. It had a sauna by a creek. They'd crank the sauna up pretty hot, you'd stay in it as long as you can take it, then run over to the creek, which was freezing cold, you'd stay there as long as you could take it, then run back to the sauna, do this cycle over and over. Felt *awesome*. I've tried to repeat it since in gyms with saunas and cold showers, never came close.
I've no idea what the health benefits are, especially for athletes, but the feeling that that hot/cold/hot/cold gave me was its own reward.

2nd... Dude

lol

(~8lbs/gal)

Did you end up getting one?

I don’t care what the science says - it’s been > 100 for something like 3+ months straight. The cold plunge is my “hack” to dropping my core temperature after any type of exercise (walking, riding, yardwork, whatever) and cooling off in advance of one of those

It’s also delivers some pretty serious mental clarity after 3ish mins @ 40ish degrees

We’ll see how the body reacts in the winter. But I’m a huge believer after 1 summer