I’ve always wanted to take an ice bath after a long bike or run, but it’s just not practical. My ice machine doesn’t make enough ice, and I have no desire to buy a bunch of ice at the grocery since I’m a cheap bastard and would never pay for ice (frozen water = free).
What do my slowtwitch brothers and sisters do in lieu of the dreaded ice bath? Are there any bags or packs that you recommend for the full leg treatment? I googled but only came up with those archaic granny bag type deals.
As an experiment, I threw some ice in some old Safeway plastic bags, but it’s kinda micky-mouse and only good for small coverage. I need the full wrap deal.
I only do an ice bath after a race or a long ass hard ass workout. Otherwise I cool down and recover with some Chocolate Milk and some foam roller action.
actually 50-55* or even as high as 60* is recommended for routine post workout (non-acute injury) icing … more comfortable, easier to obtain, and just as effective
Sounds good to me. Be careful though, as someone mentioned, this is ST, where even ice baths are a competitive sport.
“32 degrees? pfffttt… I use dry ice”
“Haha dry ice, so yesterday. Liquid nitrogen is all the rage.”
Seriously?? Liquid nitrogen is most certainly not cold enough… I get my ice bath down to absolute zero before I hop in.
Edit to add: my serious answer would be that I’m lucky enough to be on a university campus with a sports medicine center that makes its Whirlpools available to athletes. But if I had to do it on my own, I’d just use the cold water out of the tap and maybe dump the whole icebox from my freezer in if it wasn’t quite cold enough.
You have a couple of Cervelos including a P4, and you have a picture of a Ferrari and you don’t want to pay $4 for two bags of ice. We’re not even talking once a week ice-bath here but maybe twice a month or $8 a month. Dude, skipping lunch once a month will pay for that ice!
I alternate putting just my legs in a cold shower. About 30 seconds per leg alternating , oh, about 6-7 times. Seems to work as good as an ice bath
That certainly helps and it’s what I do when I’m feeling lazy but need some extra recovery, but it doesn’t match what a really COLD ice bath can do.
My rec is to just stick with cold tap water and all the ice packs and ice you can get ahold of for most of the time. You can always go buy ice on those days where you really need it COLD. There really isn’t anything else to help recovery besides rest and compression (and nutrition of course) and a combination of all of those is best.
