The wellness world is full of people who freeze themselves after exercise, thinking that this way they can get the most out of their workout.
They include actor and powerhouse Chris Hemsworth, pop star Lizzo and wellness guru Gwyneth Paltrow – and this year, the Olympics.
However, experts warn that doing this right after weightlifting can actually hinder muscle growth.
Research shows that diving into cold water hinders muscle growth in your body and can make it harder to get bigger and stronger in the long run.
Hemsworth has shared that he enjoys ice baths for muscle recovery. Pictured here in 2022, he took part in a three-minute ice bath on Instagram to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s disease
According to experts, taking a cold bath in the hours after strength training can make it harder for your body to build muscle
“If you dive into cold water after exercise, there’s a good chance that it will harm your muscle growth,” says Dr. Rhonda Patrick, a fitness instructor who studied biomedical sciences and nutritional biochemistry.
Doctor Patrick shared in an X that the cooling effect can actually reduce the amount of protein your body produces after a workout to build your muscles.
During weightlifting, muscles tear. The body fills these tears with proteins, which over time make the muscles bigger and stronger.
The less protein the body produces, the less muscles are strengthened and grown.
“People looking to improve their muscular fitness should consider using cooling as part of their recovery strategy,” she said.
According to Dr. Luc Van Loon, professor of exercise and nutrition physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, these baths are best used to treat injuries immediately after a workout, rather than to improve your physical condition.
If you sustain an injury while exercising, the cold can help reduce swelling, pain and stiffness.
But experts advise against ice baths in the long term, because research shows they make it harder for muscles to grow and become stronger. Andrew Jagimaccording to a sports medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic.
If you want to grow your muscles, avoid doing cold plunges on the same day you lift weights or do calisthenics, Dr. Patrick says.
Despite these warnings, post-exercise cold therapy appears to be extremely popular.
Google searches for ice baths have approximately doubled since 2019 and there have been searches for cold plunge almost 50 times as large the same period, partly due to their popularity online.
Joe Rogan promotes them on one of the most popular podcasts in the world. International sporting legends like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lebron James have been spotted in the pools after matches.
In response, a variety of cold plunge products for the home have emerged. These include The Ice Pod portable ice bath for $99 to the SunHome Sauna option for $4,499 to the BlueCube Elite Cold Plunge Tub for $21,490.
While Dr. Patrick is a fan of ice baths and cold showers for their supposed anti-inflammatory effects, she doesn’t recommend them in every situation.
She explained this using a fragment from an interview with Dr. Van Loon in her podcast Found My Fitness.
“From a muscle perspective, there is no point in post-exercise recovery if cold is not really helpful,” says Dr. Van Loon.
In the interview, Dr. Van Loon explained a study he conducted in 2019, involving twelve young men, which was set in The Journal of Physiology in 2019.
Participants in the study placed one leg in cold water and one leg in room temperature water for 15 minutes after performing a form of resistance exercise. They did this six times over a two-week period.
The scientists then observed how the muscles behaved. They discovered that the A leg placed in cold water had more difficulty producing proteins than a leg placed in lukewarm water.
He predicted that these effects would diminish over the two weeks of the study, but that the muscles in the leg immersed in cold water would recover more slowly over time than those in the leg immersed in warm water.
A separate paper A 2024 study conducted by exercise scientists at the City University of New York, which analyzed eight older studies on the topic, found similar results.
Existing studies of athletes using cold therapy have shown that using cold therapy after strength training decreased the body’s ability to build muscle.
The researchers concluded that getting cold immediately after a workout does not completely prevent someone from developing their muscles. However, it did appear that strength training without a cold water bath was generally more effective for people who wanted to build mass.
According to Dr. Van Loon, these results do not mean that drinking cold water after exercise has no benefits.
He indicated that professional and extreme athletes can benefit from ice baths after training as it helps heal their wounds.
Users on X were quick to point out that ice baths are still a favorite among sports stars.
“In soccer, our goal during the season is to maximize recovery. So it really depends on what the goal is. Before the season, it’s a different story,” said X user seitentaisei11.
But if you’re an average gym-goer looking to build muscle, a cold soak in the six hours after lifting weights or doing calisthenics could stunt your growth, Dr. Van Loon says.
According to Dr. Patrick, you don’t have to avoid cold baths altogether. But she said you should just wait for a day when you don’t lift weights, wait until six hours after a session, or opt for a less extreme cold remedy, like a cold shower.
“It is important to adjust the manner and timing of your cold water immersion to optimize muscle growth,” says Dr. Patrick.