Are ice baths actually effective?

 What is cold therapy?: One of the most popular methods amongst players is old therapy (immersion in cold water). This involves partial immersion in water at roughly 10-15 degrees during periods of 5-20 minutes. Cold therapy has been hypothesized to accelerate recovery after training sessions. 

The problem: Although cold therapy is an effective tool for reducing pain and fatigue 24 hours after training, it can also reduce training adaptions. cold therapy restricts blood flow and inflamation. Cold induces a vasoconstrictor response and recreases blood flow. This decreases amino acid transport and thereby muscle protein synthesis. This reduces muscle hypertrophy and strength development. In addition, reduced inflamatory response could limit on essential mechanism of the muscle recovery procces after training, which results in less muscle mass gain over time. 

When should it be used?: Cold therapy should only be used as a short-term recovert method when we are after recovery rather than adaption. In the off season we are typically after adaption. We want to get stronger, faster and more pewrful. Therfore we don't use cold therapy since it reduces adaption. In season we might be after recovery instead. For example you might have back to back games, tournaments etc. That's when speed of recovery (getting back to baseline) is very important. Therefore we might do cold therapy on a few accasions like that. But not conistantly in-season. 

Also sleep is the best recovery above all other methods. 

That's it