Do you often come home from intense workouts and wish you had a more effective recovery method? One of the best ways to recover faster is with cold exposure in the comfort of your home.
Similar to cryotherapy but with water, an ice bath in a tub of freezing cold water makes this possible. Ice baths are a passive-active rehabilitation that helps decrease inflammation and alleviate muscle discomfort.
Although hopping into ice cold water after a workout doesn’t sound fun to many, taking ice baths is a game-changing post-workout recuperation technique almost anybody can use.
Let’s take a look at six reasons you should get an ice bath tub for home for taking ice baths anytime.
What is the Theory Behind Ice Baths?
Ice baths after a workout are thought to help repair the micro-trauma or microscopic tears in muscle fibers resulting from strenuous physical activity. Exercising is intended to cause this kind of slight muscle injury because it increases muscle cell activity, which in turn aids in repairing the damage and strengthening the muscles.
It's also associated with delayed onset muscle soreness. It is thought that cold water immersion (CWI) can also reduce edema and tissue breakdown by narrowing blood vessels and slowing the body's metabolic rate. The theory is that rewarming will cause the blood to flow more quickly, increasing circulation and hastening the healing process.
6 Reasons You Should Get an Ice Tub for Your Home
The potential benefits of taking an ice bath may make you question whether or not you should subject your body to such severe temperatures. The good news is that taking an ice bath has been proven to produce positive effects, especially for people who exercise often or are competitive in sports.
So what are the six reasons you should get an ice tub for your home?
Reduce Muscle Soreness and Inflammation
It's crucial to give your body time to recover after a strenuous workout. Taking an ice bath can help reduce swelling and discomfort from sore muscles more quickly. Submerging in an ice bath after a workout can also help repair tissue damage.
The cold causes one's blood vessels to narrow, then widen after they emerge from the tub. This mechanism aids in the removal of metabolic waste products after exercise, particularly in the lymph nodes, which contain lymphatic fluid that can build up.
Faster Recovery from Intense Cardio
After completing a strenuous cardio workout, taking a bath in ice water can help the body recover more quickly and effectively. In a study that was conducted in 2010, 41 high-level, male athletes were asked to participate in 20-minute sessions of intensive intermittent exercise at maximum effort.
After each of these high-intensity cardio sessions, a recovery period of 15 minutes was performed. Participants who underwent cold-water immersion therapy over 15 minutes were found to recover significantly quicker than those who didn’t.
Lessen Cardiac Stress
Immersion in cold plunge tub after your workouts may be able to assist in reducing the stress that exercise puts on your heart, which is especially helpful when you've been working out in the heat.
Physiological stress and hormonal recovery could be boosted by CWI, according to a 2019 study. The participants' heart rates were found to drop more quickly with CWI than with passive recovery methods after cycling for 45 minutes in a hot environment.
Builds a Stronger Immune System
Metabolic health and weight maintenance can both benefit from a process called thermogenesis. Immersions in plunge ice baths have been proven to stimulate this process. Submersion in a cold tub combined with various breathing techniques has been shown to stimulate the immune system's adaptive response.
It's a technique known as controlled hypoxia, which promotes the release of adrenaline. cold plunge therapy directly influences immune function by exposing the body to physiological stimuli that force it to perform at levels outside its comfort zone.
Alleviate Pain
Ice bathing or taking a cold shower after a single intense workout provides brief pain relief and may assist recovery, or at least the athlete's perception of a speedier recovery.
A study conducted in 2016 on athletes who participated in jiu-jitsu found that immediately after a workout, a plunge in cold water resulted in less reported muscle aches and helped decrease lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels.
Results in Healthier Skin
Plunge ice bath therapy helps to momentarily tighten pores and minimize redness by constricting cutaneous blood flow in the skin, unlike hot water which can dry out your skin by removing its natural oils.
Cold immersion, whether in cold showers or part of an ice bath routine, is a great way to rejuvenate your skin by removing the top layer of dead skin and encouraging new, healthy skin to form in its place.
Cold water immersion can help your skin in a few different ways:
- It can make your skin firmer by strengthening the contractile fibers.
- It can make your pores smaller, temporarily reducing the pollution that gets into your skin.
- It can make your blood vessels stronger, which can help your skin heal faster after an injury.
- Those who make ice baths part of their beauty routine report feeling younger and more refreshed afterward.
Enjoy the Benefits of Ice Baths with RENU Therapy
With RENU Therapy's ice bath tubs, you can reap the benefits of cold therapy whenever you choose in the comfort of your own home, thanks to the constant availability of cold water.
Are you ready for cold therapy benefits anytime? RENU Therapy's skilled artisans create customized cold water therapy tubs and the best ice bath tubs to meet your health and aesthetic needs.
From choosing the color of the cabinet to the wood cover, you’re sure to find the cold water therapy tub of your dreams, for both indoor and outdoor use!
To get the best cold water immersion tub available, contact us at 714-617-2007 at RENU Therapy today.
