Best Ice Bath And Contrast Bathing Techniques To Optimise Your Triathlon Training Recovery

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Rhona_Pearce]Rhona Pearce
Don't leave your recovery to chance, you should plan this in the same way that you plan your training.
Actively taking steps to help your body recover allows you to adapt to training more quickly by reducing fatigue so you can be fully ready to get the most out of your next session.
Ice baths and contrast bathing is one method you can use to help you reduce the risk of the problems associated with becoming overfatigued or overtrained.
Ice Baths
Ice baths are thought to have several beneficial effects:
Improve blood circulation to help remove waste products from the muscles
Reduce inflammation
Improve muscle activation
Reduce DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness)
Improve next day training ability
Allow optimum fuel recovery
Psychological benefits -improve well being / relaxation
Overall improved muscle function
The temperature does not need to be freezing - around 15C/59F is usually recommended. However if you are going to be using an intermittent protocol, eg 5 x 1 minute with 2 minutes in between immersions, then a cooler temperature is recommended (11C/52F).
You shouldn't spend more than 15 minutes in an ice bath at any one time. They can be useful up to 48 hours after training or racing. Ice baths have been found to have the biggest effect following particularly damaging training sessions. So for example high intensity sessions, weights or plyometric sessions.
There is however a school of thought that long-term use of ice bath sessions can actually hamper the adaptations to training. The inflammation and fatigue you create in a session causes your body to adapt. If you reduce this then there is the potential that you reduce the adaptation to that session.
We would suggest using ice baths sparingly, usually in the time before a race when short-term recovery is more important than long-term training adaptations, and after races to help you recover and get back into training.
Contrast Bathing / Contrast Water Therapy
The theory is that by moving from hot water to cold, blood flow is improved and waste products are flushed more rapidly from the muscles. Similar to ice baths this technique has been shown to reduce inflammation in the muscles.
It is probably less popular than ice baths, and doesn't appear to be as beneficial, but it is better than no treatment at all. Due to the potential negative effects of long-term ice bath use we would generally advise contrast bathing as a more regular recovery aid.
You should always finish with cold water, and aim to use this technique immediately after training or racing.
Rhona Pearce has a degree and postgraduate degree in sports science and exercise physiology, and 10 years experience of providing sports science support to triathletes. Her husband is a triathlon coach for the British Olympic programme and together they have developed this website: http://www.intelligent-triathlon-training.com/
Visit http://www.intelligent-triathlon-training.com/ to get your free triathlon training planner, and for lots of practical information and advice about all aspects of triathlon training, nutrition, triathlon gear, injury prevention and recovery.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Best-Ice-Bath-And-Contrast-Bathing-Techniques-To-Optimise-Your-Triathlon-Training-Recovery&id=6198812] Best Ice Bath And Contrast Bathing Techniques To Optimise Your Triathlon Training Recovery