The cold shower – perhaps one of the most widely talked about recovery methods. People participating in all sorts of athletics use cold showers as a method of recovery, swearing by them improving their muscle gains. Here’s the catch though: they don’t, at least not directly. Utilizing them can indeed allow you to build more muscle in a shorter period of time, but not in the way you might think.
Physiological effects
Before anything else, it’s important to understand what exactly a cold shower (or cold exposure in general) does to the body. Exposure to cold causes your body to have a survival response, as it has to work harder to maintain a safe core body temperature. This happens by increasing blood flow, while also constricting blood vessels at the surface of your body to limit heat loss. In essence, your body shoves blood from the extremities and body surface to more proximal (central) areas, such as your vital organs.
This is the same principal behind icing a sore spot – with the reduction in blood flow to the affected area, less fluid can build up, reducing swelling. Cold showers also reduce inflammation (see: inflammation vs swelling), which plays an important role in recovery. This, however, is also where muscle gains may be impacted. The inflammation produced by exercise is actually needed for muscle growth, and cold showers excel at reducing inflammation.
What this means is that the acute inflammation caused in your muscles by working out is important, and hindering it with cold exposure may not be optimal. This can be mostly circumvented however, by timing your cold showers appropriately. Simply put, in order to give this muscle-building inflammation the time it needs, keep at least 4-6 hours between your workout and cold exposure.
As a result of this, the morning is a great time for a cold shower! Cold exposure in the morning is great for reasons other than muscle growth, but I’ll touch on that later. As far as muscle growth goes, they can help. But it’s important to understand that they do this indirectly.
So can they improve muscle growth?
The reduction in inflammation from a cold shower does reduce the effectiveness of your workouts if taken immediately post-workout, and even if taken at the appropriate time, albeit with much less of an impact. But if they reduced muscle growth, how come so many top athletes swear by them? The answer lies in the scope of recovery. See, while cold showers reduce inflammation which can be harmful for the growth of muscles, it’s great for reducing the time it takes for your muscles (and joints) to stop being sore, allowing you to get to the next workout faster and with more intensity.
This indirectly increases the amount of muscle you can build within a certain timeframe. More efficient recovery means more, and better quality, workouts. This translates to more muscle growth, despite the reduction in growth caused by reduced inflammation.
A simple way to look at this is that a cold shower may reduce the growth potential from an individual workout, but makes up for it by increasing the quality (and therefore growth potential) of subsequent workouts. As such, they are a good option for those who exercise frequently or are competing, and may need enhanced recovery.
Psychological effects
Cold exposure has known psychological benefits in addition to its physiological benefits. As one can imagine, jumping into a freezing cold stream of water is a rather uncomfortable experience. It’s in this discomfort that the mental benefits of a cold shower lies.
It’s a common adage that stepping out of your comfort zone is good for you. That principal is no less true when it comes to stepping out of your physical comfort zone as well. Better yet, doing this can actually improve mental toughness and facilitate stepping out of your mental comfort zone!
Putting yourself into physical discomfort essentially gets you used to being uncomfortable. This allows you to handle being uncomfortable in other situations much better, such as during a diet or intense workout. It’s important to not go too far with cold exposure though. When it comes to putting your body under stress, more is not always better. Benefits of a cold shower can be reaped after about 30 seconds, with 2-3 minutes being a good goal. Benefits will actually begin to decrease after 3 minutes, so make sure to not go overboard.
Increasing endorphins is also a proven benefit of cold showers. This can help improve the symptoms of depression and anxiety, and help you to feel more motivated during your day.
What time of day is best?
Due to the nature of cold exposure, earlier in the day is better. Cold showers also improve alertness are very energizing, which is more beneficial if used as part of your morning routine. This also typically avoids the problem of impacting muscle gain after a workout.
Overview
Cold showers certainly have their place in recovery from exercise, as well as being a tool for increasing mental toughness. They can have some impacts on muscle gain, particularly if taken at an inappropriate time. However, if timed correctly and used in moderation, their benefits outweigh the cost.