Athletes often use cold water immersion to reduce muscle soreness and speed up the recovery process. But recently, concerns have emerged about the possible negative effects of cold water immersion.

In this video, Rhonda & Luc van Loon discuss:

• Does cold water immersion blunt gains?
• Why you should definitely avoid cold water immersion in the first 6 hours post-exercise (resistance training & endurance work)
• If waiting 6 hours after resistance training to do cold water immersion still blunts muscle protein synthesis
• Luc's study showing post-exercise cooling blunts myofibrillar protein synthesis rates, reducing the uptake of dietary protein-derived amino acids crucial for muscle recovery
• How to time cold water immersion to minimize detrimental hypertrophy effects

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Check out the FoundMyFitness topic page on cold exposure, where we take a deep dive into the literature.