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Thread: Hot and Cold - Stress or Recovery?

  1. #1
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    Dec 2021
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    Default Hot and Cold - Stress or Recovery?

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    I tried saunas and cold showers to aid recovery for year. I feel they were actually mini stress events which added nothing (at best) in my endeavours to lifting more weight. Better sleep and more food took care of that.

    Questions:

    1) Why do so many elite sports teams and exphys journals promote the values of hot and cold therapy because I’m really not sure the theory transfers into reality.

    2) In my experience, a hot bath does better job of deeply relaxing the muscles than a sauna. Sauna after effects made me feel tired in an energetically drained way but the bath made me feel “bone deep super relaxed”. Why is this so and am I alone in observing this?

    Thanks.

  2. #2
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    1. This is Athletic Trainer mythology. My experience was the same as yours: a serious contrast shower is very stressful, and actually made me break a cold sore on several occasions (I was rather dense). Same as ice bags all over athlete's knees and shoulders -- seems like it ought to help, but it really doesn't. But the momentum is there, and they're going to keep doing it.

    2. I haven't had a bath in years, so I don't remember. I like saunas, but I don't have one so I don't get to use it.

  3. #3
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    Thanks Rip! Yes I had the very same experience with the hot and cold in terms of cold sore outbreaks as well. Very disappointing. Aciclovir medication never seemed to help either despite the doctor’s liking for prescribing it. Do you know of any better treatments?

  4. #4
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    I'd imagine a significant amount of it is either a placebo effect, or in some instances "it makes me feel good so I keep doing it", much like massage.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bigredbull View Post
    Thanks Rip! Yes I had the very same experience with the hot and cold in terms of cold sore outbreaks as well. Very disappointing. Aciclovir medication never seemed to help either despite the doctor’s liking for prescribing it. Do you know of any better treatments?
    All three antivirals -- acyclovir, famcyclovir (Famvir), and valacyclovir (Valtrex) -- are useless and expensive. There are no treatments that I know of, except perhaps ivermectin.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    There are no treatments that I know of, except perhaps ivermectin.
    [echo chamber goes]: mectin, mectin, mectin, mectin...

  7. #7
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    I used to run for distance back in my high school days, and I always got shin splints (MTSS). They would persist. until I stopped running, and come back any time I ran over 10 miles per week. The coaches and trainers would strap ice to my shins after every workout, but it never did help. I do remember seeing some literature that ice reduced time to heal for acute injuries. I noticed that ice always helped me out with a sprained ankle from my time playing basketball. For chronic, long term type injury or for recovery, ice is quite useless.

    Heat and/or massage may not do a thing physiologically that we can demonstrate other than perhaps some increased blood-flow, but they always seem to get my mind in a very relaxed state. Getting immediately relaxed after a tough workout is very useful, especially when I do evening workouts with some caffeine or pre-workout. I will often have trouble mellowing out after amping myself up for a heavy strength workout. Sleep is vital for recovery, and I like heat/massage as a tool for relaxing for sleep. Can be useful.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
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    Have you guys tried Abreva? OTC antiviral ointment. Active ingredient is 1-Docosanol. Expensive but works well for me.

    Docosanol: a topical antiviral for herpes labialis - PubMed

  9. #9
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    Sep 2021
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ben. View Post
    I'd imagine a significant amount of it is either a placebo effect, or in some instances "it makes me feel good so I keep doing it", much like massage.
    I believe it comes from the ice pack on swollen areas idea and just applied to training. I don't understand exactly how it helps, since swelling is there to help protect injured areas, and icing it to reduce swelling only removes the protection. I don't know, I ain't no doctor. I can guess that it follows the "out of sight, out of mind" concept; reducing the swelling reduces the perception of the "symptoms", thus reducing the significance of the injury as a whole, then apply this idea idea to training just remove the swelling, which creates the placebo effect.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by GioFerrante View Post
    I used to run for distance back in my high school days, and I always got shin splints (MTSS). They would persist. until I stopped running, and come back any time I ran over 10 miles per week. The coaches and trainers would strap ice to my shins after every workout, but it never did help. I do remember seeing some literature that ice reduced time to heal for acute injuries. I noticed that ice always helped me out with a sprained ankle from my time playing basketball. For chronic, long term type injury or for recovery, ice is quite useless.

    Heat and/or massage may not do a thing physiologically that we can demonstrate other than perhaps some increased blood-flow, but they always seem to get my mind in a very relaxed state. Getting immediately relaxed after a tough workout is very useful, especially when I do evening workouts with some caffeine or pre-workout. I will often have trouble mellowing out after amping myself up for a heavy strength workout. Sleep is vital for recovery, and I like heat/massage as a tool for relaxing for sleep. Can be useful.
    Suicide is restful, they say.

    Sorry. Couldn't help it.

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