Post Exercise Ice Bath ...

For the past few years, I've taken an ice bath after a long, hard run.  An ice bath consists of a bathtub filled with cold water and a varying amount of ice. They are taken immediately post exercise and it's recommended that you stay in them for 5-10 minutes.

Well, after hearing some controversy about whether an ice bath is actually beneficial, I decided to do a little investigating of my own.

Here's what I found out.  Taking an ice bath post intense workout will not make your muscle repair any faster from the tears created from the workout.  However,  an ice bath will reduce the physical pain created by DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness).

The verdict:  I still take ice bathes so that it eases my pain and so I can get up and move around the following several days without wincing.  I took an "ice bath" after the 18 mile training run this past weekend (which felt really great, by the way).  My pseudo-ice bath was just a bath of cold water from the faucet, and it still did the job.