THE ICE METHOD COMETH

For decades, athletes have been dunking their race-weary limbs in icy water, but now the practice is a wellness craze too. Rob Kemp puts the hype on ice and examines the evidence

- Rob Kemp

Cold plunges, high-street cryotherapy chambers C and the much-publicised Wim Hof method have made freezing recovery therapies a hot topic. Can short, sharp exposures to very cold temperatures really benefit cyclists, or do the related risks - not to mention to the discomfort outweigh any potential gains? "We use cold water immersion during the summer Tours and its chief benefits are body cooling in the heat and faster muscle recovery after exercise," Loic Cuigniez, medic with team LottoDstny tells Cycling Weekly. "The cold baths induce an anti-inflammatory response, reducing secondary muscle damage and enhancing muscle recovery. Since heat also adds extra stress to the heart, the sooner the riders cool down, the better they recover."

Cold therapy comes in a couple of formats: Firstly, whole body cryotherapy (WBC), exposure to extremely low temperatures in specialised chambers or with devices delivering cold air to specific areas of the body. Secondly, ice baths and cold-water immersion (CWI), submerging the body in cold water. While both aim to achieve similar physiological effects, cryotherapy offers the advantage of precise temperature control and shorter exposure times.

Whole-body cryotherapy involves immersing the entire body in sub-zero temperatures for a brief period, typically two to four minutes. This makes it more convenient for elite athletes with busy schedules. (The Leicester City football team that won the Premier League in 2016 used a cryotherapy chamber to speed up player recovery during a period of jam-packed fixtures.) But since the iceman' Wim Hof cometh, there has been a heightened interest in the purported benefits of simple ice baths.