Benefits of ice baths?
Ice baths might not spring to mind when you think of practices for health and fitness, but modern science is revealing the very real benefits of taking them. Until recently, it was only athletes who took them. But now an ever-rising number of ordinary people are taking ice baths for the health benefits. The evidence for these health benefits is disputed among academics, but thousands of athletes swear the practice can bring genuine improvements. The recent rise of Cryotherapy, which is simply the use of low temperatures for medical purposes, seems to support the long argued idea that ice baths really do bring health benefits.
People have been taking ice baths for hundreds of years. And that’s just what we know for sure – people could have been doing it for thousands of years. The idea is always that if you can handle swimming in freezing-cold lakes, it would make you more of a man than someone who could not. Taking ice baths was especially popular in Russia, partly because they’re so use to the cold climate there. It was Russians who made the practice popular in North-America. But the practice soon received a bad name among average Americans. This was partly because of a well documented divorce in 1899. The cause of divorce is that a man would force his wife to take ice baths. This was back in the days when getting a divorce was a big deal too. But the benefits of ice baths were too great for athletes to ignore, and so the practice survived. It was only with the rise of the internet that the practice of taking ice baths would come to be so well known.
Be under no illusion, there are some risks associated with ice baths. Hypothermia is when a persons body temperate falls below 35.0 °C. This is a very dangerous state for your body to be in, and can easily cause death. There is always the risk that ice baths can cause a person to go into Hypothermia. If you’re going into cold water, be careful not to stay in for too long.
The 10 Benefits:
10 – Muscles are less sore
9 – Muscles are less stiff
8 – Muscles are less painful
7 – Helps muscles grow stronger
6 – Muscles repair faster
5 – Good for the heart
4 – You feel less tired
3 – Great for inflammation
2 – You will be less prone to injury
1 – Ice baths make you more physically tough