In CT’s succes quiz he mentions taking a contrast shower 30-60 minutes after a workout… I’ve been doing this lately, but what benefits does it have?
Also if any of you know WHY it works i’d be interested in knowing, just because.
thanks
SIMPLE why: it stimulates the area targeted (the shower obviously targets your whole body, if you aim right of course) thus increasing your recovery rate. i.e. gets the blood flowing, just kinda wakes every part up… I like to think of it as fucking with my CNS, but that’s just me. I’m sure someone, or some article, has a much better explanation, but that’ll start ya off.
All I know is it works well. I think it has something to do with the bloodflow to muscles and it helps remove lactic acid which prevents DOMS…
I’d like to know how and why it works too. Lactate levels drop low enough 30 min post w/o, and shouldn’t have any effect on “recovery” anyway. I just had this discussion with powerlifter friend (who’s also an MD/PhD) which woke me up to this.
You’d imagine that if anything, increasing the blood flow would be bad as this would exacerbate the inflammatory response. So I guess if it does indeed help recovery, it’d be the cold decreasing blood flow, but I can’t imagine that the exposure is severe/long enough to have an impact.
Cheers
Here’s a couple articles that involve contrast shower talk:
http://www.regenerationlab.com/archives/000022.php
http://www.atozfitness.com/chris/natural.htm
these don’t say too much, but they might help a little.
I searched this for quite a while, and nobody, except the guy from regeneration lab seems to back up any of their information.
[quote]David Barr wrote:
I’d like to know how and why it works too. Lactate levels drop low enough 30 min post w/o, and shouldn’t have any effect on “recovery” anyway. I just had this discussion with powerlifter friend (who’s also an MD/PhD) which woke me up to this.
You’d imagine that if anything, increasing the blood flow would be bad as this would exacerbate the inflammatory response. So I guess if it does indeed help recovery, it’d be the cold decreasing blood flow, but I can’t imagine that the exposure is severe/long enough to have an impact.
Cheers[/quote]
I’ve also came to the same conclusion as you awhile ago.
I actually did a huge research paper on this very topic (restoration/recovery) for one of my classes last year. I originally thought it would be easy but quickly found out there is very little studies on that topic. Most sources for recover/ restoration info comes from outdated books and Russian articles.
There needs to be more scientific studies done on this very topic.
The question that I have is: Are recover/restoration methods effective and if so how?
Pick up a copy of “Sports Restoration and Massage” by Siff and Yessis. There is lots of info in Contrast showers and other types of restoration.
Are you saying wait 30 to 60 minutes after a workout to take a shower? I usually take one about 10-15 minutes after.
the contrst shower induces vasodilation and conctriction to hot and cold respectabily. I often use this more often as an injury therapy than recovery from workout. I find that it helps stimulates injuries and reduce the swelling. It can be compared to heating pads and ice pack methods.
the article on regenerationlab states that the muscle fiber relaxes more to allow better growth.
BOSS is correct. The scientific literature on the subject is very limited. Of course, that is not to say that it doesn’t work. There just isn’t anything to explain the mechanisms yet.
We are currently doing some studies with contrast baths in our lab and have found that while the athletes didn’t perform any better after having contrast baths (vs a normal warm bath) they did feel better as assessed by a psychological scale. I’m not sure of the details, but the research is starting to be done.
While superficial heat and cold baths do stimulate vasodilation and constriction, it is just that, superficial. The depth of penetration is, from what studies i’ve read of this, only 1 or 2 cm (centimeters). So it would be hard to imagine reaching much muscle tissue if at all. The next problem would be physiological. The human body regulates it’s internal temperature so well that it can withstand long duration superficial temperature changes without affecting overall body temperature. This is the epitome of being warm blooded. If this was not so then a 105deg jacuzzi would fry us quickly, which it doesn’t. And as I’m currently in Iraq with 130deg heat everyday, I should have a constant pump if superficial heat increased blood flow. Also, read any physiology book about the regulation of blood flow and it deals more with metabolites affecting bloodflow than temperature. But test it out, do you get an entire body pump after a long shower? We all know that cold is a good vasoconstrictor, and I use it to treat swelling all the time, but the same limitations apply to cold as to heat. I am inclined to agree with a poster above who said it probably has to do with the CNS and the temperature changes affecting the autonomic nervous system. This may be the soothing, decrease in pain that we feel after superficial hot or cold. If I had to guess i’d say it’s more central nervous system pain mediation than actual “recovery”. But like so many other things, if you think it helps, then it does.
BOSS,Dave Barr,
I always thought the process of alternating the hot / cold several times allowed you to effectively “pump out” waste products from the muscle.
Brendon, a depth of 2cm int your muscle seems preety deep to me. Imagine Dr. Death shaving off 2cm of skin / muscle/ sub Q fat: that would be an awful lot of flesh he’d remove. So, therefore an awful lot of you can be reached using this method.
Old Dax
Old Dax,
Lactic acid clearance from the muscle is relatively fast. Half and hour after exercise your muscle lactic acid contest should be close to normal.