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Anyone do it?
Even after a flat 12 mile ride yesterday my leg is giving me grief.
From just above the rear pocket of my jeans ,down the outside of my thigh to my knee.
Tried various stretches and am just wondering if I'm brave with a cold bath it will sort it.
Is that one of those tight piriformis issues? If so, might be worth doing some foam rollering for your buttocks. Just sitting on it and rolling around at various angles seems to help me with knee issues and augment the tight calf/hamstring stretches. Various youtube and other guides online for the technique or try with a tennis ball if you're more of a no-pain-no-gain type!
Vaguely relevant, read this in the NYT's the other day..
Can reduce hypertrophy....
My legs KILL after a run..cucling is fine..but running is agony...
I've seen some ICE BARRELS you can get... Plunge into it in the garden!
DrP
Don't think so. They can help some things but I don't think they loosen tight muscles. I thoguht of them as a general metabolic boost type situation.
However in my experience a bath isn't big enough. There's just not enough water in there to get you properly chilled. Once acclimatised I just lay there feeling cold and wet as the bathwater gradually warmed up around me. For the metabolic stimulation you need to get really properly shivering cold.
Training induces damage. Damage stimulates your body to build back stronger.
Ice baths are supposed to reduce inflammation and therefore reduce post exercise adaption.
They might make sense in a stage race/riding holiday, but there is evidence to suggest that they effectively undo training.
Ice baths are supposed to reduce inflammation and therefore reduce post exercise adaption.
Although no one actually knows what triggers hypertrophy, lots of hypotheses eg calcium ion leakage in the muscle fibres - but the exact mechanism isn't understood.
However, there does appear to be evidence, as you say, that ice baths reduce hypertrophy, we just don't know what mechanism it is disrupting.....
It sounds like you're jumping at a solution without really getting to the bottom of the problem.
Could be a lower back or pelvis issue, a leg muscle or length thing, a bike fit problem, an imbalance somewhere... I think you need to rule some things in or out first. Physio?
You can jump in the sea with that idea near me, I bloody hate the cold, end of!