Why can it feel so good, tho? 
Yep, not new news.
Especially with Hypertrophy, you donât want to blunt the adaptations. No cold water plunge, no ice, no NSAIDS, etc. Itâs the case with endurance training too, but the window is shorter. IIRC itâs 3-4 hours post endurance training being the most important, where adaptations can go out as far as 48 hours with hypertrophy.
This is when your focus is adaptations and getting faster though. When youâre in the middle of a stage race and your focus is recovery for the next day - different story.
Andrew Huberman did a series with Andy Galpin where this gets discussed, just canât remember where.
Not sure I agree about it feeling good, but it might do, because youâre helping your body heal from the damage the exercise did? Similarly to when you ice an injury maybe.
Yeah, read Good To Go. Itâs an excellent book and covers a host of topics. Almost like a meta study across the board.
TL;DR for the book:
Stuff that works:
Massage - either pro, percussive or foam rolling.
Meditation/floating
Rest
Sleep
Relaxation/downtime - theory on compression boots was they work because they force athletes to sit and rest for a period. Compression itself doesnât do anything.
Ice/cold may hinder recovery for all but acute injuries, and even thenâŚ
But Good To Go is excellent.
Inflammation is part of our natural recovery process. Blunting it isnât good. No to cold post-workout, same for NSAIDs, etc.
I might need to explain better what I mean: cold water treatment reduces the 'injury" (I think it mostly reduces swelling). That feels good because our bodies donât really want to be injured and inflammed. Obviously, with training, we actually want the reaction do the âinjuryâ, so blunting it is not helpful, even though it might feel good.
But then, I donât know. I donât actually think cold water plunges feel good, they just feel cold 
Yeah ice baths are a hard no from me. I used to do them sometimes after cross country practice in HS but never felt like they made anything better, either.
No it reduces the extent of recovery. The injury is not the inflamation.
Maybe thatâs true for a professional, lie on a table for an hour massage. I donât know. I have had a few in my life and I didnât feel like they were worth the money from a sports recovery stand point. Theyâre amazingly relaxing, though.
I donât think anyone would say foam rolling is all that relaxing. In fact, that is why I strongly - strongly - prefer a Theragun over foam rolling. Foam rolling is actually quite a lot of work.
Theragun is too short to be considered a forced rest, in my opinion. Most of my sessions are between 4 and 7 minutes long. I donât know why - not sure anyone really knows why percussive massage is effective, but the two running theories are (1) increased blood flow and warming; and (2) fascia manipulation. I think short-term (1) is wonderful, and I personally believe (2) is a real effect over the long term with consistent application. Thatâs based on my limited physical therapy knowledge largely from having a sister who is 30 years in PT/athletic training and having her prescribe and do friction massage for that exact reason, which has helped me overcome a number of soft tissue injuries over the course of my 3 decades in endurance sports.
So, thatâs my anecdata as pertains to massage. Theragun FTW.
Mooneyâs work @ Harvard is pretty good evidence that massage can actually improve muscle repair. But ya gotta do it JUST SO.
https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/scitranslmed.abe8868
I think that there are multiple methods to recover with varying levels of efficacy. As far as I know, which isnât much, is that Sleeping and Eating are the the most effective. I would ask, why spend time doing less effective ways of recovering when you could just get more sleep and eat better with that time.
Because more time isnât the limiting factor and more of it doesnât give you the ability to just sleep more or eat better.
20+ years using a Thumper. 3 years Theragun. 1 year using a massage chair.
Go big or go home! Huge difference. Need to sell the Theragun.
Agree with all your points re: time management. But the key point is that cold plunging immediately after workouts is actually hurting, not helping, in most cases.
âFoam rolling is relaxingâ thought Pbase never!
Yeah me neither. Theragun has stuck with me for a long time for that reason - relaxing AND effective.
Same. But over the past couple months there have been a lot of people spending a lot of bucks on expensive cold plunge ârain barrelsâ or tubs. Which Iâm not at all opposed toâŚbut if people are doing it because they think it helps with training, they have the wrong idea.
And now I have a handy link to show whenever somebody asks me. Hereâs an easy to understand graphicâŚhereâs the link to the meta studyâŚenjoy your cold water plunge.
Yeah, seems the influencers are all pitching cold water plunge all the sudden
now that we are stringing hot days together, aerating the pool in the wee hours of the morning isnât helping reduce temps. Sounds like I need to find someone disillusioned by their purchase and buy me an inexpensive cool water plunge tub!
Yes. Definitely do NOT just buy a $70 rain barrel. Your friends will take one look and know that you are a Cold Plunge Pretender. You need the $1200 Ice Barrel 300. Dat how you flex your plunge cred.
