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.
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Go big or go home! And that $70 rain barrel will have hotter water than my pool. Off to FB Marketplace to find a used Ice Barrel 300 
Scratch that, looking for a used Ice Barrel 500 to really flex that plunge cred!
This looks like a bad idea:
and this isnât cheap enough
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South Park is the only study I need! 
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During one of the few times when Iâve needed PT (thankfully not often injured), the PT recommended cold plunges first thing in the morning daily as part of a general anti-inflammation routine. Helpful for general health, quality of life, and all that.
Would such a practice also be detrimental to training adaptations if done before the dayâs workout?
Any pointers to good YouTube videos on how to use it well, and how NOT to use it, by any chance?
I have one, but rarely use it, and recently caused myself some nerve/joint pain that took weeks to heal by (I guess?) getting too close to places where I shouldnât, or being too aggressive with it, or something. Clearly user error. But havenât found any useful guidance.
For Hypertrophy the day before, yes if I remember right.
But, the timeline is different for endurance and strength workouts. I forget the exact timelines, but I think I remember it being shorter, i.e. the 4 hours after the workout being the most important
Hereâs a clip from Andrew Huberman and Andy Galpin on the topic (which seems to agree), where they talk about Hypertrophy, Strength, and Endurance, and then adaptation vs. optimization/recovery. But, there are even some caveats for endurance specifically (as in, could it help?)
The full length discussions Huberman and Galpin did are fantastic BTW. Another interesting one on initiating recovery (outside of nutrition)
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If you have a proper Theragun I use the app and then have made up my own routines too once I got the hang of it. You can probably find the app and use it even if youâre using a different brand.
Gotta be careful with it on areas where you donât have a lot of muscle (hands, ribs/chest, etc) for sure.
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@AgingCannon I think if youâve been following a cold water immersion protocol and you feel like it helps you, you should keep doing that with a clear conscience. One of the things about a meta study is that individual results are lost in the overall conclusion. Who knows? There might be a subset of people that respond well.
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He mentioned PT. After rotator cuff surgery, for about a week I used a Polar Active Ice machine for pain management (instead of drugs) and inflammation control.
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Coach Jonathan delved into the research on the effectiveness of massage guns for cyclists in a recent YouTube video! You can find that here: https://youtu.be/NtoCgX1CAUM?si=EYm4cLVLxJW66aLk.
In the video, he discusses the situations in which there is a case for massage guns improving performance and where the evidence is less convincing. He also covers how often and for how long you should use them.
I hope itâs helpful! 
Granted I havenât watched the video so he probably discusses this. But, because you brought it up.
Massage guns, foam rolling, etc. are not about performance and IMO not how they should be evaluated. Itâs about mobility, pain management, flexibility, relaxation, maybe recovery. Now those are all indirectly related to performance so Iâm sure do help in certain scenarios and not in others, but I recoil every time someone says, âWell, they donât make you fasterâŚâ
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Do we think cold water plunging (or other anti-inflammatory) has a use in taper week?
Long term training adaption is no longer the goal from workouts but getting the body moving well and firing is.
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For the general case thatâs probably true. But if you review Mooneyâs work (some of which I linked) youâll see some pretty compelling evidence that mechanotherapy speed muscle recovery. Of course, what I linked is a mouse model. And, as I noted, you have to do it just so.
But letâs allow that itâs ok to get a massage just for itâs own sake. Because it feels good and alters the state of mind for the better.
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Instead of cherry picking - At least do me a favor and quote the entire post where I specifically mention recovery and the fact that that can indirectly lead to performance gains.
So noted! Massage guns donât improve performanceâŚso your post was as wrong at the end as it was at the beginning. I was just trying to soft play it for your sake.
No, itâs not wrong at all. What I said was, and stand by, was they can aid things like mobility, pain management, flexibility, and in some cases recovery. And, if that indirectly leads to better performance they help there. I
But, I think the studies that target âPerformanceâ are in some ways misguided. (And I personally am not aware of any study that shows that they do - not saying there arenât. But there are those studies that show they donât)
Some research has indicated that cold water immersion can have an effect on our hormones, which can ultimately impact mood, as you have noticed!
Check out this episode of the Science of Getting Faster Podcast where I talked with Dr. Laura Wilson. We covered many of the points raised in this thread!
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