COOL IT WITH THE ICE

A post-workout ice bath is a good way to show you’re serious about fitness, but it may not be a good way to grow muscle. A paper in the Journal of Applied Physiology compared muscle biopsies of young men in Australia who’d participated in a weight training regimen for seven weeks. Half recovered from each workout by just sitting, and half recovered with 15-minute ice baths. Both groups gained muscle, but chemical differences emerged that suggested the ice-bath group would recover more slowly and gain less muscle mass. “Based on our study and previous research, using cold-water immersion following weight training is not recommended,” the lead author told The New York Times.

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