Why do footie players wade around in the ice cold sea the day after a footie match?

Supposedly good for the muscle recovery…

But why the next day? surely immeadiately after the match would be better?

superstition

1. An excuse to leave the wife or girlfriend home on Monday, for people who don’t work on Mondays.

2. A way to show how much more manly you are than those weaklings who must go to work on Mondays.

3. An excuse to have a drink with your teammates afterwards on a Monday.

It probably goes back to the old days before sports science. I can’t see why they do it either when they have ice baths in the rooms. Plus coaches use it as a punishment…

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22336838

Cochrane review on cold water to delay later onset muscle soreness.

buffy said:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22336838

Cochrane review on cold water to delay later onset muscle soreness.

AUTHORS’ CONCLUSIONS:

There was some evidence that cold-water immersion reduces delayed onset muscle soreness after exercise compared with passive interventions involving rest or no intervention. There was insufficient evidence to conclude on other outcomes or for other comparisons. The majority of trials did not undertake active surveillance of pre-defined adverse events. High quality, well reported research in this area is required.<

Hmm, I didn’t realise that this may be still iffy, and here was me throwing myself into the pool after a run way into June.