The most exciting thing about a fulfilling workout is looking forward to the next one. After you’ve shown yourself what you can do, you might feel like there’s no limit to your progress.

That is, until you wake up the next morning feeling sore as can be.

A sore, post-workout body is a reality in the world of exercise. Soreness sets a limit on our fitness ambitions so that we have to take breaks and allow our bodies to recover.

Recovery is an absolutely necessary part of an intense workout, but it presents another area where we can find improvement in our fitness. If we can boost our recovery, we can get back to our exercise faster.

Given how important muscle recovery is to our overall fitness, there is a constant search for proven recovery practices to incorporate into our regimen. One such possibility is a cold post-workout shower.

Strange as it may sound, there are compelling reasons why a cold shower may help your body with recovery.

Let’s look into the science of recovery and see what we can learn about the benefits a cold shower can bring.

What exactly do we mean when we say recovery?

Sure, we’re all familiar with the intense muscle soreness that we can feel after a full session of exercising. We’re exhausted, and our bodies need a minute to get it together.

But there’s a little more to it than that. Once we understand what recovery actually is and what it does for our body, we are better equipped to implement potential recovery boosters, like cold showers or Gainful Personalized Protein , into our fitness routine.

One of the prevailing theories in sports medicine about how our body builds muscle mass offers good insight into muscle soreness.

When we exercise our muscles, we’re creating tiny microtears in our target muscles. This may sound bad, but in reality, it’s a crucial process that allows us to build more muscle.

With all these microtears in our muscles, one of the clearest indications that our body is in recovery mode is muscle soreness. This soreness can come in the form of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), which is typically felt between one and three days after exercising.

In some sense, we’ve “injured” our bodies by causing these microscopic rips in our musculature. Naturally, our body will feel weakened and let us know that it’s not feeling 100%, hence the soreness.

But this soreness points to this key part of what makes your post-workout recovery so important. When our muscles repair themselves, they build themselves up stronger than they were before — giving real meaning to the saying, “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”

There are three terms that describe the full post-exercise recovery process and that will help you better understand what’s going on during recovery: stress, homeostasis, and recovery .

Homeostasis refers to the general equilibrium that exists in the body under normal conditions. When we are in a state of homeostasis, our body is at a normal temperature, our pH levels are balanced, our blood flow is normal, and all the variables that make our bodies stable are operating at their normal levels.

Disruption to this balanced state of homeostasis is called stress.

This isn’t exactly the same kind of stress we think of in psychological stress. Rather, the stress in this context refers to a stimulus that throws our body out of homeostasis.

In our context, exercise is the stress to our homeostasis: It disrupts our internal body temperature and generally throws this state of homeostasis out of balance.

Recovery, then, refers to the body’s transition back to a state of homeostasis after being thrown out of balance by stress. It is the recalibration of our body back to its normal, resting state.

In the case of physical exercise, recovery involves the reduction of our core temperature, the restoration of expended nutrients, and the repairing of our muscles, amongst many other things. Some recovery metrics like body temperature are addressed faster than metrics like the healing of your muscles. Making sure to get plenty of protein during recovery, like from our Personalized Protein blend, may help support the process.

Of these recovery metrics, what can cold showers help?

So why could taking a cold shower potentially help with this recovery process? Why not a hot shower, ice bath, or sauna visit?

When you consider this return to homeostasis, one of the glaring giveaways about what could be so promising about post-workout cold showers is that the water temperature is cold.

Exercising raises our body’s internal temperature. Exerting our bodies causes our heart rate to rise and our blood vessels to dilate, circulating more blood throughout the body and raising our internal body temperature.

This high body temperature is a giveaway that our body is not yet back in a state of homeostasis.

Your body is still at a high temperature well after you stop exercising. By dousing your body in cold water, you might be able to jumpstart your recovery and return to a state of homeostasis faster by lowering your body temperature and constricting your blood vessels.

There are some advantages to be gained from cold water immersion after working out, but that doesn’t mean you should give up your hot water altogether. Overall, the effects of cold showers on recovery are minimal.

One of the areas where cold showers do have an effect is on our heart rate and what’s called our “thermal comfort level” — how hot we feel after working out.

However, while cold showers do bring our heart rate and thermal comfort level back to homeostasis, they don’t actually reduce your core body temperature.

Cold showers also do not help with one of the key indicators of recovery after exercising — lactic acid in the muscles. Lactic acid is what gives you that “feeling the burn” sensation in your muscles and provides your muscles with more energy so they can function in high-intensity exercise. A key part of short-term recovery is the removal of lactic acid from your muscles, which cold temperatures do not help resolve.

Lastly, cold showers don’t help you build muscles faster or more effectively — or at least there isn’t any research yet that definitively proves that to be the case.

While cold showers only address a few superficial areas of recovery, they can still be a great way to cool down and relax after a workout.

While cold showers may not be the most effective solution to achieving better levels of recovery, they do help address some short-term areas in homeostasis.

Here are a few more substantial practices to aid in your post-workout recovery.

One of the most reliable ways to ensure that your body has a full, restorative recovery period is getting a good night’s sleep.

Sleep gives your body time to power down and recuperate from the day's stresses. Your body releases hormones that repair muscle damage at higher rates when you're asleep, giving you health benefits and a healing process you don’t get as much when you’re awake.

If you’re aiming to get back to some high-quality exercise after working out, a good night’s sleep is one of the best ways to return to form.

Dehydration is a natural result of exercise. We deplete our fluid levels when we sweat, expending not just our body’s water content but also nutrients like electrolytes. Our fluid levels play an important role in the recovery process — so making sure you get enough water back into your system after your workout could help you recover faster.

To stave off the dehydration we face during exercise, check out Gainful’s Personalized Hydration blend. It’s packed with electrolytes and nutrients that help you stay hydrated when you work out.

To ensure that your muscles have the nutrients they need to repair themselves, make sure that you consume protein after your workout. Consuming protein supplements before, during, or after exercise has been shown to support recovery .

Our Personalized Protein blend contains all nine essential amino acids in sufficient amounts and ratios so your body gets all the support it needs. Depending on your dietary preferences, you'll be assigned a protein blend containing either high quality whey or organic plant-based proteins.

At Gainful, we believe that fitness is a personal experience.

Supplements can help you achieve peak recovery and performance in your fitness journey. When your supplements are personalized to your exact needs, you’re equipped with the kind of boost that will make reaching your goals easier than ever.

Take this quiz to get the supplement recommendations that best suit your workout needs and goals

Sources

How Microtears Help You Build Muscle Mass | University Hospitals

Exploring the Science of Recovery | NASM

Effect of Cold Shower on Recovery From High-Intensity Cycling in the Heat | National Library of Medicine

Lactic Acid Buildup In Muscles: What Is It & How To Get Rid Of It | NASM

Sleep, recovery, and metaregulation: explaining the benefits of sleep | National Library of Medicine

Hydration to Maximize Performance and Recovery: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors Among Collegiate Track and Field Throwers | National Library of Medicine

Protein for exercise and recovery | National Library of Medicine