Are ice baths an effective way to relax muscles after a bike ride?

obviously strecthing must take place after any hard bike ride, but is there any proof that a soak in an ice bath is more effective than say ... a nice warm bath, at relaxing muscles and preventing injuries in the next ride. i have heard many contrasting views and wondered what you people thought. does anyone know what the professionals do, say after a stage of the tour de france etc?

The best thing is a cooldown for 10 minutes or so spinning at an easy pace. The objective being to keep heartrate and blood flow up and give your body a chance to clear the lactic acid. If you have access to it, a massage following that is ideal.

I don't use ice unless I've actually got an injury or muscle pull. The objective of ice is to reduce further damage from bleeding into the tissues.

You use ice/cold to prevent or reduce swelling. Most often after a bike ride, you need increased circulation to get rid of acid and to aid in healing/recovery. So unless it's indicated for some other reason, I'd say warmth, not cold, would be the best strategy.

Don't worry about what professional racers do in the Tour de France. They operate in a completely different performance universe from the rest of us and their issues are not your issues.

I've had a coach tell me to do the ice bath. It's supposed to reduce muscle swelling after a hard race or training. I never tried it but I had a friend who did and he said he felt no recovery improvement.

Ice baths are one of those training tips that have been around for as long as there have been bike races. I guess they might work for some people. I've always prefered warm water and massage/rubdown. Cold water would seem to reduce blood flow where warm water increases it.

Heck no. Sit in ice water yourself and see. Common sense says you'd tighten up your muscles and shiver uncontrollably. No one relaxes under great stress.

That's why people use saunas and hots tubs to relax.

You did NOT hear contrasting views as NO ONE thinks ice baths relax you.

Yeesh...

Cold compress is the best method to soothe aching muscles. I suggest that you fill up a plastic bag or two with ice or have your own sports ice pad & apply to the affected areas for at least 10 minutes.

Nothing is better that a nice soak in the hot tub after a cruling 2 hour MTB workout. Ice is used for injuries to reduce swelling not to help relax or recover from hard exercise.

ye most definitly but try a weat bag aswell not that expensive and you jus warm it up does wonders 4 the body and make sure you take lots of rest after a injury if you rush back into biking you will just make it worse

I like the hot baths and saunas after exercise. Helps the muscles relax as in the post-exercise stretching.

A warm bath is better after any exercise.

I would have said it would contract the muscles rather than relax them but I am not a runner.

Be careful doing that, my friend died because his core temperature got too low, and he passed out in the tub

yep, paula radcliffe does it, if thats any help