Cold water compared with other recovery methods
A review of 28 studies compared cold water with active recovery, contrast baths, warm water and cold air after hard exercise. Each method had its own pattern of strengths.
The short version
This review pooled 28 studies that compared cold water immersion with other common recovery methods after strenuous exercise: active recovery, contrast water therapy, warm-water immersion and cold air exposure. Cold water eased muscle soreness more than the other methods, and matched them for muscular power and flexibility. Cold air exposure did better than cold water for recovering strength and for immediate power, an hour after exercise. A statistical check found that water temperature and immersion time rarely changed the results. The review did not look at long-term training adaptation.
Keep in mind
This review compares recovery methods, not long-term training gains. It does not test or measure whether cold water changes strength or muscle growth over a training block.
What they found
Cold water immersion eased muscle soreness more than active recovery, contrast water therapy and warm-water immersion, and matched other methods for recovering power and flexibility.
Cold air exposure (whole-body or partial-body exposure to very cold air) outperformed cold water immersion for recovering muscular strength, and for immediate power recovery one hour after exercise.
Across the 28 studies (about 669 participants, mostly men, summed from the review’s own table), water temperature and immersion time were rarely linked to the size of the effect.
What this means for your practice
If soreness is your main concern after a hard session, this review’s pattern favors cold water over active recovery, contrast baths or warm water. If strength recovery is the priority, it did not come out ahead of cold air exposure.
This does not establish one correct recovery method, or a water temperature and time to follow. Cold water straight after training is also a different practice from a short dip after a sauna.
Methods and limitations
What the researchers did
Researchers searched for trials that compared cold water immersion with another recovery method (active recovery, contrast water therapy, warm-water immersion or cold air exposure) after a single bout of strenuous exercise in physically active people. Twenty-eight studies fit, current to September 2022.
This is a companion review to our article on cold water versus simply resting: it comes from much of the same research team, but asks a different question, comparing cold water with other active recovery methods rather than with rest.
The review measured muscle soreness, power, strength, flexibility and a blood marker of muscle damage (creatine kinase) at several points after exercise, and used meta-regression to test whether water temperature or immersion time changed the results.
How much can this tell us?
The comparison group differs by outcome and by study, so ‘cold water is better’ does not hold evenly across every measure; strength recovery favoured cold air, not cold water.
This review, and our companion article on cold water versus rest, share several authors and cover closely related ground. They are two related analyses from one research program, not two fully independent confirmations.
The review looked at recovery after a single bout of exercise. It says nothing about what happens with repeated cold water use over weeks of training, including any effect on muscle-building adaptations. That is a different question, and this review did not address it.
What makes it useful
- Directly compared cold water with several other recovery methods
- 28 studies pooled, around 669 participants in total
- Tested whether temperature and duration changed the results
What limits it
- Shares authors and scope with a closely related review
- Mostly men in the underlying studies
- Covers a single bout of exercise, not training adaptation
- Cold air beat cold water on strength and immediate power
Where this study fits
Where this study fits
We score claims, not single studies. This one is part of the evidence for:
Cold water after exercise eases muscle soreness. Well supported
Moderate certaintyMedium effectHow you feel or perform
Cold water speeds up recovery of performance. Some support
Low certaintySmall effectHow you feel or perform
Read the original
Moore E, Fuller JT, Bellenger CR, Saunders S, Halson SL, Broatch JR, Buckley JD. Effects of Cold-Water Immersion Compared with Other Recovery Modalities on Athletic Performance Following Acute Strenuous Exercise in Physically Active Participants: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Meta-Regression. Sports Med. 2023;53(3):687-705.
DOI 10.1007/s40279-022-01800-1 · PubMed 36527593