Cold water after exercise: when the benefit shows up
A review of 52 studies found cold water eased soreness and supported recovery from about 24 hours after hard exercise, with no clear effect on strength.
The short version
This review pooled 52 studies on cold water immersion after strenuous exercise, comparing it with simply resting. About 24 hours after high-intensity exercise, the cold water group showed better recovery of muscular power, less soreness, lower levels of a muscle-damage marker in the blood, and a better sense of recovery. After exercise that emphasized muscle-lengthening effort, only power recovery improved. Strength recovery was not helped either way. Most of the studies used only male participants, so the pattern is better established for men than for women.
Keep in mind
Nearly all the underlying studies used only men, and the abstract does not report a combined result for the first few hours after exercise. This does not establish one water temperature or time to follow.
What they found
About 24 hours after high-intensity exercise, the cold water group had better recovery of muscular power, lower soreness, lower creatine kinase and a better sense of recovery than the resting group. Strength recovery did not differ.
After muscle-lengthening exercise, only muscular power recovery improved at 24 hours; the review’s abstract does not report a benefit for soreness, strength or creatine kinase in this subgroup.
Colder water and shorter immersion times were linked to bigger reductions in creatine kinase and better endurance-performance recovery after high-intensity exercise, in the studies that tested those factors.
44 of the 52 studies used only male participants, 4 used only women, and 6 included both.
What this means for your practice
If you use cold water after a hard session mainly to feel less sore and more recovered the next day, this review supports that pattern, most clearly around 24 hours later. It says little about how you will feel in the first hour or two.
This does not establish a single water temperature or time to follow, and cold water straight after training is a different practice from a short dip after a sauna.
Methods and limitations
What the researchers did
Researchers searched for trials comparing cold water immersion with passive recovery (rest) after a single hard bout of exercise in physically active people, and pooled 52 studies, current to September 2021.
They split the studies into two kinds of exercise: the muscle-lengthening (‘eccentric’) kind that tends to cause more muscle damage, and general high-intensity exercise, and looked separately at power, strength, soreness, a blood marker of muscle damage (creatine kinase) and how recovered people felt.
A further statistical step (meta-regression) tested whether colder water or longer immersion made a bigger difference.
How much can this tell us?
This is a review of many small trials on different exercises, in different sports, using different cold-water protocols; combining them cannot fully remove that variety.
The clearest benefits were measured at 24 hours. The review’s own abstract does not report a combined finding for the first few hours after exercise, so it does not show whether cold water helps or hinders performance right away. That question is examined in other reviews, such as our companion article on cold water and recovery timing.
With most studies in men, the pattern is less established for women. And this review looked at recovery after a single bout of exercise, not at what repeated cold water use does over a training block.
What makes it useful
- 52 studies, more than most reviews on this question
- Split results by exercise type and by timepoint
- Tested for a dose-response effect of temperature and duration
What limits it
- Mostly small trials in men; only 4 of 52 used women only
- No clear combined picture for the first few hours after exercise
- No effect on strength recovery either way
- A single bout of exercise, not repeated training
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, Buckley JD, Saunders S, Halson SL, Broatch JR, Bellenger CR. Impact of Cold-Water Immersion Compared with Passive Recovery Following a Single Bout of Strenuous Exercise on Athletic Performance in Physically Active Participants: A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis and Meta-regression. Sports Med. 2022;52(7):1667-1688.
DOI 10.1007/s40279-022-01644-9 · PubMed 35157264