Is the ice bath finally melting? Cold water immersion is no greater than active recovery upon local and systemic inflammatory cellular stress in humans

Abstract

Over the past decade, significant research has focused on optimising the recovery of elite athletes. The premise behind
such a theory is that suboptimal recovery often leads to fatigue, reducing the quality of subsequent training sessions and/or competitive performances, whilst potentially hindering adaptive processes. There is now a plethora of research focusing
on the impact of one such recovery strategy, cold-water immersion (CWI), and the benefits it may provide post-exercise.