The Secret to Recovering Faster After Your Run

To go the distance as a runner, you need to remember three things: 1. Keep your shoelaces tied, 2. Check for traffic before you cross the street and 3. You’re going to get sore a day or two after an especially hard run.

Delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMS is a painful reality that can kick in a day or two after a particularly strenuous workout. A bad case of DOMS might make you question your life choices. It makes it difficult to consistently train when your legs feel like you lost an MMA fight.

But a cold plunge after a run can help prevent DOMS and speed your recovery. 

When you strain a muscle or have other soft tissue injuries, the standard instruction is to ice it. 

It’s not just to numb the nerve endings. The cold causes blood vessels to constrict. And when you remove the cold compress, frozen peas or bag of ice, the change in temperature sends blood rushing back in to reopen the blood vessels.

That helps flush out lactic acid and delivers oxygen and nutrients to the muscles. It also increases blood flow and circulation.

The delayed pain you feel after running — or any strenuous exercise — is because you are creating tiny injuries to your muscles. These micro-tears aren’t a bad thing. It’s how we build and strengthen our muscles. But tell that to yourself when you can barely inch down a flight of stairs two days after running a marathon. 

Don’t worry about getting cold immediately after a run. Research shows that you have two hours after your run to take a plunge that will stop the inflammatory process, well, cold. You can also cold plunge on your rest days. What you don’t want to do is cold plunge before your run. That’s because the cold will shorten connective tissues and reduce proprioceptive feedback.

Cold water immersion after a run can help you maintain a good schedule of running because you won’t be so sore that all you want to do is sit in a recliner with a remote in one hand and a beer in the other.

But we’d be lying if we didn’t acknowledge the downside of using cold plunge to speed recovery and reduce DOMS. The bad news is that you’re going to have to think of another excuse for your recliner time.