With Sectionals now just around the corner, everyone is looking for anything that is going to help them with their recovery between sessions.

I have long been a fan of contrast therapy – where you alternate between an ice bath and a hot shower – and recently Kam and a few other CrossFitters have adopted this recovery method. Jye has asked me to write on this and explain why it works and why you might want to risk the shrinkage and prune skin it induces and give it a go.

Contrast recovery has been a part of Mike Burgener’s programming for a number of years from what my quick check of Google tells me, but actually comes out of 1980′s Eastern Europe.

In the perfect situation, you should heat your body up in a sauna, then jump in your ice plunge pool before jumping in a hot spa then back into the pool and back to the spa and back to the pool and back to the spa. Now this is not all that practical for those of us who live in Sydney, so here are a few tips on how to conduct some contrast therapy at home (unless of course you have a spa, sauna and plunge pool in the backyard, then by all means do as above).

To replicate the plunge pool I recommend filling your bath tub with ice and cold water (usually 2 – 3 bags from the servo will do the trick). If you have a clean and spare recycling bin, fill this with ice and cold water instead (need about 5 – 6 bags generally to fill this). Warning – this is much much colder and a bit more hardcore as your whole body is guaranteed to be submerged in cold water (it’s also harder to get out of this one!)

Start in a warm shower and slowly build it up to a steaming hot shower – you want to get hot enough that you are sweating in the shower. Once you’ve reached this level, jump in your ice bath and stay in it (as covered as possible) for 45 seconds, jump out and get back under the hot shower for 90 seconds. Repeat this step 3 – 5 times and then finish with a warm shower for no more than two minutes.

Now, aside from shaking up your skin, jolting the circulatory system and shrinking appendageswhat does this do???

There is some research and also some annecodotal evidence to support this recovery technique and show that it alternating between hot and cold environments post-exercise is effective in lowering the heart rate down to a resting level, and lowering the levels of hydrogen ions (what actually gives you that ‘lactic’ sensation) in your bloodstream. By shocking your body and changing between hot showers and cold baths, you increase blood flow in the body which helps the body to eliminate waste products from the body and deliver nutrients to your muscles, tendons and ligaments.

It’s also suggested by a lot of people who use this recovery technique that the treatment gives you a feeling of alertness.

As with any form of recovery, there may also be a psychological benefit from the treatment.

Now I accept this might not work for you, and might be of no interest to you, but in my experience (a long athletic career) and with an exercise physiology degree under my belt, I certainly recommend giving it a whirl. Worst case, you come out and think I’m barking mad!