Heat or ice?

[AndrewCowley]

What's better for sore and tired legs after a long ride? A heat pack or ice?

[Derny Driver]

Soak in a hot bath. Next day have a light spin on rollers or 30 minutes nice easy ride and they will come good. Massage is awesome for fast recovery too.

[madmacca]

I saw a video of recent experiment where the recovery of both warm and ice treated athletes was pretty much the same. But both recovered better than the no-treatment control group.

[elfoam]

If you are an extremist, full body ice baths are the go. All Olympic athletes use them to train that extra bit.

[Calvin27]

Why not both?

Probably has no evidence backing, but back in the day competing internationally at martial arts, basically everyone was convinced of hot cold after an muscle injury/soreness. 10 minutes each temp for an hour was the usual prescription.

Cold reduces inflammation (feels better), heat increases blood flow (recovery).

[g-boaf]

I think the hot/cold stuff works, but the cold is hard to take.

Another thing is learning some good effective stretches - sometimes not the common ones. That can make a huge difference.