Putting a chill on the hot tub after a day on the slopes
By Kris Terrian
What sounds better after a long powder day: icing your knees or hopping in the hot tub? The majority of skiers and snowboarders would prefer the hot tub. And though this sounds like the perfect place to get warm, meet up with your buds and kick back and relax, the hot water could hinder your next day’s skiing or boarding performance.
Hot tubs are great for warming up muscles before activity. Heat opens your blood vessels, allowing more blood to flow into the muscles. But after a great day on the mountain, your muscles are fatigued and have built up pools of lactic acid – causing soreness over time. Cold therapy vasoconstricts, which means it helps reduce the blood flow into the muscles. This is bene¬ficial to help keep the soreness and aches away, especially if you plan on shredding the pow the next day.
Kris Terrian
To avoid sore muscles, try 10 to 20 minutes of heat therapy before activity and 20 to 30 minutes of cold therapy after.
Cooling down properly gives your body a chance to deal with the lactic acid before it makes you sore. What your legs really need after exercising is a cool-down period where either ice or snow is applied to aching muscles to calm them down and stop the excess blood flow.
Remember, if you’re planning on a great week or weekend of powder shredding, don’t get in the hot tub until after you’ve cooled down. Even better, save it for the next morning.
Kris Terrian is an athletic trainer with Tahoe Center for Orthopedics.
Buzz kill.
Buzz kill totally! And for no decent purpose. What, should we have a beer in the hot tub before shredding as well? No common sense here, and no scientific justification either. Lactic acid causing soreness is a way old theory, long ago debunked. In recent research, lactate has been found to be a fuel, not a poison. If you reeeally go anaerobic enough to generate excessive lactate, like panting and sweating hard all day, you’ll probably consume all of the excess lactate just walking from the bottom of the gondola to whatever free parking lot you chose.
And let’s see, constricted blood flow helps, in what universe? If you need to move bodily fluids faster, don’t you think warm open vessels might do it better?
They used to call economics “the dismal science”. With the plethora of trainers, nutritionists, body sculpters, dieticians, and so many more on the scene, it’s clear that it is truly human phisiology that has become the dismal science. No wonder we have an obesity epidemic.
I’d read the science. Link it up.
Ever wake up thinking “what the hell’d I just post?”. And where’s the ‘delete’ box when you need it? I do get frustrated with a variety of health blogs, but regret being so combative sounding to Kris here. Sorry for that Kris. You probably know better and I’ll give it a shot if I need it some day. Then again, if my knees are getting sore, I may just cut my boarding day short and enjoy the hot tub instead. ;)
ahaha. yes, the delete button …
Really?!?!? Anything else to do with your time? Kris is not just any “athletic trainer” he really takes care of the young athletes in our community. My advice, take care of yourselves and you will be good to ski the next day!! Peace.
Hi, thanks for the comments. It is missintrepeted in the article. To help clearify, Lactic Acid does not cause muscle soreness. The exertion and strenous activity breaks down the muscle tissue which then can be associated with soreness or better yet DOMS- (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness). In actuality the “burning” sensation you feel in your muscles after exerting them to their limits is the lactic acid. The main idea for the article is hot vs cold therapy and when to use them. Sorry for the confusion.