Ice baths - DIY

dor13

Anyone got any cost effective suggested solutions for regular(IE. Daily or ev other day) ice baths to help muscle recovery after regular intense training, I've put half a dozen bags of ice in my bath and found it very effective but too costly to do every day. There are 2 parts to this, 1) sourcing cost effective ice which is too expensive purchasing bags of each time, are there methods of cooling tap water as they must do for water coolers or cost effective ice makers that can make decent volumes of ice ?
2) the bath - could use the normal bath or I have also heard people use wheelie bins though they would need to be narrow to avoid too much water and ice
All suggestions welcome ?

fiddy3

First of all, fair play for doing them, they're not easy. The normal bath is fine for them, otherwise you'll be using a truckload of water and ice every time, you only want your legs and hips covered so only use enough water for that. For ice, if you have a freezer big enough keep all your used milk and juice cartons, rinse them, fill them with water and stick em in there overnight. Pour some hot water over it when you take it out and the cover will come off easy enough with a knife. Then you've a pile of big blocks of ice, which you can throw in the bath and break up a bit with a sharp knife. Might be an idea to throw them in with water before you go running so it's cold and melted by the time you're back. Stay in for 10mins, and move your legs around every couple of minutes (yes it's torture) because your legs heat up the water around them if they're always still. Finally, don't be too concerned with making them very very cold, studies have shown that just cold water baths have the same results as freezing ice baths. Enjoy!