How To Track Ice Bath and Sauna Using WHOOP
Track recovery with Whoop
What gets measured, gets managed, and the Whoop is an incredible tool to track your daily activities and recovery modalities to see how they affect you. Recovery is key to performing at your best, but figuring out exactly what to do can be tough.
Thats where Whoop comes in.
Out of all the recovery activities out there, ice baths are one of the top five most effective recovery methodologies for improving recovery score as reported by Whoop user data. We love to hear it!
Not a lot of people know about how the Whoop can track more than just training and sleep, but also recovery sessions. So, I’ll show you how to use the WHOOP fitness tracker to get the most out of your ice bath and sauna sessions.
Whether you're a seasoned athlete, just starting out, or someone who is conscious about recovering, knowing how to track and optimise your recovery can make a big difference. WHOOP is a fantastic tool that gives you insights into your body’s recovery status, helping you make smarter decisions about your recovery practices.
I’ll walk you through the benefits of ice baths and saunas, and explain how to use WHOOP to keep track of these activities, so you can make sure you're getting the most out of your recovery routine. But first, let’s understand what a Cold Therapy is..
What is Cold Therapy?
Cold therapy is so fascinating knowing how it leverages our body's natural response to cold in a controlled way for therapeutic benefits. Basically, when our skin feels cold, it sends a signal to the hypothalamus in our brain, setting off a chain reaction involving our hormones and nervous system.
One of the first things that happen is the release of cortisol, the stress hormone, which kicks the sympathetic nervous system into gear. This makes our blood vessels constrict, directing blood flow to essential organs like the heart.
There's also an increase in noradrenaline, which bumps up our heart rate and blood pressure, and our muscles start shivering to generate heat. Another cool thing is the activation of brown fat, which is different from the more common white fat. Brown fat burns energy to produce heat and help keep us warm during cold exposure.
After the initial shock, our body begins to adapt, and the parasympathetic nervous system, which is all about rest and digest, starts to take over. This process lowers our heart rate and blood pressure, and releases endorphins and other feel-good neurotransmitters, boosting our mood and sense of well-being. It's really interesting to see how cold therapy activates these complex responses in our body.
All of this is cool, and what’s even cooler is that you can visually see some of these physiological responses in action when you use the Whoop in a sauna and ice bath.
Using the Whoop in an ice bath
Ice baths are one of the most common types of cold therapy. Basically, you fill a tub about halfway with cold water and add one to three bags of ice to keep the temperature between 10-15°C (50-59°F).
You really shouldn't spend more than 10 minutes in an ice bath if it’s cold enough to give you a shock response, but you can start with just a few minutes, even 30 seconds, and gradually increase the time as your body gets used to it.
Ice baths are often used for recovery after exercise and when browsing Whoop data you can see that taking ice baths are in the top five most effective recovery methods for improving recovery statistics.
They're considered most effective if you take one within half an hour after finishing your workout or sporting event, to take full advantage of that effect of vasoconstriction that ice baths have which offer the benefits of reducing DOMS, swelling, pain and inflammation generally associated with pushing yourself physically.
What Is WHOOP Recovery?
Whoop recovery is a daily measurement that tells you how ready your body is to perform, no matter what your day looks like. It helps you understand how your body is adapting to different stressors, whether you're training hard or just having a chill day at home.
WHOOP calculates your recovery as a percentage and uses three colour codes: green, yellow, and red. Let’s explain what each colour means.
If your score is green (67-99%), you're well-recovered and ready to take on a tough day, whether it's at work, at home, or in the gym.
A yellow score (34-66%) means your body is doing fine and can handle moderate activity.
But if you see a red score (1-33%), it's a sign that your body needs rest. This could be due to overtraining, being sick, stress, lack of sleep, or other lifestyle factors.
I find this system super helpful because it gives me a clear traffic light system picture of how my body is doing and helps me adjust my activities and rest when needed. It’s a great way to visually see how different practices like ice baths and saunas effect my recovery and what small changes in daily rituals can achieve in terms of improving sleep and recovery quality.
Track Ice Bath and Sauna Using WHOOP
No surprise that cold therapy is one of my go-to recovery activities, and it’s also one of the top five most tracked by WHOOP members. Using the WHOOP app, you can log all of your recovery efforts after tough workouts, whether that’s meditation, stretching, yoga nidra, massage therapy, or cold exposure like cold showers and ice baths.
WHOOP helps me understand how these activities benefit my recovery and future performance with visual data and graphs. It gives me the insights I need to demonstrate how much of a positive effect cold therapy has on my system.
To give you a clearer picture, here’s some real-life data on how ice baths and sauna sessions have improved my recovery. The green bars show the days I used ice baths and sauna, while the yellow bars indicate the days I didn’t. The difference is pretty compelling!
How Ice Bath and Sauna Affects HRV
You can ask Whoop AI how ice baths affect your recovery
Heart Rate Variability (HRV): This measures the variation in time between my heartbeats and is a great indicator of my autonomic nervous system's health and overall fitness. I’ve shared some data above from the Whoop app which clearly shows you how Ice Baths affected my HRV and recovery data based on my personal data read by WHOOP.
As you can see, the days when my recovery was best, indicated by the green sticks, were the days in which I used ice bath and sauna for recovery, giving me an incredible recovery score the following day. Conversely, the data showing yellow sticks, are days that I did not use these recovery modalities, which resulted in a far worse recovery score.
This Whoop data is great, and can be applied to a lot of other practices and rituals including mediation, different types of foods, caffeine intake, alcohol consumption and other daily details that are all collated to show how your recovery and strain is affected. There is also a great podcast about the science of recovery which you can listen to here if you are interested in exploring more.
Conclusion on Whoop Recovery
I've found that taking an ice bath is a game-changer for recovery. It helps reduce muscle soreness and inflammation by tightening blood vessels and flushing out waste like lactic acid. There are so many types of recovery method and also so many daily inputs that all effect your system in a different way, and with the Whoop you can clearly track what individual activities and rituals, like ice baths, give you the most positive feedback and results. I've noticed a big difference in how quickly I bounce back and how much harder I can push in my next session with cold therapy.
Ice baths are a huge win for sleep, recovery and performance - you can’t argue with the data!
