We were pretty happy we got to use that pun in the headline, but the rest of this article is not so cheery if you happen to love a nice ice bath after lifting weights. Because it may in fact hinder muscle growth.

Australian researchers rounded up 16 young men who did not lift weights, gave them a battery of tests, including a muscle biopsy, and then split them into two groups: those who lifted a bunch of weights and sat around at the end, and those who did the same except took an ice bath instead.

This went on three times a week for seven weeks, and at the end they ran the tests again. And the results were pretty chilly on the ice baths, according to this article:

… the increase in fiber size was much greater among those who sat after every workout than those who had soaked to recover.

More surprising, the cold soakers showed a different balance of certain biochemicals inside their muscles than among the men who had sat. In particular, their muscles contained lower levels of a protein known to spark tissue growth and higher amounts of a different protein involved in tissue breakdown.