Dr. Brandon Roberts is making a point that sounds simple but carries enormous practical weight: cold and heat aren't interchangeable recovery tools. They're distinct signals, and when you send them matters as much as whether you send them at all. Apply cold within the first 24 hours after hard training, and you dampen the inflammatory cascade that causes DOMS. Apply it later — or apply it when hypertrophy is your goal — and you may be working against yourself.
This is the kind of nuance that gets lost in the "ice bath everything" culture that's taken hold in performance circles. The meta-analysis Roberts is reviewing does what single studies can't: it pools the signal from dozens of trials and asks what the weight of evidence actually says. That answer is more conditional than most people want to hear.
The field is largely in alignment on the DOMS question. Cold therapy in that early window reliably reduces soreness markers and preserves strength output. That 20 percent strength reduction from severe DOMS is real, and for athletes competing on consecutive days — think tournament play, stage races, back-to-back events — blunting that response has obvious value.
Where the research gets interesting is the hypertrophy question. The inflammatory response cold therapy suppresses isn't just causing soreness — it's also driving adaptation. Satellite cell activation, protein synthesis signaling, the cascade of cellular repair that rebuilds muscle thicker than before. When you ice that process down, you're not just relieving discomfort. You're potentially quieting the very signal your muscles need to grow.
Heat sits differently in this picture. It promotes circulation, doesn't suppress the inflammatory signals the same way, and may actually support recovery without compromising adaptation. For someone in a hypertrophy block, heat is the more aligned tool.
Know your goal before you reach for the cold. If you're a competitive athlete managing accumulated fatigue across a training week, cold therapy within 24 hours is a legitimate tool. If you're in a strength or hypertrophy phase and soreness is manageable, skip the ice and let the inflammation do its work. Save the cold for deliberate recovery windows — or use contrast therapy later in the week when the acute adaptation window has already closed.
Roberts' observation about cold showers and mental resilience is the insight I find most underappreciated here. The physiological effects of a cold shower are modest compared to a full plunge. But the psychological training is real. You're rehearsing the act of choosing discomfort — overriding the avoidance signal, following through anyway. That's a transferable skill. It shows up in training. It shows up in discipline. It shows up in the moments when doing the hard thing matters most. The cold shower isn't the point. The practice of choosing it is.