Every few months, a new study lands and the internet goes wild: "Cold plunging kills your gains!" Then the rebuttals follow. "No it doesn't!" And everyone walks away confused, usually doing whatever they were already doing.
Brad Schoenfeld is one of the most rigorous researchers in exercise science — this isn't a pop-science opinion piece. His meta-analysis of eight studies is about as solid as the evidence gets on this topic right now. And the finding is genuinely useful: cold water immersion immediately after resistance training does blunt hypertrophy. Not destroy it. Not make training pointless. But meaningfully reduce the muscle-size adaptations you'd otherwise get.
The mechanism they're working with makes physiological sense: intense cold after lifting shunts blood away from the muscles just when they need nutrient delivery most. That post-workout inflammatory window — the one that feels uncomfortable — is actually the body signaling for repair. CWI can dampen that signal. Less inflammation, less repair stimulus, less growth.
Here's where I want to add something Schoenfeld doesn't cover in depth: the distinction between muscle size and muscle function. These are not the same thing, and cold water immersion treats them very differently.
We have a 2015 study in our knowledge base looking at CWI versus active recovery on hemodynamics after intense exercise. The cold immersion group saw blood volume increase by over 17% — a cardiovascular adaptation that has nothing to do with how big your biceps are, but everything to do with how efficiently your heart and circulatory system perform under load. We also have a 2017 study showing that repeated CWI sessions significantly improved performance on counter-movement jumps and isometric contractions — functional outputs that matter far more than cross-sectional muscle area if you're a team sport athlete, a martial artist, or just someone who wants to move well and recover between hard sessions.
So the real question isn't "does cold hurt my gains?" It's: what kind of performance are you actually training for?
A 2015 hemodynamics study found CWI increased blood volume by 17.1% post-exercise, enhancing circulatory recovery. A separate 2017 repeated-CWI study found meaningful improvements in jump performance and isometric strength — functional markers that matter for athletes and active individuals even when hypertrophy is modestly reduced.
If you are a competitive bodybuilder whose entire goal is maximum muscle cross-section, then yes — avoid cold plunging in the 4–6 hours immediately after your lift. The research is clear enough on that. Do your contrast therapy on rest days, or more than six hours post-workout. That's practical, actionable, evidence-based.
But for the overwhelming majority of people who step into one of our plunge tubs? You're not training for the stage. You're training to feel better, move better, recover faster between sessions, manage stress, and build the kind of mental resilience that makes every other area of your life easier. Cold water immersion is extraordinarily good at all of those things. And here's the part that almost nobody says out loud: a person who recovers well and feels good is a person who keeps training — consistently, for years. That consistency, as Schoenfeld himself says, is the most important variable in building muscle in the first place.
The nuance I'd add from everything I've read in this database: cold is a tool, not a ritual. Use it with intention. Understand what you're asking your body to do and when. The people who get the most out of contrast therapy are the ones who respect the timing — heat to open, cold to activate, rest to adapt. That's the protocol. That's the practice.
Don't let the headline scare you away from something that genuinely transforms how people feel. Just be smart about when you use it.