Some Like It Hot

Colorado’s close proximity of cold snow and hot springs gives skiers a chance for an invigorating warmup before they hit the slopes as well as a relaxing finish as they recover from the day.

Soaking in hot springs can help your body both before and after a workout.

The benefits of a soak ahead of time are widely recognized. Warm water opens your blood vessels, boosting blood flow and relaxing your muscles so you’re more energetic and flexible. You can stretch those muscle during the soak or after for added benefit.

Some experts suggest an ice bath rather than a hot soak after the strenuous exercise because it constricts the blood vessels, reducing inflammation, and even numbing the pain of soreness. It’s probably a good idea to let your body cool down right after the exertion, but recent research has challenged the conventional ice bath wisdom and suggested there are benefits to getting in hot water.

A 2015 report in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, focused on athletes who train in cold locations and perform in hot weather, concluded that hot baths instead of ice could help the body adjust to hot weather later. Besides, said the senior author Neil Walsh, director of the Extremes Research Group at Bangor University in Wales, “hot water feels better.”

“A hot soak is comfortable for aching limbs,” he told The Globe and Mail, “and there are other supposed health benefits – think Roman spas.”

Another study, “Post-exercise recovery of contractile function and endurance in humans is accelerated by heating and slowed by cooling skeletal muscle,” that was published in December 2017 in The Journal of Physiology, concluded that the hot soak is more beneficial because it speeds the production of glycogen, a form of glucose that is important for storing energy in the body.

The nice thing about Colorado and Iron Mountain Hot Springs in particular, is you can have it both ways. Warm up in the morning, ski in the cold all day, and relax with a hot evening soak.