The Lions used ice baths to help prepare for their match against the Crusaders - but a leading university researcher says the touring team may not know the baths "make it worse" when it comes to healing athletes' muscles.
Professor David Cameron-Smith, a University of Auckland researcher from the Liggins Institute, was involved in a study which outlined the failings of ice baths, published in the Journal Of Physiology earlier this year.
It found ice baths are completely useless when it comes to healing athletes' muscles - but they could be useful for helping to avoid situations like the recent cocaine controversy involving Kiwi rugby league players Jesse Bromwich and Kevin Proctor.
The study exposed that ice baths did nothing to fight muscle inflammation. In fact, they make muscle recovery worse, he says.
"We demonstrated ice baths slow down the process of recovery; they actually impair the ability of athletes to regenerate tissue and get back to playing at an optimum level - they genuinely make things worse."
The touring Lions, however, do not seem to have received that message. Ahead of their win over the Crusaders, locks Maro Itoje and Alun Wyn Jones, plus winger George North were pictured in ice baths in the Daily Mail.
The paper's story said the players were "braving the dreaded ice baths. Following Wednesday's defeat to the Blues in Auckland, their first of the New Zealand tour, Warren Gatland's side have put themselves through the unpleasant experience to help them recover from their gruelling schedule as quickly as possible for the weekend.
"Maro Itoje seemed to weirdly enjoy the freezing conditions but the same can't be said for George North and Alun Wyn Jones, who looked like they wanted to escape from the ordeal."
The original theory was that ice baths would cool muscles to reduce blood flow and inflammation - allowing the muscle to recover quickly. However the research found the process of inflammation was vital in speeding up repair; ice baths slowed it down.
"It was pretty dramatic research," says Cameron-Smith. "We had volunteers who did some strenuous exercise and we then took small pieces of muscle from their thighs - and looked at that whole process of muscle inflammation and repair, comparing a group who went into an ice bath with another group who cycled in a warm-down."
Cameron-Smith said localised application of ice to damaged tissue in injured athletes was still "fundamental - it just gives the damaged tissue a chance to get things together." But ice baths did nothing to effect muscle recovery.
However, he did suggest one benefit of ice baths for elite athletes - aiding sleep.
"Many elite athletes play night games and they are wired up when they finish playing; their bodies are still so on the go that they can't just go to bed and go to sleep. That's why some of them go out on the town."
Kiwis forwards Bromwich and Proctor were dropped from the national side, after an early-morning incident in Canberra last month. They were allegedly filmed buying and using cocaine outside a Canberra nightclub at 5am, after their Anzac test loss to Australia the night before.
They were dropped from Rugby League World Club selection later this year and both were suspended, fined and dropped from leadership roles by their respective NRL clubs, the Melbourne Storm and Gold Coast Titans.
Cameron-Smith says ice baths have a calming effect on players: "You do get a small reduction in pain - and that can be important for players like the Kiwis who played that test at night but find going to sleep really difficult.
"Obviously ice baths aren't intended as a team management tool but reducing that pain and calming your system would help some get to sleep instead of heading off for the night; that's when we hear about players using things like uppers and downers - because it is so hard to wind down.
"So ice baths might have a bit of a role there although what we are really talking about is the sophistication of team management. You'd have to say the practice of leaving national representatives alone late at night is not really the best way to manage elite athletes.
"Let's face it - nothing good happens after midnight to any athlete. They need to back up and perform again soon."
Alcohol was an acknowledged retardant of recovery from injury and the best way to help injured muscles repair was:
1. A slow warm-down
2. Hydration and food
3. Sleep
"A lot of people do not realise how important food is in terms of recovery," says Cameron-Smith, also a Professor of Nutrition at the Liggins Institute. "After all that exertion, they often don't feel like eating. But food is vitally important.
"Of course the most nutritious food would be best - but the reality is that if weekend warriors eat at all, it's probably fast food. I can just about sanction a hot dog but I draw the line at a meat pie."
