time of injury and lasts for approximately 72 hours. Effectiveness in athletic recovery The current evidence base suggests that contrast water therapy (CWT) is superior to using passive recovery or rest after exercise; the magnitudes of these effects may be most relevant to an elite sporting population. There seems to be little difference in recovery outcome between CWT and other popular recovery interventions such as cold water immersion and active recovery. In a review on immersion therapy in general, Ian Wilcock, John Cronin, and Wayne Hing suggest that most of the benefits of contrast therapy are from the hydrostatic pressure from the water, not the variations in temperature. See also Ice bath References https://web.archive.org/web/20080511172155/http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/injury-recovery-and-conditioning Physical therapy