For cross country athletes like me, the grind, by no means, ends after leaving practices where we run 5, 6 or even 10 miles at a time. Instead, we go home after every practice to stretch, ice, roll out and do more to stay fit and uninjured. 

Even after the season ends, cross country influences every aspect of my life. In my room, a half-used roll of KT tape, several empty canisters of NUUN hydration tablets, a half-empty bottle of electrolyte pills and a new Amazon order of energy chews and caffeinated gum all lie spread out on my desk, scattered in my drawers.

In recent months, however, I have been starting to question the effectiveness of what we do. Does our regimen even have a purpose? 

  I began by looking into KT tape, which I normally use for joint pain and, occasionally, muscle pain. The results of my 30-second search were rather depressing. Although KT tape is useful for relieving joint pain, that’s not necessarily the case in helping relieve muscle pain.

According to its website, KT tape “lifts the skin, decompressing the layers of fascia, allowing for greater movement of lymphatic fluid which transports white blood cells throughout the body.” Sadly, a study conducted in 2015 concluded that the tape’s effects on muscles may simply be due to a placebo effect. I have been falling for their trick and have downright been a clown in front of my team this whole season.

Another practice, this one enforced by our coach, is partaking in ice baths; This involves going behind the swimming pool after practice, and standing waist-deep in freezing cold water that is probably not very clean, especially since the water is reused by over 20 sweaty athletes with disgusting feet. While I often feel relieved after icing, I have noticed that the pain lingers.

Unlike KT tape, icing seems to be more controversial in the running community. The main point of icing is to prevent muscles from inflammation, but a 2012 study by the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that it may not even be clinically proven to do that.

Icing seems to only help reduce pain for a short period of time, but it's not as effective as simply doing “active recovery” (such as a few cooldown laps) to reduce inflammation, rolling out or dynamically stretching.

I was really hoping that my favorite post-workout routine wasn’t about to be debunked by science. Fortunately, it wasn’t, as downing a large protein-berry workout smoothie from Jamba Juice is actually instrumental in helping muscle recovery and is necessary in replenishing the body after such an arduous workout, which is good because I’d be absolutely crushed if my large cookies and cream protein from Jamba turned out to be useless.

But when all is considered, I’ve begun to realize that half of these so-called rituals don’t do much. I would’ve found that the best thing to do is to simply experiment with your own methods and make sure they work, especially before your coach makes a joke out of your injury that you were ill-prepared to prevent.

So if you’re looking to stay fit during your sport season, chug protein, skip the KT tape and ice precariously.