We are at peak cold plunge. While the science surrounding cold plunging has long been murky and contradictory at best, a new wave of water-tight meta-analyses is revealing the science-backed, peer-reviewed facts about what cold plunging actually can—and, crucially, cannot—do for your physical and mental health. Depending on your goals, we’re not saying that cold plunging is no longer worth your time and money. Here, leading experts break the ice on the comprehensive cold plunge research we’ve all been waiting for. By the end of the review, they concluded that, rather than support post-workout muscle growth, cold water immersion actually hinders protein synthesis.