Hubbard Ice at Brunel for Future Olympians
The world-class UK Athletics (UKA) Centre at Brunel University has purchased a Scotsman MV300 ice maker from Hubbard Ice Systems to provide their star athletes with post-training ice baths, which aid quick recovery by increasing blood flow to the muscles.
Brunel University Athletics Centre is one of four UKA High Performance Centres (HiPACs). It has been included in the official London 2012 Pre-Games Preparation Camp Guide and a number of former Brunel athletes recently competed in the Beijing Olympics. It is therefore imperative that the athletes and possible stars of the future who train at Brunel get the best treatment and are provided with high quality equipment.
The Scotsman MV300 Dice Ice making machine, supplied exclusively through Hubbard Ice Systems in the UK, produces up to 140kg or 10,750 cubes of ice per 24 hours.
The shape of dice cubes provides maximum liquid displacement, making this type of ice cube ideal for general purpose cooling. They can also be made very quickly for situations where high volumes of ice are required, such as ice baths. The Scotsman MV range of machines are compact, due to their vertical evaporator, and therefore require less floor space than a machine with a horizontal evaporator.
Advocates of the ice bath include Johnny Wilkinson and Paula Radcliffe (who supposedly has a 10-minute ice bath after every race) and numerous athletes find that Ice Baths are the most effective way to speed recovery of their muscles.
When you get into an ice bath for 5 to 10 minutes, the icy cold water causes your blood vessels to tighten and drains the blood out of your legs. So when you get out of the bath, your legs fill up with 'new' blood that invigorates your muscles with oxygen to help the cells function better.
Mary Edwards, HiPAC Coordinator for UK Athletics, says "We have a number of athletes at the centre who are big fans of ice baths and have one after every training session. It was important for us to get an ice machine that was reliable and could produce large quantities of ice, which we found in the Scotsman, and it also has the added bonus of looking attractive."
As well as ice baths, the Scotsman machine at Brunel University is also used for the treatment of sports injuries. Ice is an important healing agent for soft tissue injuries as it reduces inflammation by decreasing tissue temperature, which in turn reduces muscle spasm and diminishes pain as well as significantly reducing recovery time.
