I bought some Ice Legs ! All these years of riding and wishing I had some of those fancy air pressure recovery boots, or the energy to make an icebath. Maybe I saw an instagram advert, maybe I had been on an intense ride (yes thats pretty normal) or just the cycling gods with a spark of inspiration.
Ice Legs are designed by Phil Gaimon and to be used as a recovery device after a hard training ride or long day in the saddle. They are an ice blanket that wraps your legs to give you cold therapy for your muscles and joints. Cold therapy has been long known to assist reduction of inflammation and aid recovery.
For just over $100 I thought the Ice Legs looked like they could be a good deal so I was anxious to try them. Ice-baths are pretty impractical and I don’t have $1000 for the air pressured recovery boots. Ice Legs seem to fit this middle spot well.
First Impressions
The shipping box was heavy, I guess I didn’t realise that 12 ice packs weighed that much! Now the $12 shipping seamed perfectly reasonable. The Ice Legs took about 2 weeks to deliver. In the box I received two plastic bags one with 12 small reusable ice packs and another with 2 leg sleeves.
The design is modern, black material with a cyan trim. Even the ice-bags aesthetically matched the legs sleeves, which I didn’t expect.
Overall, the materials seem very high quality, stitched well and look well designed.
The velcro is large and seems very durable with 3 double straps per leg. Notably the fabric material on the outer side is PU coated so it’s waterproof and on the inner side its a lighter-weigh sail cloth, probably for maximum cold / cooling transfer to the skin from ice packs.
On each leg the ice packs slide into a zippered pocket which runs the length of the leg and has three sections.
The zipper on the pockets for the ice bags seemed a little under specified, one size larger zipper would seem to have been a more durable design, but maybe it wouldn’t flex enough when wearing? I have not put this in full use yet. Maybe I am just used to companies like Chrome Bags over specifying everything!
In use
The Ice Legs come in two sizes. One for 31″ inseam and below and one for above. Im using the larger size and have a 34.5″ inseam. They fit from the ankles to about 2/3rds of the way over my quad. I could slide them up if I wanted.
The design of the leg sleeves are tapered and the velcro is stretchy and allows you to adjust for many sizes of legs. They seemed to fit well.
The icepacks are very effective and cover a large area, wrapping around the back and front of your legs. I like positioning mine as shown where my kneecaps didn’t have an icepack directly on them. I found them to be very convenient and easy to use, and I also thought about keeping a set at work given the good value.
The instructions say use for 10mins max, I found that after about 15mins the legs started to feel warm anyway. The thermal capacity of the ice packs had been reached, so theres probably no negative consequences if you fall asleep in them after a long ride.
Questions
Some questions I have that I don’t fully know the answers to.
Do you have to remove the icepacks from the leg-sleeves to put back in the freezer?,
If I put the whole leg in the freezer then that negates my comment of the zippers being a bit on the whimpy side, since you are not going to need to use zippers as much.
But then why take the time to make the icepacks so pretty if you never see them? 🙂
When folded up each leg measured 13.5x9x3″ (this is with icepacks inserted), which gives you an idea how much freezer space you will need.
As you can see, they do take up freezer space, so if you are a minimalist or have a smaller freezer etc. It might be worth thinking about how to manage that and getting them in the freezer before riding. Picture shows two burritos for comparison because I didn’t have any frozen cookie dough.
Other opportunities are that you could probably fit them in a small cooler, so you could take them in your car with you to a race etc.
Summary
icelegs.com -$125
Effective, yes. Convenient, yes for sure. Affordable and value for money – yes.
Without this product I probably wouldn’t have any time of recovery product like this. So thanks Phil!
TIP
Put a towel on the sofa, keep your cycling shorts and leggings on and use the ice legs. I feel the compression of the kit plus the Ice recovery legs does a good job together.
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Seems like good value. I’d be interested in your long term thoughts on this product and whether they make a noticeable difference to your recovery.
I have been icing for years, this product does icing more easily and conveniently