Ice: Boost circulation, flush stagnant feelings, build a relationship with discomfort. Ice baths and cold showers keep more than the doctor away.
This is like Marmite. It feels counterintuitive to get into or under cold water. It’s how we are raised: “keep warm, don’t get wet”. However developing a relationship with the cold shower, an ice bath or the futuristic Cryotherapy chamber is not only good for your physical but also mental health. You are actively pushing your tolerance for discomfort, for building resilience. Here is a quick guide on how to do it.
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Simply put for your health, expanding on this here are just some of the scientifically proven benefits:
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Weirdly the most uncomfortable to do in our book, but they are very convenient. Some die-hards go straight into a cold shower, but we tend to have our morning and evening shower with hot water, and then for the end turn it cold and stand under for 2-3 minutes, but start with 10 seconds and build-up to this.
As with any cold immersion, there is a strong fight/flight response and the breathing goes wild, it’s hard to breathe calmly and deeply.
Our advice is to take an inhale through the nose and then exhale through the mouth slowly, as you compose yourself for the next nasal inhale. focus on nasal breathing and the time will pass quickly
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Yes, this is a bath full of ice, or a chest freezer filled with water and then turned to freeze and bring the temperature down to between 1.5-5 degrees C.
There are many ice bath/cold immersion workshops to get the hang of this. It is an incredibly bonding experience, much like being on a mountain with someone. Misery loves company, but the connection that follows is worth the cold.
Check online for an ice bath workshop near you.
This short video on how to set up a chest freezer as an ice bath is a good go-to.
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Jumping into any body of cold water is not to be taken lightly. Particularly getting into ice water alone even if it is an ice bath. BE CAREFUL PLEASE.
Ice baths, we tend to use The Breathing App by Eddie Stern which has a musical tone to breathe along with and calm the anxiety/excitement pre dipping. Go in slowly, let the water and the skin meet and move slowly. Quick moves, create a quick response and it will feel “colder”.
Open water we treat in much the same way, move slowly, be aware of your surroundings and be sure of your footing and know how to get out if you need to.
This isn’t a competition, your tolerance for the cold will increase, but remember that you can get hypothermia from your core body temperature dropping too low. This is not enjoyable.
So take your time to build up. When you are out, the most important thing is to stay out of the wind, this is the killer. You can move around and let the body warm up but for no more than a few minutes, dry off and put on warm dry clothes, get cozy.
A warm drink is nice to have, and you might experience a strange sensation where your organs suddenly go cold, this is “after drop” where your internal organs suddenly push the blood outwards. Stay wrapped up and have some warm not hot food/drink to slowly warm yourself.
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