A Reluctant Cold Plunger

Everyone seems to be talking about cold plunges. I first encountered cold plunges in high school and college in our athletic training rooms. I might have dipped a foot into the icy water but never took the plunge. A few years ago, an orthopedic colleague gave me a copy of What Doesn’t Kill Us by Scott Carney. This is the story of Wim Hof, a Dutch extreme athlete who is noted for his ability to withstand incredibly low temperatures. He holds the world record for the longest swim under ice of 188.6 feet. He climbed 7,400 meters up Mount Everest wearing nothing but shorts and shoes and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with Scott Carney in 28 hours. Wim Hof attributes these feats to his method of breathing techniques, cold exposure, and meditation. Hof claims environmental conditioning will release our lost evolutionary strength and in other words give us SUPERPOWERS!

I was sold and decided to try the breathing techniques. As a ‘mouth breather’ with a history of childhood asthma, I was interested in improving my breathing. I was well aware that breathing through my nose would increase nitrous oxide and decrease my blood pressure, decrease stress, and improve my sleep. With some Wim Hof videos on YouTube I set off to improve my breathing. I soon came across professional surfer Laird Hamilton’s breathing programs as well and with some practice I felt my breathing improved and slowly converted to more nasal breathing. This helped with my conditioning and sports. The ability to catch my breath after a sprint is something I wish I had learned 40 years ago, but better late than never I suppose. These breathing techniques are also a great warm up to meditation/prayer and/or a good substitute when my mind has difficulty slowing down. With great results I was ready to move onto cold exposure.

Initially, my plan for cold exposure was to jump into a cold shower after doing my breathwork and NOPE, not for me. Cold water running down my back was not going to work. I knew the benefits of cold water exposure. I always enjoyed the energy I got from cold ocean water. I had done a few Tough Mudders and remembered how great it felt after the “arctic enema“, an obstacle where I swam across ice water. The adrenaline hit was enough to carry me through several miles of additional obstacles every time. Despite all of these instances, I remained “Cold Plunge Curious” for several years without actually trying the full ice bath. I understood many of the benefits. An ice bath could be an excellent recovery tool after exercise to control inflammation and thereby reduce joint pain and muscle soreness. The ice bath releases a large amount of dopamine that can provide energy and mood elevation. The dopamine release is said to be 2.5 times normal levels. Additionally, the cold helps activate healthy brown fat as opposed to yellow fat which is great for metabolism. Allowing your body to heat up naturally is another boost to metabolism. The liver’s release of cold shock proteins removes free radicals from the bloodstream which detoxes the body. The blood vessel vasoconstriction where the extremities’ blood vessels constrict to divert blood to the core then dilate upon warming up to send blood back to the extremities is great for blood flow. There are even studies showing cold exposure improves the immune system. I learned more as cold plunging started to become more popular. Joe Rogan is a regular cold plunger. Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman is a cold plunger and has many podcasts discussing the benefits of deliberate cold exposure. In Limitless on Disney+,  Peter Attia, M.D. reviews ways for actor Chris Hemsworth to improve his healthspan after Hemsworth tested positive for a gene linked to dementia. One of these methods is cold exposure.

“I cold plunge because I like the battle inside. When I win the battle I feel great.”
- Adam Smith- college student and community cold plunge leader

Soon my cousin was plunging after his Saturday workout to control inflammation, and another friend had an ice tank in his backyard. I asked them questions and thought I may give it a go on a hot summer day to help recover from workouts and sports. I thought about asking for one for Christmas, but chickened out. One thing I knew for sure was I would never pop out of bed and jump into an ice bath. I would never be one of those idiots I saw breaking the ice to jump into a cold plunge on Instagram. I might give it a try on a hot summer day, but the hassle of filling a tub with ice would be too much for me. Then, Christmas came and my gift was a cold plunge tub. I thanked my family and said  “I can’t wait to try this in the summer”. My son replied “F____ that, we’re doing it tomorrow”. On December 26 I came home hoping my son had forgotten, but there he was adding 5 bags of ice to the ice tub. The temperature was at 38 degrees and he hopped in for 3 minutes. I was screwed. I had to jump in or live my life in shame.  

“Pretending to be brave when you are afraid is itself an act of bravery”

Afraid, I jumped in. I took a second to catch my breath, then I focused on my breathing. Long inhales through the nose and longer exhales through the mouth. The next minute was easy. Then, I started shivering which stirred up the frigid water making the experience more difficult, but before I knew it the 3 minutes was complete. I got out and felt amazing. The energy lasted all day. I was excited to do it the next day until I woke up from a great night sleep and the fear set in again. The weird thing was I knew how great I would feel when I was done. I psyched myself up and did it again. I have done it again for 40 days and I have learned a lot about cold plunging and about myself.

“The first rule of fight club is we do not talk about fight club, the first rule of cold plunging is all we do is talk about cold plunging.”
- The Real House MD

I learned that plunging elevated my mood and increased my energy for several hours after a plunge. It was not a hyperactive energy, but a calm steady energy. This was beneficial as I headed into work each day. However, I’m not sure it was appreciated by my co-workers who were forced to hear me drone on and on about my 3 minute frigid experience each morning. On a few occasions I plunged in the afternoon before my workout and felt a noticeable increase in exercise capacity in both cardio and strength training. When I plunged after my weekend workouts I noticed a quicker recovery and far less soreness the next day. Now, experts argue that decreasing inflammation after strength training is detrimental to muscle growth, but I am 54 years old and feeling good is more important to me than a few millimeters on my biceps. I am unable to determine if it had any effect on my metabolism, but this is a benefit that I have seen some people claim. Anecdotally, my immune system improved. At one point, my whole family got the flu except for me. 

The mental changes were what stood out the most. Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman discusses how the anterior midcingulate cortex in our brain is critical for building willpower. If you challenge yourself you enlarge this area thus increasing your ability to do difficult things. The point is even though I loved the benefits of cold plunging I still hated getting in. Therefore, it was the perfect opportunity to build willpower. I wondered if the fear would ever go away. I found that plunging early in the morning was actually easier for me than in the afternoon. In the afternoon, the anxiety would build up and I had a tendency to procrastinate. In a way, this actually became my motivation. Plunge at dawn so you do not need to plan for it all day. Like anything that is challenging, it is better to get it out of the way early before life interferes. This correlates well with starting a new fitness or health program. 

In mid-January the temperature dropped into the teens and I was breaking the ice at dawn to jump in, the one thing I swore I would not do. In reality, cold is cold and 32 degrees is somewhat shocking, but you get numb quickly. 45 degrees is almost as shocking, but I was less numb at the end and experienced a deep chill. Regardless, after 40 straight days it got easier to get in with only a few seconds of nervous dread before jumping in. I still get a significant energy boost, but not quite as dramatic. Most importantly, I have less joint pain and muscle soreness and recover better from workouts. I have also begun to use the plunge as a meditation practice to work on my breathing and focus. Simply stated, if I focus on deep breathing and my body being warm the plunge is easy. If I lose focus it is much harder. I found this out one morning when it started to snow. I opened my eyes to appreciate the scenery only to realize how cold I was and this made the experience more difficult. 

Now, there are some drawbacks to cold plunging in terms of logistics. The first is practical. My current tub is relatively cheap meaning it is not very insulated nor does it have built-in temperature controls. Since it is currently winter in Maryland I have not needed to buy ice after initially filling the tub. But, as the weather warms, I will need to buy ice or upgrade to a temperature regulated tub which will be an investment. I have no desire to buy ice every day so I will need to decide if I will continue my daily routine or buy ice once or twice a week and use it as a recovery tool. Like many of the cold plungers you may see on the internet, I have had great benefits which means I am excited to talk about the hobby, but this is likely annoying to some people. A few words of caution for anyone considering taking a plunge. You should make sure you are healthy from a cardiac standpoint before jumping in. Someone should observe you when plunging at least while you develop your technique. You do not want to hyperventilate and lose consciousness or get trapped under ice if plunging in ice covered natural water. Do not see plunging as a cure all. Think of it like the cherry on top of a good health plan. Studies show it increases your metabolism, but certainly not more than proper nutrition and exercise. It can help with sleep, but there are lists of other things that improve sleep that you need to address long before cold plunging. It improves your immune system, but working on nutrition, fitness, sleep, and other stress reduction techniques are likely far more beneficial. By testing your willpower, it fortifies your anterior midcingulate cortex and will make it easier to do other hard things. Again, there are plenty of other things to test your willpower and help you build healthy habits which could be more beneficial in the long run. An example would be getting out of your cozy bed to go for a morning and getting morning sunlight which may have more benefits in the long run than jumping into frigid water. For some, I could see it increasing stress by adding one more thing they need to do for their health. It could help with depression acting as a mood elevator, but do not let it be a distraction from addressing the underlying causes of your depression.

Cold plunging is not a fad. Athletes have used it for years as a recovery tool, but it was expensive and reserved for training rooms. The new popularity and accessibility has given athletes of all ages the option to use this tool at home with tubs ranging from about $150-$7000. For people who are middle aged and beyond and serious about their fitness I highly recommend cold plunging. For younger athletes the dopamine surge prior to your workout may exceed any pre workout supplement you are currently using. In the field of orthopedics, it could be beneficial to anyone rehabbing an injury. The acute inflammation after an injury is a critical part of the healing process, but chronic inflammation can be detrimental. As I have mentioned in past blogs physical therapy is critical in either case. The goal of physical therapy is often to regain motion and strength in a joint. This process can often be a rollercoaster with one step back for every two steps forward. After real gains in a therapy session your body will often respond with post exercise inflammation and increased stiffness the next day. A cold plunge could be a useful tool to decrease this form of chronic inflammation. Finally, some people are health explorers. They like to try new things to see how it affects how they feel. This could include new fitness routines, different anti-inflammatory nutrition plans, and new stress reduction techniques. If you are a health explorer an ice plunge will be an interesting experiment.