Cold Plunges?

[Deucebump]

I started daily cold showers a little over a year ago. In December I bought chest freezer plunge and have been using it daily ever since. A few observations from my personal experiences…

1. My tap water is roughly 45-49 degrees, and plunge stays 39-41 degrees. The plunge is infinitely harder and I believe more effective than a cold shower on every level. (with times being relatively equal)

2. The biggest real world benefit I can say for sure is the mental discipline I have gained.

3. After several weeks of daily plunges I have noticed less body aches and workout recoveries are noticeably faster.

4. I have never experienced a “high” post cold exposure of any kind.

5. Its shocking to me how much the body can adapt in a short time. The first week I could not keep my hands in the water more than about 45 seconds straight, but forcing myself to keep them in longer each time, I can now keep them in for 4 mins non stop.

6. As a second shift worker that never gets more than 6.5hrs of sleep for most of my life, mornings have always been slow starting for me. Now I get in my plunge within 5-10 mins of getting out of bed and I am wide awake and ready to tackle the day right way.

7. Cold exposure is definitely not a miracle cure for anything, or weight loss tool. But I do feel better overall daily and believe it has great for me mentally as well.

 

[wstribling]

Ideally you do a cold plunge with heat (sauna) and bounce between the two (while submerging the head)

Second would be an ice bath but you have to make sure you get your head under for a full plunge due to the location of the vagal nerve behind the neck/head etc. and you do that for 3 minutes.

Third is a cold shower.

 

[Bobrobheimer]

I did a daily cold plunge for all of February this year and have been doing them off and on since (if it’s cold enough) don’t have a chiller yet so for February it was more about keeping it from being frozen. Definitely woke me up and seemed to help with recovery from running. I like the morning since it’s never right after a weightlifting and doesn’t potentially keep me up later at night but also felt like more of a mental challenge to do it straight out of bed.

For those suggesting to put your head under or doing that - I did read an interesting study about cold water immersion causing heat arrhythmia - one thought was that there are two competing neural pathways - one from the cold exposure/shock telling your heart to speed up and then if you go under the dive reflex telling your heart to slow down via a separate pathway. They speculated that more drowning might be due to cardiac arrest from this phenomenon than previously realized. In any case I just refrain from putting my face in so as not to activate the dive reflex pathway.

 

[mtbraun]

I did a daily cold plunge for all of February this year and have been doing them off and on since (if it’s cold enough) don’t have a chiller yet so for February it was more about keeping it from being frozen. Definitely woke me up and seemed to help with recovery from running. I like the morning since it’s never right after a weightlifting and doesn’t potentially keep me up later at night but also felt like more of a mental challenge to do it straight out of bed.

For those suggesting to put your head under or doing that - I did read an interesting study about cold water immersion causing heat arrhythmia - one thought was that there are two competing neural pathways - one from the cold exposure/shock telling your heart to speed up and then if you go under the dive reflex telling your heart to slow down via a separate pathway. They speculated that more drowning might be due to cardiac arrest from this phenomenon than previously realized. In any case I just refrain from putting my face in so as not to activate the dive reflex pathway.

I typically don't dunk, but for no reason other than I don't want to. Check out Susanna Soberg's work on cold exposure. She'd advocate dunking as it activates the dive reflex. Accordingly, not a risk of causing heart issues. It's common for Nordic people (and others, just an example) to swim in very cold water, which suggests there is no additional risk to putting the head/face in.

 

[Bobrobheimer]

This is the article I had read:

‘Autonomic conflict’: a different way to die during cold water immersion?

Cold water submersion can induce a high incidence of cardiac arrhythmias in healthy volunteers. Submersion and the release of breath holding can activate two powerful and antagonistic responses: the ‘cold shock response’ and the ‘diving ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

It won’t stop me from taking a full dip in an alpine lake but for a daily cold plunge I am fine keeping my head up.

 

[Douglasr]

Seems like the cold plunge makes sense in the summer and sauna in winter.
But in the winter when you’re cold all the time it just doesn’t make any sense to me and I feel like it does more damage than good.
*i’m not a doctor.

 

[mtbraun]

Seems like the cold plunge makes sense in the summer and sauna in winter.
But in the winter when you’re cold all the time it just doesn’t make any sense to me and I feel like it does more damage than good.
*i’m not a doctor.

It's not about how you "feel" in the current season. It's about stimulating pathways through cold and heat exposure. Both are good for you and should be utilized year-round.