Cold Exposure and Ice Baths 🥶
- Sep 26, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 30, 2024
What does cold exposure look like?
A cold shower 🚿
Placing your face in a bowl with ice cold water 🧊
Full body cold water submersions maybe in an ice bath or the cold sea 🌊🛀
Benefits?
By voluntarily submerging your self in cold water you are tell your body from a cellular level to heat up 🔥, which boosts mitochondrial function when the cold shock protein is released from your liver! In modern times, humans have significantly reduced their exposure to temperature fluctuations, which were prevalent throughout our evolutionary history.
Here are some of the benefits from activating your cold shock proteins!
💥 Increased Alertness & Energy
Deliberate cold exposure can trigger a significant release of epinephrine and norepinephrine, leading to increased alertness, energy, and focus.
🧠 Resilience & Stress Tolerance
Cold exposure helps build resilience and enhance stress tolerance by training your prefrontal cortex to exert control over reflexive states. This skill, developed through facing a self-directed challenge, can improve your ability to cope with real-world stressors and maintain a calm, clear mind.
😃 Mood Enhancement
Cold exposure can also lead to a prolonged release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with mood elevation, focus, and goal-directed behaviour. Even brief periods of cold exposure can have lasting positive effects on mood!
🔥 Increased Metabolism
It can temporarily increase metabolism as the body works to maintain core temperature. While the overall calorie burn is modest, it can stimulate the conversion of white fat to beige or brown fat, which are more metabolically active. This can help protect against diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
🏋️♀️ Recovery After Exercise
Cold water immersion can be an effective recovery tool after intense exercise, improving muscle power, perceived recovery, and reducing muscle soreness. However, it can limit muscle growth if done too soon after training. For best results, wait 6-8 hours or more after training, or consider using cold exposure before training. However, even just waiting 45 minutes to an hour after working out is better than jumping straight in a cold plunge, if you're looking for muscle growth and repair.
How long and how cold?
If you have control over these, like in an ice bath 🛁 for example, you want it to be uncomfortably cold yet safe and to remain in there from what feels safe and good for you. The recommendation is a minimum of 3 minutes, maximum of 6 minutes, as longer and colder isn't always better!
Start slow, this can be from 1 minute and then build up when you feel safe. 🕒
Temperature between 8 to 12 degrees is what I personally aim for. The key is to find a temperature that is challenging but manageable. 🌡️
When should I do it?
☀️ Morning – To promote wakefulness and energy levels for the day, opt for doing it in the morning.
🌙 Night – Some research suggests it can aid sleep at night. If you're aiming for muscle recovery, remember to wait 6-8 hours after training to avoid limiting muscle growth.
Added tip 😊
To enhance the resilience-building effects of cold exposure, avoid staying completely still in cold water. By moving your limbs while keeping your hands and feet submerged, you can break up the insulating thermal layer, increasing the intensity of the cold stimulus without lowering the water temperature. This is similar to slowing down a weight lift to increase tension on the muscles 💪.
Always prioritize safety when engaging in cold water immersion. Start with a higher temperature or shorter duration, and gradually increase your tolerance. Listen to your body’s signals and avoid putting yourself at risk 🚨.
Studies:
PMID: 36137565
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-022-01644-9
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