Six songs is all it takes. That’s what I used to tell myself as I stepped into the bath full of cold water and two bags of party ice.
There I lay, submerged up to my neck, for 20 minutes – or about the equivalent of six songs – each morning.
A therapy used to stimulate the immune system, ice baths are extreme but have shown promise for conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome, which was my purpose for enduring the pain.
I never really got used to the cold and the jury is still out about their effectiveness for medical conditions, but they were worth a shot and did coincide with my recovery. An added bonus was lifetime immunity to swimming in the ocean all year round.
That was 20 years ago.
Now, a blast of cold water at the end of a hot shower suffices for waking up and energising for the day.
A cold start to the day may do more than just wake you up though.
From elite sportspeople to “iceberg” ocean swimmers, the benefits are broad. Research has shown that warming yourself to cold water may benefit your mood, fat loss, thyroid function, immune system, male fertility (hot water may “depress” sperm production), aid recovery and reduce inflammation.
Tim Ferriss, author of the bestselling 4-Hour Body, is a big fan of ice baths or cold showers.
“Cold exposure can be used for a number of very interesting effects,” he has said.
“I was looking at cold exposure primarily for its effect on glucose transporters, GLUT 4 and also on two other factors, one being brown adipose tissue, BAT, which is sometimes referred to as ‘fat-burning fat’ because it’s similar to muscle fibre in its composition of mitochondria. Also, a hormone called adiponectin, which I think people are going to hear a lot more about soon.
“I spoke with researchers who focus on adiponectin and also a former NASA researcher who focused exclusively on cold exposure, primarily for fat loss. What he realised was that someone like Michael Phelps doesn’t burn through 10,000 calories a day because of his activity level alone; it’s because of the thermal conductivity of water.”
Then there’s the mental challenge – and most people would agree that freezing your bits off first thing in the morning is a challenge.
“The point is that starting your morning by tackling challenges head-on will help encourage similar behaviour throughout the day,” writes author Carl Richards, in a new feature for The New York Times. “And, it turns out, there’s a wealth of research to back up this idea as well. People who do hard things first tend to procrastinate less and get more done, according to Brian Tracy’s book, Eat That Frog.”
It’s a challenge that can also be an exercise in mindfulness. Cold water is, after all, simply a sensation and we can choose how we respond to it.
That said, there’s a difference between noticing sensation and suffering.
Most of us cannot endure nearly two hours in an ice bath, like that of the, arguably crazy, Wim “The Iceman” Hof, who holds the Guinness World Record for the longest ice bath. Frankly, it would be dangerous if we tried.
“Cold showers tended to be so shocking that I felt awful after them for hours,” Bulletproof Executive Dave Asprey says. “One time it even induced a double heartbeat, which is uncomfortable but not dangerous. (It helps to have an ER doctor for a wife though …).”
Asprey also once fell asleep with cold packs on and ended up with first-degree burns over his body.
“Every spot of my body covered by an ice pack was red and puffy,” Asprey said, “it looked like I’d been beaten with sticks.”
Shocking your body by jumping into the icy ocean or frigid water is also inadvisable for anyone who has high blood pressure.
For the rest of us, there may be mental and physical benefits and thankfully, we don’t need to submerge ourselves in an icy bath for 20 minutes to get them. A quick two minute cold shower or dunk in the ocean each morning ought to do the trick just fine.
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