Cold Plunge

[mr.sandman]

So a couple weeks ago i did winter swimming, temperature outside was -20 and the water was 2 degrees celsius if i remember correctly. We went in 3 times for a short duration like 20-30 sec and sat in a mild sauna in between. Everything was cool(no pun intended). So next day, i felt a little chilly, cold in enviroments where im usually not cold, but other then that nothing out of the norm. In the evening, i went to the gym and started incline bench pressing. When i usually incline bench, i sweat only very mildly. But this time i was dripping in cold sweat. I started feeling dizzy and my hands were shaking abit. At one point i was even afraid i might pass out. It got a little better towards end of workout but i still felt wierd for like 3-4 days after. I measured my bloodpressure and bloodsugar both seemed to be fine, atleast at the time when i measured them. Can anyone explain this phenomen to me?

Maybe its was nothing, maybe it wasn not even related to the swimming. But im kinda paranoid about my health if its just even resembles something that might be dangerous.

 

[mr.sandman]

Oh i forgot to add. Before the workout i didnt eat dinner and i ate 300g of chocolate. I never usually eat that much chocolate at once. I had eaten in the morning, and at work, and after eating the 300g of chocolate i felt there is no need for food because i wasnt hungry, so i saved dinner for after workout.

 

[ChickenBrother]

It sounds like you just had a cold and/or covid. If you're fine now, I wouldn't attribute any special significance to it. I believe ice baths strengthen your immune system by stressing your body, much like regular exercise does. And just like doing a workout, if you're already run down and on the verge of getting a cold, doing a tough workout will push you over the edge.

 

[Smato_rules]

They are a stressor, like mentioned above, so maybe you weren’t recovered from the stress of the cold plunge before your workout

 

[Fahcough]

I can't get my feet to regulate temp after getting out. For 20-30 minutes toes are throbbing like they won't warm up, have to go put them in warm bath water to get feeling back. Other than that the quick plunge feels like it wakes you up. Sometimes a pain in ears will start after you submerge head. Writing this out sounds like it's a dumb idea.

 

[Rob Battisti]

Oh i forgot to add. Before the workout i didnt eat dinner and i ate 300g of chocolate. I never usually eat that much chocolate at once. I had eaten in the morning, and at work, and after eating the 300g of chocolate i felt there is no need for food because i wasnt hungry, so i saved dinner for after workout.

It was the chocolate.

I do 32 degrees Fahrenheit daily for 4-6 minutes

 

[Volador]

I tried this cold shower trend a while ago. After each workout I would take a shower at the gym with water at the max cold setting. I would stay a few minutes inside. After getting out I always felt like shit, shook and extremely tired. So I stopped doing it. Too much hype imo and mostly pointless.

 

[NoSmilez]

Eh you don’t need it unless you want to recover. If you are working out every other day then I don’t think you need it.

 

[cincymma79]

It was the chocolate.

I do 32 degrees Fahrenheit daily for 4-6 minutes

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

So a couple weeks ago i did winter swimming, temperature outside was -20 and the water was 2 degrees celsius if i remember correctly. We went in 3 times for a short duration like 20-30 sec and sat in a mild sauna in between. Everything was cool(no pun intended). So next day, i felt a little chilly, cold in enviroments where im usually not cold, but other then that nothing out of the norm. In the evening, i went to the gym and started incline bench pressing. When i usually incline bench, i sweat only very mildly. But this time i was dripping in cold sweat. I started feeling dizzy and my hands were shaking abit. At one point i was even afraid i might pass out. It got a little better towards end of workout but i still felt wierd for like 3-4 days after. I measured my bloodpressure and bloodsugar both seemed to be fine, atleast at the time when i measured them. Can anyone explain this phenomen to me?

Maybe its was nothing, maybe it wasn not even related to the swimming. But im kinda paranoid about my health if its just even resembles something that might be dangerous.

This is a funny coincidence. The last 3 times i did such things (sauna or swimming in cold water) i ended up sick to very sick afterwards. I think maybe your body needs to toughen up before you get the benefits but if I get sick everytime i try it sucks, lol.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

After getting out I always felt like shit, shook and extremely tired.

IDK why but this made me laugh

 

[TheToneZone]

There's a lot going on with cold water and it depends what your trying to accomplish.

For recovering after a workout, it can help you feel better faster and be able to train again faster. But there are a lot of factors. If you aren't "cold adapted" and it's really stressful for you, like you're pacing before, hyperventilating during, shivering for hours after, that's not going to help you recover. 55 or 50 or even 60 degrees is plenty cold to help reduce some soreness and feel fresh after training. If you can do 40 or 35 and it's relaxing, not extremely stressful, that's fine but for a lot of people that will just be too cold. And if you're trying to build muscle (who isn't) it can blunt the hypertrophic response to training so again it's situationally appropriate depending on what you're trying to do.

For waking you up and giving you focus and energy, you can get in cold water and it's ok if it's a little more stressful. You get a lot of dopamine and cortisol action from being in really cold water and that wakes you up. But if you're already stressed out you might not want that. Again situation dictates. If you're kinda tired and dragging ass in the morning, really cold water will wake you up. But you probably don't want to do that after say, a late night gym sesh when you're planning on sleeping an hour later.

If you think you're a pussy and want to work on using your willpower, getting in uncomfortably cold water is an easy way you can get outside your comfort zone. But it's not magic it's just cold water.

There's also implications for things like brown fat, fat loss, all kinds different situations or metrics by which to judge the appropriateness of cold water exposure. I'm not an expert about that if it's interesting to you studies and anecdotes are easily found.

Variations of magnitude and duration have varying pros and cons depending on the situation.

It's popular for cool Internet princesses to film themselves getting into cold plunges like it's alpha male magic but it's just not and it depends on what you want.

For me, I like getting in the unheated pool during winter time after a really long run or gym session. I'm pretty acclimated and it's not very stressful so I can stay relaxed and enjoy the feeling of cold water on my body. Sometimes if I want a little pick me up in the morning or if I'm tired at night and want to stay up for some reason, I will get in for a little wake up action and it gives me a little mental energy and clarity. If their is a hot tub near by, sometimes there is, I love the feeling of going back and forth so I do that and I find it helps me recover because it feels good and is relaxing. I also have happy memories of the feeling I get after being in a cold pool for a while so for me it's net relaxing.

If you have to do a haka to put your toe in though, it's not gonna help you recover because you're stressing yourself the fuck out. Situations dictates appropriateness and correct magnitude and duration, and it's hard to say it's ever unequivocally necessary.

It doesn't turn you into the liver king or anything and it's not magic but depending on the situation and goal it can be nice.

 

[maximus__]

I tried this cold shower trend a while ago. After each workout I would take a shower at the gym with water at the max cold setting. I would stay a few minutes inside. After getting out I always felt like shit, shook and extremely tired. So I stopped doing it. Too much hype imo and mostly pointless.

I have 1-2 cold showers daily. How do you feel like shit, shook and extremely tired after it? It's just cold water. ALl it does is force you to take big deep breaths.

This is the same with a cold plunge for me. After the initial shock, once I get my breathing under control, it's just breathwork with some extra anti inflammatory properties from the cold. It's just a recovery protocol with some added breathwork.

I enjoy it because it's a period of time where I can't be on my phone, talk to people or think about other random stuff because I am focusing on breathing correctly. It's forced meditation and nothing much more.

 

[ChickenBrother]

I have 1-2 cold showers daily. How do you feel like shit, shook and extremely tired after it? It's just cold water. ALl it does is force you to take big deep breaths.

This is the same with a cold plunge for me. After the initial shock, once I get my breathing under control, it's just breathwork with some extra anti inflammatory properties from the cold. It's just a recovery protocol with some added breathwork.

I enjoy it because it's a period of time where I can't be on my phone, talk to people or think about other random stuff because I am focusing on breathing correctly. It's forced meditation and nothing much more.

It's getting overlooked that not all cold plunges or cold showers are the same. If the water is at or close to freezing temp AND it's moving around your skin because you're swimming or because it's a cold shower and the water is circulating, that's going to feel cold AF. If you just sit still in a bath of that same water, your body heat will warm up the water next to your skin and it will feel more bearable than if you move around in it.

And cold showers circulate fresh cold water and strip away body heat like with wind chill. Earlier last year I tried turning off the hot water for the last 30 seconds of the shower and it felt cold and got me breathing heavy but that water was probably 45 degrees F out of the shower head. I could do that every shower and it gives me a blast of energy and feels refreshing afterwards. But I tried it on a cold day this winter and that water was probably 35 degrees and felt fucking cold as fuck. Maybe I just have shit zygos but that's not something I'd choose to do regularly.

 

[Volador]

I have 1-2 cold showers daily. How do you feel like shit, shook and extremely tired after it? It's just cold water. ALl it does is force you to take big deep breaths.

This is the same with a cold plunge for me. After the initial shock, once I get my breathing under control, it's just breathwork with some extra anti inflammatory properties from the cold. It's just a recovery protocol with some added breathwork.

I enjoy it because it's a period of time where I can't be on my phone, talk to people or think about other random stuff because I am focusing on breathing correctly. It's forced meditation and nothing much more.

How do you feel like shit if you walk outside in the winter with no clothes? All it is is cold air.

I suppose different stuff affects different people in different ways. Maybe if I had kept it up for longer I would've gotten used to it, or maybe not, who knows, but it seemed pointless to go through the trouble. I did do some reading about it, and all the supposed athletic and health benefits are overhyped and there's little solid evidence for them outside of blogs, it all seems very mixed with little observable differences in recovery or performance, from what I’ve seen. Also, it is counterproductive for hypertrophy in general as far as I've seen. If it makes some people meditate or feel good mentally in some way, that's fair enough. I don't think it is a bad thing. But from what I've seen and my personal experience, I wouldn't go out of my way to do it and expect some important measurable increase in performance or recovery, unless you are under very intense heat or something similar.

 

[ChickenBrother]

How do you feel like shit if you walk outside in the winter with no clothes? All it is is cold air.

I suppose different stuff affects different people in different ways. Maybe if I had kept it up for longer I would've gotten used to it, or maybe not, who knows, but it seemed pointless to go through the trouble. I did do some reading about it, and all the supposed athletic and health benefits are overhyped and there's little solid evidence for them outside of blogs, it all seems very mixed with little observable differences in recovery or performance, from what I’ve seen. Also, it is counterproductive for hypertrophy in general as far as I've seen. If it makes some people meditate or feel good mentally in some way, that's fair enough. I don't think it is a bad thing. But from what I've seen and my personal experience, I wouldn't go out of my way to do it and expect some important measurable increase in performance or recovery, unless you are under very intense heat or something similar.

I look at it as the cold equivalent of a very hot sauna. Both create stress and elevate your HR which is good for you as long as you don't overdo it, same as regular exercise does. When I used to go to a swanky gym I would do 10-15 min after every workout in the dry sauna cranked up as hot as possible. I thought it would give some incremental benefits but I didn't notice anything other than making me sick one time when I was already run down and it pushed me over the edge.

I've done a few ice baths and feel the same way about them. Like with saunas, the biggest enthusiasts tend to be dudes who are too lazy to push themselves via actual workouts. They're like "Yeah this ice bath/sauna is the shit! I get a burst of energy and have great focus for the rest of the morning!" You know what else does that? Getting off your ass and running for 20-30 minutes lol.

 

[maximus__]

It's getting overlooked that not all cold plunges or cold showers are the same. If the water is at or close to freezing temp AND it's moving around your skin because you're swimming or because it's a cold shower and the water is circulating, that's going to feel cold AF. If you just sit still in a bath of that same water, your body heat will warm up the water next to your skin and it will feel more bearable than if you move around in it.

And cold showers circulate fresh cold water and strip away body heat like with wind chill. Earlier last year I tried turning off the hot water for the last 30 seconds of the shower and it felt cold and got me breathing heavy but that water was probably 45 degrees F out of the shower head. I could do that every shower and it gives me a blast of energy and feels refreshing afterwards. But I tried it on a cold day this winter and that water was probably 35 degrees and felt fucking cold as fuck. Maybe I just have shit zygos but that's not something I'd choose to do regularly.

I have no idea what Zygos is ? I keep seeing it mentioned in this forum and refuse to look it up.

I have cold showers daily in both hot and cold seasons, but I did grow up swimming in cold water to the point I have smaller ear canals (random army medical found that one out).
I usually cold plunge in winter only. I find it's too enjoyable in summer months haha.

The majority of the studies show (that I have read in full) show the water actually doesn't really need to be that cold for recovery benefits and longer periods of less intense cold are better., The brown fatty acid (cold inoculation) and mental health (IMO breath related) factors are amplified by shorter, more intense plunges though.

Most people find it easier to go extreme cold for 1-3 mins and want to be "hard", but would be better off with a temp they can maintain for 15+ mins without any negative bodily reactions (loss of feeling, intense pain etc) provided we are talking recovery.

It's the same as allowing yourself to warm back up after vs using a warm shower to rapidly do that. You just have to decide what your plunging is for.

 

[maximus__]

How do you feel like shit if you walk outside in the winter with no clothes? All it is is cold air.

I suppose different stuff affects different people in different ways. Maybe if I had kept it up for longer I would've gotten used to it, or maybe not, who knows, but it seemed pointless to go through the trouble. I did do some reading about it, and all the supposed athletic and health benefits are overhyped and there's little solid evidence for them outside of blogs, it all seems very mixed with little observable differences in recovery or performance, from what I’ve seen. Also, it is counterproductive for hypertrophy in general as far as I've seen. If it makes some people meditate or feel good mentally in some way, that's fair enough. I don't think it is a bad thing. But from what I've seen and my personal experience, I wouldn't go out of my way to do it and expect some important measurable increase in performance or recovery, unless you are under very intense heat or something similar.

I am that kinda person that wears shorts 99% of the year. I grew up in a reasonably cold climate and only wear pants for special occasions and at work. Otherwise I am dressed like I am ready for a day at the beach. I would say I am well cold adapted though and grew up swimming, diving and running outside in cold weather.

The hypertrophy neagatives are overblown. It's irrelevant unless your entire goal is to maximise muscle building e.g a bodybuilder. The data is out on that also and whether the extra volume(more training sessions) from better recovery would actually result in a net gain due to the added recovery benefit.If you go from 3x training sessions a week and perfect recovery to 5x a week due to icebaths, overall you would theoretically offset that loss of muscle. It appears to also be offset by just waiting for long enough after (not straight after a session).

I don't think ice baths are magical at all and think these people dropping 2k on a set up are wasting their money for something I can do with a couple of containers of ice and a bath tub with 90% of the same result.

 

[maximus__]

I look at it as the cold equivalent of a very hot sauna. Both create stress and elevate your HR which is good for you as long as you don't overdo it, same as regular exercise does. When I used to go to a swanky gym I would do 10-15 min after every workout in the dry sauna cranked up as hot as possible. I thought it would give some incremental benefits but I didn't notice anything other than making me sick one time when I was already run down and it pushed me over the edge.

I've done a few ice baths and feel the same way about them. Like with saunas, the biggest enthusiasts tend to be dudes who are too lazy to push themselves via actual workouts. They're like "Yeah this ice bath/sauna is the shit! I get a burst of energy and have great focus for the rest of the morning!" You know what else does that? Getting off your ass and running for 20-30 minutes lol.

My heart rate drops in an icebath after the first minute. I focus on getting back to within 5-10 beats of my average resting heart rate on my garmin prior to the end of my time. If I am way above that and in full stress mode, I would count it almost as a training session, which isn't the goal of Ice baths (for me).

It's not recovery if it spikes you that high and there are times to do that, but like you said I would rather just run hard or similar instead of becoming the ultimate icebath champion of the world in my sessions.

 

[ChickenBrother]

I have no idea what Zygos is ? I keep seeing it mentioned in this forum and refuse to look it up.

Get with the program brah. Zygos are zygomatic arches, sunken cheekbones look. If you don't have them, they're definitely worth getting plastic surgery for and they're pretty much the only thing women care about in a partner. And once you have them, you can be a gigantic asshole with no redeeming qualities but you'll still have 10s dropping at your feet.

I have cold showers daily in both hot and cold seasons, but I did grow up swimming in cold water to the point I have smaller ear canals (random army medical found that one out).
I usually cold plunge in winter only. I find it's too enjoyable in summer months haha.

The majority of the studies show (that I have read in full) show the water actually doesn't really need to be that cold for recovery benefits and longer periods of less intense cold are better., The brown fatty acid (cold inoculation) and mental health (IMO breath related) factors are amplified by shorter, more intense plunges though.

Most people find it easier to go extreme cold for 1-3 mins and want to be "hard", but would be better off with a temp they can maintain for 15+ mins without any negative bodily reactions (loss of feeling, intense pain etc) provided we are talking recovery.

It's the same as allowing yourself to warm back up after vs using a warm shower to rapidly do that. You just have to decide what your plunging is for.

My heart rate drops in an icebath after the first minute. I focus on getting back to within 5-10 beats of my average resting heart rate on my garmin prior to the end of my time. If I am way above that and in full stress mode, I would count it almost as a training session, which isn't the goal of Ice baths (for me).

It's not recovery if it spikes you that high and there are times to do that, but like you said I would rather just run hard or similar instead of becoming the ultimate icebath champion of the world in my sessions.

Agree with what you're saying but it also raises my point about not all cold plunges being equal. If that water is at or near freezing and is circulating, NFW is your HR getting near your RHR unless you're either dead or you're Aquaman. I know your HR goes down after the initial shock but at that temp without a wetsuit (or drysuit), your body is having to crank the afterburners to prevent you from going hypothermic.

But laying in a bathtub of "cold" water (no ice) for 10 or 15 minutes would be much more tolerable and probably offer the same benefits.