In recent years, the practice of cold plunging or cold water immersion has surged in popularity, transitioning from a niche athletic recovery tool to a mainstream wellness trend. Social media and wellness influencers frequently hype the virtues of cold exposure, often making dramatic claims about its benefits for physical and mental health. Some of these claims range from accelerated muscle recovery and enhanced athletic performance to improve mood, boosted immunity and accelerated fat loss. But are any of these actually true? In this deep dive, we're gonna talk all about the history, the claims and the actual evidence for cold plunges, so let's get started. And welcome back team to the Building Life On and the goal of this podcast to keep you active and healthy for life through actionable evidence of warm education. And so we're talking about something you've probably seen everywhere lately, right? Cold plunges, ice bath, cold water immersion, whatever you wanna call it, it's blowing up right now. So we wanna talk about it. You see pro athletes doing it, wellness influencers, celebrities, Instagram, everywhere. It's just people telling you this is the key to unlocking your performance, to recover, to boost your meaning, like literally everything in the world and they're pretty dramatic claims. And so what we're doing today is I'm trying to look beyond the hype, right? Where a lot of times where there's lots of hype, there's a little substance. That's kind of how it goes in the social media world of things. And so we're looking into the data here. What does it actually look like? What are the risks? What are the benefits? What's the actual data showing? So that's what we're gonna look at today. So let's get started and dive right in. So first things first, what are the big claims that we're hearing, right? So what are people saying that they can do? Well, the list is long. You hear people talk about muscle recovery. Athletes will swear by it. They do it to reduce post-workout soreness or DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness. So we think about when you have a big workout and the next day you can barely roll out of bed, that's delayed onset muscle soreness. A lot of people say that this helps them with that. And then people also talk about the mental side, right? They say that people can boost their mood. It decreases their stress, makes them feel alert and focused. Some of the big things that they talk about. They also say, hey, it helps with my anxiety and depression and lots of other anecdotal claims. And yeah, so that's some of the other ones. Other claims people talk about are actually immunity boosters saying that it boosts their immunity and so they're less likely to get sick and they can put off colds and illnesses better. That's another one I've seen on the internet. And then weight loss also comes up as well. So the claim here is that it revs up your metabolism and activates a special kind of fat called brown fat or brown adipose tissue, which actually burns calories more. And there's some truth to that, but that's a big one saying it's this hidden tool to spark your metabolism. That's another big thing. Other people also talk about things like improving their circulation, better sleep, lots of things that's kind of, it's almost like a cure all for a lot of people. And so a lot of this though comes from personal stories. Influencer testimonials or companies selling plunge tanks is what it comes to. But often these claims are kind of presented without much context or nuance. And they just say, it does this, does this. And like most people, those things sell online when you can just say, hey, this does this. Nobody's gonna actually fact check. Well, guess what? We're fact checking today. But a lot of times it sounds like guaranteed results and it's gonna make a huge difference in your life. Is that how it works? Usually that's not how science work. And so it's usually a little more complex than that. So let's real quick to step back into the history of like, where did this come from? So this goes back a long, long time. It seems like a recent fad, but people have been using cold water for a long time. And we're talking about even when I found like in the Egyptians, so using the cold for injuries. We talk about Hippocrates back in the ancient Greeks, they used it for fatigue and pain. The Romans use it as part of their routine. And you see it in other cultures too. We have Japanese cultures they go to with for kind of purification. Nordic cultures do it for a bunch of different things in their traditions. And so it's a really big history of where it started. And then modern ones kind of happened in the 20th century. So the 1900s sports science started to look at it more seriously for athletic recovery. And more recently figures like Wim Hof have brought it back into the mainstream in a big way. So people have been doing this for a long time, based on different ideas, either balancing humors, spiritual cleansing, vitalism, all these different things. There's lots of different reasons in for what we're doing. But now we're more kind of focused on the modern physiology saying, hey, what's happening here in the neurotransmitters and the chemicals, what's it doing physiologically? So it's kind of shifted. But I just wanted to say this isn't like, nothing's ever new, right? I shouldn't say nothing's new, lots of stuff's new. AI's new, new technologies is new, but lots of things like this that are just natural kind of cycles of things, this is definitely what we see. So that's kind of where it comes. I just want a little bit of history there. So kind of let's dive into the claims now. So the first one is looking at muscle recovery and performance, right? So let's get into the science here. And this is probably the most common reason people do cold punch, right? They say to kind of help improve their muscle performance. And here, there is definitely some decent evidence for reducing delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMS. And there's multiple reviews that I looked at, including a meta-analysis. And they pretty consistently show that getting in cold water after a tough workout significantly reduces how sore you feel a day or two later compared to just resting. So I just want to step back and say, when you use cold water immersion, you subjectively feel better about a day to two later after doing it, compared to just resting and doing nothing. That's what the data seems to show. And that seems to check out. But people also report feel better or less tired after the plunge. And why are people saying that? Well, it's still debated. It might be the fact that we kind of reduce nerve sensitivity. So if you just have a really cold water, might just kind of turn down the nerves, that might be it, kind of reducing pain signals. Also the cold does cause vasoconstriction. So constricting in the blood vessels, which might reduce swelling or fluid shifts in the muscle. No evidence on reducing actual inflammation. Markers like CRP, IL-6 is actually kind of weak. And we talk about that. And so we're not necessarily sure. Also could just be the placebo effect. Like something's new here and it feels good. And that's why you're feeling better. That's totally a possibility in this. But regardless, it does seem pretty consistent in the data that people tend to feel better subjectively after doing this, after having the big ones. So, and if you are using for soreness though, research kind of shows usually around the 10 to 15 minute mark, around, you know, 11 to 15 degrees Celsius, which is kind of like 50 to 60 ish, for 65 degrees Fahrenheit. That's about, you know, where the sweet spot is for this. But this is probably our best data on what's going on in terms of muscle recovery. It seems like if you get into a cold plunge, you probably will feel a little bit better afterwards. So that's like, that seems to be pretty safe to say in what the data seems to show. So moving on for more recovery, you know, getting stronger and whatnot. A lot of times, yeah, this is a big one. People who lift do this for recovery, right? But people who are lifting and there could be a potential major downside, right? While it might make you feel subjectively better using cold water immersion regularly after resistance training actually seems to reduce long-term gains. So multiple studies, including ones lasting, you know, multiple weeks kind of looking at things, have found that folks who did do cold plunges after their lifting sessions had smaller increases in muscle hypertrophy or growth and less strength gains compared to groups who just did active recovery or just rested. So stepping back here, people who did cold water immersion routinely, so like pretty regularly, seem to have less muscle growth and less increase in strength with resistance training. And that's not to say they didn't have improvements. That's one thing I want to step back and say. It's not like, oh my gosh, it's gonna actually ruin your gains. No, it just might not be as optimal as the other things. The comparative groups were just active recovery. So light, gentle exercise, or just resting and doing nothing. It seemed that cold water actually blunted those effects. And so why is this the case? Why would feeling better be bad? I'm not sure, but the idea is that maybe the cold blunts, the very signals that actually your muscles need to grow. So exercise causes inflammation and stress. We know that, and that's actually part of the process for adaptation and cold water immersion may kind of dampen down some of those muscle triggering pathways or inflammatory pathways like the mTOR activation, which is necessary for hypertrophy. That may not be quite as robust with icing or cold baths because it kind of brings things down. And that's kind of the way I think about it. It kind of provides relief short-term, but may interfere with the signals telling your body to grow. And that's it. But the one thing is this, actually this effect may be specific to resistance training. So we kind of looked at different types of exercise and resistance training seems to be affected more than endurance training. It seems like for endurance training, it doesn't really hurt or help. It's just kind of, it is what it is. But so for endurance training, it does not seem to be as significant as there. So there's definitely real conflict here, right? Feel better now versus adapt and feel better long-term. But if your main goal is getting as big and strong as humanly possible in as quick amount of time, then post-workout ice baths or cold water immersion may not be your best bet. That's just kind of out there. And as with all these things, we look at analysis and reviews and that's great. And that's a big body of evidence for a lot of people. Your results will vary. Like I just know that that's how it works in the world. The reason I like doing these dives is to say, "Hey, what does the body of evidence say? What are we looking at for safety perspective?" All those things. And then we can make individual decisions. But that's what some people see on average. That does that mean that for you, that's gonna be the case? No, not necessarily, but I just wanna give the, an honest overview of what the data shows. Next, moving on to talking about mood, right? So kind of mood, stress, the brain, what's going on. Some people have lots of claims for mood and mental health. And this is where things get interesting and also a little bit fuzzy. When you get in the water, there's that initial shock, right? If anybody's ever jumped into a cold pool or cold plunge, you get that huge shock, right? And the initial shock of cold water definitely triggers kind of that fight or flight response. Your sympathetic nervous system ramps up. And this causes a massive release of certain brainy chemicals, particularly norepinephrine or something that's called noreadrenaline literature. And that makes you feel alert and focused, right? You feel locked in 'cause you're gonna die. Your body's like, "What are you doing to me?" Studies have shown jumps from like anywhere, like a couple hundred percent, so 200 to 500% in some cases. Also dopamine, which is involved in your reward and motivation pathways, that spikes significantly up to the 200% as well. And also meant a release of endorphins. So you have multiple mechanisms, theoretically, why you may feel alertness or feel better or feel invigorated because you haven't released to these noreadrenaline, you're releasing dopamine, potentially endorphins, lots of stuff going on. So this neurochemical surge likely explains why people consistently report feeling super alert, attentive, energized, even like proud or inspired after the plunge, they say, "I'm ready to take on the world." That can happen. But what about stress? Rather than acute, what does the plunge do for stress? Well, it's kind of interesting, right? So let's take a step back. When you go into there, you are stressing your body, right? Your body's not used to a cold 50 degree water, right? And you jump in there and that is a stress. And that is actually okay. It is a stressor and that's good. And it activates your hormone system, your hypothalamic pituitary axis, which releases cortisol, all those things happen and that's good. But there's this idea of hormesis, right? Where small doses of the stress may make you more resilient over time. And so one idea here and one of my analysis that looked at found that a significant drop in perceived stress, people had it, but only after like 12 hours after the plunge. So they said, "Hey, they felt less stressed like 12 hours after, but not necessarily immediately after. It might be a delayed effect." Not entirely sure. But what the idea here is that short mini bouts of stress may decrease your overall stress or may enhance your ability to manage stress. That's the idea behind it. Evidence is certainly lacking on that. There's not like a huge thing out there, but that's like the idea is, hey, you do hard things routinely, then when you're exposed to harder things, you're already prepared for it. It's not as hard. That's an idea behind it. But what about depressive symptoms and anxiety? Well, as we saw before, there's definitely neurotransmitters that are released and the neurotransmitter link makes it plausible. And there's some preliminary research like with whole body cryotherapy or cold water swimming in specific groups. However, the same big meta-analysis we've talked about before, which looked at cold water immersion, it looked at healthy adults, right? And in these healthy adults, they found no significant overall effect on mood. So for a healthy person who doesn't have anxiety, depression, we don't necessarily know what's going on. So the immediate rush feels good, but we don't have strong evidence to say that cold water immersion is effective treatment for clinical depression or anxiety based on any real rigorous studies. Potential is there, mechanistically may be helpful, but the proof isn't quite there. And that's something I want to harp on 'cause I see this all the time on social media. People say like, oh, are you depressed? Like, are you working out? Are you cold plunging? Like, if not, you're not treating your depression or anxiety. And it's like, okay, dude, step back. First of all, maybe that's been helpful for you. That's wonderful. Like I'm all about trying to accumulate as many tools as humanly possible to have in my tool belt. And if cold water immersion is another one or whatever crowd there be, great. That's awesome. Let's add that too. But if someone's horrendously depressed, has severe depression and can't get out of bed, and you tell them like, well, you need to be cold plunging. Like that's not helpful and that's not gonna work, right? 'Cause if they can't get out of bed to do anything, they're not gonna just magically roll out of bed into a cold tub. That's not gonna happen. And so I definitely see people talking about this, like this is the treatment for anxiety and depression. Could it be a part of it? Absolutely. I think there's something to doing hard things. I think that's great. But to jump out and say, hey, this is there, I think once again, step back. Like most things, it's great. And use the resources we have in terms of social support, sleep, diet, exercise, pharmacotherapy if need be, lots of different things. And cold water, can it fit into that? Absolutely, but it'd be just a piece. And so I just wanna mention that 'cause I see a lot of really weird claims from a lot of people who quite honestly don't interact with anybody who has any sort of mental illness, like in a day-to-day or a clinical like competency in a clinical kind of manner. So that just irks me a little bit. So don't stop taking your medications and start cold water plunging. That's probably not gonna do it for you, but I just wanted to mention that there. Now let's talk about the immune system. So this is gonna bulletproof my immune system. It's what everyone says, it's perfect. And it's complicated. So there are claims that cold plunges pretty much make you bulletproof and boost up your immune system, make you stronger and you suffer fewer colds. Like where does this come from? Well, let's take a step back. The science, like what mechanistically what they're saying is that when you have this cold shock, it does cause an immediate and temporary shifts in your immune cells. So the white blood cells, a lot of times they increase. But we know that's just like what happens to an acute stress response. So when you are stressed by anything, you'll have an increase in that. And so it doesn't necessarily mean that that is long lasting immunity or you're gonna get sick less, but that's just a response to a stressor in your life. So we do see that though there's there, but a part of that acute stress there is, we do see an increase in inflammatory markers and white blood cells. But once again, that is just a pro inflammatory reaction to stress, that's what happens. The question is, does that then translate to a stronger immune system long-term? And the evidence for that is quite honestly pretty weak. The same meta-analysis that looked at, we were talking before this meta-analysis looked at increased inflammatory markers with cold water immersion. That same meta-analysis found no significant effect on overall immune function markers shortly after cold water. So immediately yes, but then like a little bit laughter, no, they didn't see that. Another study looked at people who did cold water immersion for three weeks found no clinically relevant changes in their baseline immune cell counts compared to controls. And that's kind of what we see. But the real question is, well, what about getting sick less? We have, of course, we're not gonna see a necessary change. I'm not gonna get sick less. And this is coming from a study that is cited on cold showers frequently. It found that people who took cold showers reported 29% fewer days off of work due to sickness. And that sounds amazing, right? 29% increase, what's going on? But here's the catch. They didn't actually report getting sick less often. So what they reported was days off from work. So the cold showers didn't stop them from getting sick, but maybe potentially it reduced how bad they felt or made them feel like they could push through things. I'm not sure. It's interesting to think about and interesting finding, but it definitely doesn't confirm like you're gonna get sick less. It just found that people who took cold water baths or showers didn't miss as much work by 29%. But there's a whole lot of issues with that. You can't say that that's definitively doing it. It's different people with different immune systems and it's very, very complicated. So I'm not here to say it boosts your immunity. But so I think kind of overall, the idea that cold water immersion fundamentally boosts your long-term immunity doesn't really seem supported by the current evidence. And it looks like it's more of this acute stress reaction. So maybe it boosts it acutely just 'cause that's what your body does when it's stressed and it raises the risk. It just essentially gives you everything, right? Hey, I need immune cells. I need anti-inflammatory. It brings everything and then it figures out what it needs and calms back down. I don't necessarily know how long this is boosting your immunity. It doesn't seem like it's doing that necessarily. I would love to see more research on it, but that's kind of what I found. Next, moving to melting fat away, right? And boosting your metabolism, right? Metabolism weight loss, probably the hottest thing I talk about, that anyone talks about right now. But the idea here is that the cold plunges, they kind of kickstart your metabolism, right? And activate this special brown fat or brown adipose tissue, which burns calories for you to generate heat. The idea that I've seen people say and claims is like, this activates your brown fat and turns you into a fuel, man. All day, you're just burning, burning, burning. And like most things, there's part truth to this, but not a whole truth. And what is true is that cold exposure is known to activate brown adipose tissue and increase energy expenditure through shivering and other non-shivering means. So non-shivering thermogenesis, meaning you're releasing heat in other ways. You do burn brown fat, brown adipose tissue, and it seems to increase your base of metabolic rate a little bit. But, and this is key, let's look at the actual numbers that happened. So studies that show significant increases in daily calorie burn, like around only 180 calories per day. So one man asked and said, "Hey, cold plunging did that for a hundred, you increased 180 kilocalories per day." But this was in a group of people who were exposed to mildly cold air for several hours. So most people take a cold plunge for a couple of minutes. And this study that showed this potential increase in calorie burning throughout the day was exposure to cold air for several hours and 180 calories per day. That's not nothing to scoff at. Like you add that up day after day after day after day, that could be helpful. The question is, does your body adapt to it? And that's a whole nother question, but it's very different from spending a few minutes in ice bath to the actual number of calorie burn like in that time. So when you're exposed to cold for five minutes, like how many calories are you actually burning? It's probably significantly less than 188, like they saw in that study 'cause they were exposed to it for many, many ways. Like if you had to use a better use of time in terms of burning calories, if you just did a brisk walk or run for the time you did a cold water bath, like you'd definitely burn more calories. And so there's definitely, like most things like great headlines, there's just a bit of truth in there. So while brown adipose tissue, definitely the connection is definitely real, right? We know that it does activate a little bit. Claiming cold plunges are an effective way to melt fat away or lose significant weight is probably overstated based on the science. I'd say it's not a magic bullet for fat loss and there might be other metabolic benefits though. So sometimes people talk about potentially increased insulin sensitivity with this, which is important for lots of things in metabolic health. So I'm not saying it doesn't do anything. I'm just saying it's not a magic booster and you're gonna melt everything away. That's just an important thing they talk about. And so, well, last kind of main point here we're gonna talk about is I wanna talk about the Wim Hof Method. And so this is kind of the thing that started everything. You can't talk about cold exposure without talking about this Wim Hof Method or he's kind of known as the Iceman, right? Not as cool as a Top Gun Iceman, but whatever it is what it is. And his method kind of combines three main things, a specific breathing technique where you have rounds of hyperventilation and then holding breath. You have cold exposure like showers or baths and then a mindset component. So they're all about mindset. And one of the most talked about findings related to the Wim Hof Method is its potential effect on inflammation, right? So there's a study that looked at people where they, yeah, people who were trained in the method, they would inject it with a bacterial endotoxin and something that normally makes you feel kind of sick. It's a pretty standard one to see like what, how you respond to flu-like symptoms. And so they get injected with that toxin and it make you feel sick and it triggers inflammation. And compared to the control group, the Wim Hof group had fewer symptoms, a huge spike in adrenaline and produced less pro-inflammatory markers and more anti-inflammatory markers. And so the claim that they're making is that the people who follow the Wim Hof Method could influence their own immune response just by the protocols they're doing. Saying that, hey, the cold water immersion, this whole lifestyle, like I can control my immune system. So the thing is they thought the key driver for this effect was the intense breathing pattern. So this intense hyperventilation and it causes adrenaline surge. So it may be more breathing than necessarily cold water exposure, but it's once again hard to tease out all those things when you're doing it all together. And we do need to be cautious with this though, right? So systematic reviews looking at these research methods consistently point out big limitations. So often the studies are super small, have a high risk of bias because you can't really blind people to whether or not they're doing this method. Like you can't do that, it's just not how it works. And so there's usually not a great control group either. And so the claims usually outpace the actual scientific research and more rigorous research is definitely needed. And yeah, it's interesting idea that, I'm not opposed to the idea that, hey, like you could respond better if you are once again, exposed to things frequently and can work through an increase and activate your sympathetic nervous system or whatever. It's definitely plausible, but to say that you definitely get those things, it's just really hard to prove scientifically. And one really important thing I wanna talk about from a safety perspective is that there have been tragic reports of people drowning while practicing the Wim Hof breathing in or near water. So essentially this hyperventilation can mess with your urge to breathe. So when you blow off a lot of carbon dioxide, usually that's the trigger for why you need to breathe. But if you blow it all off, you don't have that trigger saying, hey, I need to breathe. And then breath holding can then lead to fainting under water. And so I always have to caution, just don't do this. If you're gonna try and do this, please don't do this in like open bodies of water. Don't do it by yourself. Don't do any breathing exercises where you can lose consciousness. That's just never ideal, especially not by water. So now that that disclaimer is there, I wanna talk more about safety health and safety risks as well. 'Cause a lot of times people just hear this online. It's like, oh, it's safe. Like it's just cold, it's whatever. And for most people, it's probably gonna be okay. But there are definitely risks to this. And because there are real risks, I need to talk about them. People commonly downplay them. But yeah, I just want to talk about this. The biggest immediate danger is definitely the cold shock response that happens the instant you hit the water, right? First you get this uncontrollable gas, big gas sprayer. Anybody who's been exposed to cold water, that happens. So you have this big gas and then followed by rapid breathing or hyperventilation. If your head goes under water or you get splashed with water in your face or whatnot, this could actually lead to that gas and you could inhale water and that could lead to issues in your lungs or it could lead to issues with literally keep drown. So even if you're a strong swimmer, if you get overstimulated and you can do that, there's been reports of that. So that's number one. Second though, it puts a huge immediate stressor on your heart. So your blood vessels all constrict, right? When you're exposed to cold, your body's like, oh my gosh, I need to shunt everything from outside back to the core to keep everything warm, right? 'Cause these are the main things, the brain, the heart, we gotta keep that going. So blood vessels all contract down and then your heart rate and blood pressure shoot up and skyrocket. So for someone with an underlying heart condition, even one that they're not even sure about, right? They maybe never knew this, this huge surge could trigger dangerous irregular heartbeats or arrhythmias or even cause a cardiovascular, a heart attack, a cardiovascular disease additionally. So the cardiovascular stress is probably the single biggest acute risk in terms of, I think this is probably a much more likely thing to happen than you drowning 'cause of hyperventilation in my professional opinion. I think people who don't know they have heart disease, that's what I really worry about the most. And so you can have that and that's one thing I really think about. And then on top of that, the shock there can make you feel disoriented, which isn't great when you're in freezing water, you might do bad things. And so that's kind of what we think about. And on top of that, you could also just have cold injuries, right? Staying in too long in any sort of cold can lead to damages. So it can lead to hypothermia where your body loses heat too fast and you can't produce it and catch up and your core temperature drops. Symptoms here progress from just shivering to confusion, to slurred speech, loss of coordination and eventually unconsciousness and death. And it can happen in water, even that's not freezing if you're there long enough, right? So your core temperature is very important to monitor and also there's something called an after drop where your core temperature continues to drop even after getting out. And so we have to kind of be aware of that. On top of that, you could also get frostbite, especially in near freezing or really freer water, really, really cold water damaging. This could lead to the damage of the skin and the tissues and could sometimes permanently do that. It could lead to nerve damage as well, leading to ongoing neuropathy, numbness and pain. And yeah, that's just kind of how it is. And those are the things we have to think about. So it's definitely not without risk. I think for most people, could they do it if they expose themselves? Yeah, they're probably gonna be okay, but it's definitely one where we wanna talk about it and I don't wanna just say, yeah, what's going on. So I do wanna talk about who should avoid doing this. So given the risks, all the risks that I talked about, cold plunging is definitely not for everyone and anyone. So there are definitely specific conditions or contraindications where it's pretty much advised you should probably talk with someone or just not do it. That's kind of what I think about. The first thing is like the top of the list is people with known heart problems. So things like coronary artery disease, you've had a previous heart attack, you have heart failure, you have irregular heartbeats, you have arrhythmias or uncontrolled blood pressure. The cardiovascular stress is probably not worth it. In my opinion, the juice is not worth the squeeze in this condition. If you have a existing heart problem and thinking that this is gonna fix a lot of things in your life, I think let's step back, let's be safe about it. That's when we have to think about probably not worth the squeeze. But that's like my number one. If someone's like, hey, I wanna do this and they have this history of like, why do we wanna do this? And how do we, if we really, really, really wanna do this, then we gotta really think about a gradual progression there. But that's just one thing. If you have a history of that, please just don't jump into cold water, please don't do that. Other people that may be affected are people with respiratory illnesses like asthma. They may need to issue, 'cause cold sometimes trigger an asthma flare. Also neurologic conditions like epilepsy, or if you have peripheral neuropathy, and that may increase your risk while doing this. You have circulatory problems like Raynaud's, where since your fingers and toes turn white and blue in the cold, may not be ideal for you. It's not a direct contraindication, but yeah. And then also if you're pregnant, as most things they say, if you're pregnant, talk to your doctor. That's just not a good idea to do new things. If you had big recent illnesses, injuries, surgeries, all that stuff, or have known allergies to the cold, obviously avoid this. So that being said though, if you have any chronic condition, you're probably, or you're on medications, it's probably worth talking to your doctor about, hey, should I start incorporating this? Can I start incorporating this? I don't want you just to jump and do that. And that's what we wanna talk about. And so now what are some of the, how would I get into this? Hey Jordan, your talk has not convinced me. And I think it's the magical elixir of life and I wanna try it. That's great. I wanna try it. Cool. How do we do it? Well, safety first, that's a big thing. If you don't have any big contraindications, you wanna try to do it. How do we do it safely? Well, first start slow, right? Really slow. We're talking like maybe 30 seconds to a minute or two in water that's cool, but not necessarily super cold. Maybe chilling in the 60 degree area, that might be reasonable to start. And then gradually you're gonna work up your duration and work down the temperature only as you get accustomed to it, right? So don't push for long durations, especially early on. That's a big thing. And if you're gonna do this, use a safe controlled environment where you can easily get out, right? So bathtub with ice, that's ideal. A cold plunge here that you can get out if need be. That's awesome. Enter the water slowly to lessen the cold shock, right? If you jump in and that's like, that can really be a big, big, big shock. If you dive in head first, that's another big issue. You might gasp when you're underwater. So keeping your head out at least initially can also help. Also just listen to your body. If you feel dizzy, lightheaded, have chest pain, you know, can't control your shivering or your fingers, toes get really numb and change color or you can't use them, it's probably time to get out. And then when we get out, gradually rewarm, right? So get dry, put on warm clothes, have a warm drink maybe. Don't jump straight into a stalling shower as well 'cause as a jump can also cause issues 'cause if you go from really vasoconstricted to vasodilated, it may lead to dizziness, lightheadedness may cause you to pass out. And so those are all things. So if you're, it's like most things when I talk about what we're doing. Your body has stress and recovery, right? And if you're not used to a load and you do a lot of that, something bad might happen. Whether that's if you decide to run a marathon, just haven't ever trained for it, you're probably gonna have something hurt and injured, most likely. Same thing here, if you just jump into this, that's something to consider. So that's what I'm thinking about. And kind of wrapping it up here though, here's the final verdict of what's actually going on. And as we wrap this up, what is the final verdict on cold plunges? Well, the most solid evidence-based benefit seems to be when reducing delayed onset muscle soreness after a hard workout and perception, that's a good one. There's also a good reason to believe it can cause a temporary feeling of alertness and maybe improve mood right after doing it, likely reduced to the big neurochemical release that we see in there. The idea of delayed stress is interesting, but definitely needs more proof. But yeah, some of the really big claims seem overstated or lack scientific evidence in terms of things like really ramping up your metabolism, increasing your immune systems in a big way. All those have mechanistic plausibility but they're not quite there. And that's the big thing is mechanistic plausibility is so huge, right? And that's the biggest thing we see online these days is you see a study that shows a mechanistic way and someone says, "Ooh, that's cool. "Therefore, because it does this, it must do that. "And we can't make that leap. "And we definitely can't do that here." So it's not proven yet to be a cure-all for immune boosting or for fat loss or improving your mood. And so, yeah, that's the big thing. And we have to consider the risks as well like I've mentioned before. And so what are my takeaways? Well, overall, I think first you gotta just manage your expectations, right? The benefits are likely more specific to you and maybe more modest than the hype of social media suggests. It's not a magic bullet. It's not a magic cure-all. Could it be helpful? Absolutely. I think that's a big thing is context is everything, right? Why are you considering doing this? Are you considering doing this because you heard it on a podcast and now I need to do it? Like, I'm not saying that's wrong. You're listening to a podcast if you're listening to this. But you should have a reason for why we're trying to do this, right? Because this takes up time and energy and resources and we should be dedicating all those with a purpose 'cause they are very, very valuable in the week. You should really have a purpose for why you're doing it. If you're for soreness, then after endurance event, like that might be fine. If you're doing it regularly after lifting to try to get bigger and stronger, well then you gotta understand there might be some downturns to that. It might be counterproductive actually. And so the best way really depends on your goals and situation. And then thirdly, obviously we need to be safe about it. Prioritize your safety, understand that there are real risks to this. And if you have anything concerning in your heart or your lungs or whatnot, like please talk to someone before you do this 'cause it could be an issue. And the big thing I wanna drive home here is that cold plunge is not a replacement for the big things, right? Eating well, getting enough sleep, consistently training your body. Those are the biggest things. And this is really what it comes down to is, if you cold plunge for 10 minutes a day, every single day, and you're giving up something 10 minutes of your life, whether that is rest, sleep, time with your family, exercise, like to me to do something like this, you're giving up something, we have to decide is it worth it? So that's the big thing. And for me, if you were like, "Oh, you're not getting enough of a workout in and you're stopping early to cold plunge." I'd say you should absolutely just go keep working out 'cause I know that you're gonna get benefits from working out. I know that 10 extra minutes of sleep, I know you're gonna get benefits from that. Will you get actual benefits from the cold plunge? I don't know about that. You may, some people may, they swear by it, absolutely swear by it. And I'm not taking back or diminishing their opinion on that and that's totally fine. But if you're like, "Hey, cold plunge versus exercise, I'll choose exercise every time 'cause it's actually very, very helpful." And so I just want you to not listen to the grifters who want you to believe that this is magic, right? In terms of things that are beneficial, there are lots of other things that have way more data to support them. It doesn't mean this doesn't work, but what we do know at the moment, we just can't say definitively it does all these things. So we should never replace exercise or nutrition or sleep because these are way bigger rocks, way more important. So that's a big thing. And it could be an invigorating experience, maybe helpful for specific things, but yeah, just approach it with knowledge, caution, and just be realistic about things. And so that's my rambling there, but that is gonna be it for today. Thank you so much, everybody, for listening. I appreciate it. If you enjoy this or find it valuable, it would mean the world to me if you share this with a friend or like the video on YouTube or give it a five-star rating on your podcast, platform or choice that would really help get the word out there. But that's it for today. Now get off your phone, get outside, go be active, have a great rest of your day, and we'll see you next time.
