Energize and Revitalize with Cold Water Therapy

I was going to re-write a previous blog of mine that I had deleted on hydrotherapy (cold showers and ice baths) but I came across a really good blog on the subject that covers everything I want to write. Here's a short summary of some of the benefits of ice baths, some strategies to maintain a dedicated practice, and a link to a well written detailed blog on the subject. For further information about the history and cultural practices of hydrotherapy click on the link at the end of this blog.

















Health Benefits of Ice Baths

-Improves circulation: Speedy recovery from exercise or injury, moves blood deep to the core of the body helping to heal and revitalize your organs

-Relieves Depression: Stimulates the brain to produce noradrenaline which helps mitigate depression by elevating your mood.

-Keeps Skin and Hair Healthy: Cold water can make your hair look shinier and your skin look healthier by closing up your cuticles and pores.

-Strengthens Immune System: The metabolic rate is increased due to the body trying to warm itself up. This activates the immune system resulting in the creation of more white blood cells.

-Boosts Testosterone: Enough said! Boosted testosterone means boosted performance without the asterisk.

-Increases Fertility: While heating the testes decreases sperm count, icing them will keep your navymen swimming and can increase quantity and potency.

-Increases Energy and Well Being: Energizes and revitalizes. You feel like a new man when you step out of the ice bath or cold shower. An image that often comes to mind is one of my idols Rickson Gracie yelling "REBORN" after getting out of an icy river a couple days before Abu Dhabi.

-Improve Sleep: Ice baths can help you have deeper sleep if taken 30-60 minutes before bed. Drink a hot mug of chammomile tea while in the ice bath to keep you warm and help induce a deep sleep afterwards.


I find that taking cold showers and ice baths is a very challenging thing to do, especially in the winter. It is both mentally and physically difficult to hold yourself under freezing cold water for even a minute let alone a full 10-15. It takes serious dedication and discipline to regularly subject yourself to cold waters.


Strategies to help you practice cold water therapy regularly:


-Read a book while laying submerged in an ice bath, helps distract your mind.

-When standing under a cold shower, close your eyes and visualize that you're standing under the most beautiful cold waterfall on a sunny spring morning after a snowy winter up in the mountains.

-Wear a beanie. A lot of heat is lost from the head. A beanie will hold in as much heat as possible while in an ice bath.

-Focus on the health benefits of what you're putting yourself through. Decide whether or not 10 minutes of slight discomfort is worth the forementioned benefits. If you are an athlete, this should be the easiest strategy.

-Drink hot tea. Drink green tea if the ice bath is in the morning, and chammomile tea at night.

-Take ice baths and cold showers right after exercise to reduce inflammation and lactic acid accumulation. Being hot and sweaty from a hard workout makes a cold shower a lot more appealing than when already cold and shivering.

-Gradually decrease the temperature of your cold shower or ice bath over the course of a year. Every couple weeks, decrease your temperature slightly until you eventually reach 40-50 degrees.


Excerpt from "The James Bond Shower":
Okay. If you’re healthy enough for a James Bond Shower, here’s how it’s done.

1. Start off with the hot water.

2. Wash your hair with some Pinaud Elixir shampoo, just like 007.

3. When you’re ready to rinse, just turn it down to cold. Bond would spend a few minutes under the cold water, meditating about a lost love or on how awesome his job is.

4. As you walk out the shower, kill the hitman that’s been hiding in the closet using nothing but a towel and a Scotch tumbler.

5. Say a pithy one liner; proceed to put on tux.



The James Bond Shower: A Shot of Cold Water for Health and Vitality by Brett and Kate Mckay