- Every day for 2 weeks spend at least 3 minutes (I’m doing at least 5) in cold water
- You could use a cold shower, an ice bath, a natural body of water or whatever. If it’s uncomfortable for you, there are likely some benefits to it, even if it’s just the mental benefit of intentionally doing something challenging
- How cold is cold? Cold water is really anything from freezing to about 70 degrees – Reference the right side of the chart above – I’d suggest practicing a few times in 55-65 degree water before you go even colder and use caution if you do. When I’ve gone below 50 it is actually painful to touch and it isn’t recommended for everyone
This week I added 40lbs of ice to the tub I’ve been using and it was a legit Ice Bath (pic below) …I hung out in there for 8 minutes working on 4 count square breathing
- Top 8 Benefits of Cold Recovery
- 7 Health Benefits of Cold Water
- 7 Reasons Why Taking A Cold Shower Is Good For Your Health
- The Health Benefits Of Cold Showers
- To increase resilience to discomfort – remembering that it’s temporary, responding with calm thoughts (a form of mental training, hey if I wanna keep coaching this stuff, I gotta keep challenging myself too)
- To practice remaining calm in discomfort – focusing on breathing, relaxing any tension, smiling and staying relaxed
- For fun – doing something different and a little outside the box
- To experiment – seeing if I feel any better, studying my body a bit more (pulse, reactions like goosebumps, how long it takes to come back to comfortable body temp), finding out if the benefits listed above are real for me
- To continue trying new & challenging things as part of my #1MonthExperiment and for the bigger picture too
- To improve my tolerance for the cold – I had a recent experience with cold water shock while swimming through a waterfall in the coldest water I’ve ever been in (a story for another day)…and although I don’t plan to ever do that again because I learned my lesson, I’d like to improve my tolerance. Now that I live in Southern California where I’m rarely exposed to cold temps, I feel so damn wimpy when I am – my fingertips go numb easily and I’d like to see if I can improve that
See me in the pic above? Thankfully, I remained calm and was able to recover from the initial shock…though it took almost 6 hours to recover after I got out!!!
Have you ever done a cold water experiment? Is it something you practice? Comment below
If you’re willing to try, tag me in your photos and videos on Instagram
Follow @mentality_wod for my updates on this challenge!
