Craving to try an ice bath but scared of taking the plunge?
The benefits are way too many and can easily outweigh your fear.
Just to let you know, we humans have a natural ability to adapt to cold temperatures and it’s just about practice. The more you try ice baths, the easier it gets and the benefits start showing up everywhere in your life – your sleep, skin, metabolism, weight, alertness, and overall fitness- mental, emotional and physical.
Dr. Elizabeth Gardner, a sports medicine doctor at Yale, explains that cold water immersion is excellent for recovery since it constricts blood vessels, reducing inflammation and flushing out metabolic waste from muscles.
Cold thermogenesis- What happens to your body?
When exposed to cold temperatures, we have this wonderful ability to increase our metabolic rate and generate heat to maintain a stable core body temperature. Besides, your mitochondria also gets at work and releases heat in the form of infra-red light to keep you warm. Among many other things that happen to your body in cold temperatures, we have listed down a few-
- You start shivering and in the process your body generates heat
- Your body starts burning the stored calories to produce heat
- Blood glucose fuels the body further in keeping it warm
- Your immune system is further activated and is better equipped to fight any diseases
Top 15 benefits why you should go for an ice-bath
Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman highlights that cold exposure builds resilience and grit while offering a significant dopamine boost, enhancing mood and focus.
Summarizing the countless opinions from experts favoring ice-bath, here are some real benefits that may inspire you to experience this amazing transformation, at least once.
- Cold bath serves as an instant dopamine booster, the feel good hormone secreted in your body, which is critical in helping you feel great and boosting your brain function, thus aiding better decision-making.
- It is naturally anti-inflammatory. A session of cold bath can immediately ease your joint pains and muscle soreness.
- Your skin will feel great and younger. Coldwater tightens your skin and reduces wrinkles, giving it a beautiful young glow.
- It triggers more cells in your immune system, improving immunity. Reducing your stress levels is another way in which an ice bath strengthens your ability to fight infections. This in turn relieves chronic pain and aids healing.
- You will feel a drastic improvement in your sleep and thus the quality of your life.
- By lowering your blood sugar levels, cold thermogenesis works wonders in reducing your food cravings and reversing Type 2 Diabetes.
- Your strength and stamina improves multifold. How do you feel while walking in the hills v/s that in your own city? The cold mountain air automatically improves your stamina, so does an ice bath.
- It is a great remedy for depression and leads to an antidepressant effect by electrically stimulating the peripheral nerve endings in your brain.
- It activates your sympathetic nervous system and boosts magnetic and electrical current in your body.
- Levels of glutathione, a powerful antioxidant, are triggered by inducing cold thermogenesis. Glutathione is crucial for cellular detoxification, immune system, and overall oxidant defence.
- Since your body needs fuel to keep itself warm, an ice bath burns the white fat and turns it into brown fat. This aids weight loss, improves insulin sensitivity, improves heart health, etc.
- Ice baths are also a great sexual stimulator, enhancing both performance and fertility.
How to get started?
The benefits are quite significant to not give it a try – aren’t they?
If you have made up your mind to take the plunge, here are a few things you should first ensure-
- Cold thermogenesis is as much about mental resilience as physical. It’s important that you are mentally primed to go for it.
- To make it more enjoyable, choose a day and place where you can ground yourself and also have some sunlight.
- Start slowly and be gentle on yourself. You can begin by dunking your face in ice water or putting your feet in it. Slowly, decrease the temperature and increase the time.
- Try to engage a certified practitioner, at least when you are making your first attempt. Doing this will help you to be mentally and physically primed for the experience and make the whole deal a lot more fun and beneficial.
