How can cold water therapy change your life in seconds?

**SPOILER ALERT. Nothing will change in your life unless you change.

You've seen ice bath videos on Instagram and TikTok, your friend got one and hasn't shut up about how life-changing it is. You did a bit of research online and took the plunge, ordering your own Intus Life Ice Bath.

Days later your package is due. The door goes and you rush to see your favourite delivery man, package in hand. Before you know it you're ripping open the box and you've got the Intus Life Instruction video playing on your phone as you fit the support poles into the bath skin.

A few minutes later the ice bath is filling up from the hose and you've got the bags of ice at the ready. Ice goes in and you dip your hand in to test the cold, jeeeez! "That's freezing!" "Is that too cold?" "Do I really want to do this?"......... the objections keep calling out in your head, but they don't matter.

Deep breath - - - - - - and in you go.

You plunge your feet in first and keep going until the icy water is up to your neck. The biting cold shoots through your body and steals the breath from your lungs.

FACT: at this point your body releases adrenaline and norepinephrine, which are behind your fight or flight response. It's a mix between get me out of here and raised alertness. Both these hormones work together to set off a chain reaction of:

• Increased blood flow around your body
• Increased heart rate 
• Dilations of your air passages to take in more oxygen
• Contracting blood vessels to redirect blood flow to important muscles and organs, such as the heart and lungs
• Reduced ability to feel pain
• Increase in strength and physical performance
• Heightened awareness and focus

You start breathing in and out heavily, your hearts thumping, you can feel your skin contracting, your whole body is tingling. Your fight or flight instinct is screaming to jump out but part of you is drawn to stay with it, and this is the moment. You either give in and your mind wins, or you GO WITHIN.

You GO WITHIN to a place you didn't even know was there, a place where you can draw strength when you're facing a challenge. In this instance, it's the discomfort of the cold, but you've got this weapon in your arsenal when you're facing any other challenge. When you think you've got nothing left to give, tanks empty, there's no hope, you can always GO WITHIN and find the answers. You can do so much more than you know.

In the cold you're forced to face the uncomfortable, there's no short-cuts, no one can do it for you, it's you vs your mind, and when you overcome your mind, there's power in that.

All this happens within a few seconds, and before you know it a grin is spreading across your face, your body has adjusted, the shock has turned into a strangely feel-good sensation (that's the dopamine kicking in which elevates mood and goal-directed behaviour). See link below for more details:

The Science & Use of Cold Exposure for Health & Performance - Huberman Lab

Now you know what all the fuss is about.

For the next few hours you'll be buzzing, your body will be energized and the feel good hormones and chemicals will carry on pumping through your blood for a while for you to capitalise on. If you ice bathe before bed you're in for a reinvigoratingly deep sleep. We've dedicated a whole article to Sleep and it's importance, learn more at our Blog.

Cold Water Therapy Benefits

Below are just some of the science-backed benefits of Cold Water Therapy. We've saved the best until last! Read until the end to find out what we think are the most powerful benefits.

 

1. Improved Circulation: Cold water exposure constricts blood vessels, which can enhance circulation, reduce inflammation, and promote overall cardiovascular health. This is particularly beneficial for older people who need increasing circulation as they age to maintain mobility and adequate blood flow to all organs.

 

2. Enhanced Recovery and Reduced Muscle Soreness: Cold water immersion after intense physical activity helps reduce muscle soreness, inflammation, and promote faster recovery. The worlds elite athletes have known this for decades and use cold water therapy to recover faster and optimise their bodies.

 

3. Improved Skin and Hair Health: Cold water can tighten the pores, reduce oiliness, and improve the overall appearance and health of the skin and hair.

 

4. Strengthened Immune System: Cold water therapy may help boost the immune system by activating white blood cells and improving their function.

 

5. Increased Mental Alertness: Cold water exposure triggers the release of adrenaline, which can lead to increased mental alertness, improved mood, and reduced feelings of stress and fatigue. 

 

6. Increased Energy and Wakefulness: Cold water immersion can provide a natural energy boost and help combat feelings of lethargy.

 

7. Improved sleep: Cold water therapy lowers your bodies core temperature, which is required for optimal sleep. And when the adrenaline and dopamine that has been released subsides, your body goes from high alert and energized to relaxed and calm. 

 

The best things about Cold Water Therapy?

It's an all natural process, your body already knows. All the benefits come from within you.

It's a "gateway" therapy. People that stick to a regular cold water therapy routine, are more likely to improve other areas of their health. Intus Life believes it's to do with people overcoming something uncomfortable and seeing benefits from that. "If I can do this then maybe I CAN run a 5km".

Mental Health

We have an entire article on Mental Health on our blog, check it out after. For now, we just want to touch upon a few potential benefits for the person that is fighting mental health. That person has been us, and it will be you at some point. There's no way to get past it, avoidance actually makes it worse, so we have to learn to overcome it, we have to be stronger. We've picked just one element of mental health to discuss.

An overactive, overthinking mind, that is stuck in negative loops, and thinking about anything and everything outside of you, is debilitating. It's impossible to focus and get things done. How do you break the cycle? The cold is a rapid "break". It interrupts the negativity and forces you to be present. It forces you to focus. On your breath, on your body, on being where you are. Those few moments of reprieve can be a lifeline.

Getting into freezing cold water up to your neck is difficult, it's challenging and there is no way to not directly take responsibility. You have to do the hard thing, no one can do it for you. And what does doing something challenging regularly do?

It builds momentum and resilience. 

Momentum is the proverbial snowball rolling down the hill that represents your "force". The more the snowball rolls the bigger and greater it gets, the more momentum you get the more your force increases, the more you can force your will upon the world and achieve your goals. And resilience, with enough resilience you can face anything the world throws at you. 

Any challenge that you face and overcome becomes a stepping stone for the next challenge. You start with 30 days of ice baths, next it's 30 days of going the gym 4x a week, next it's no chocolate for 30 days and so on. Before you know it within 90 days you're a completely different person. You feel energized, no brain fog, you're working towards goals. You've levelled up.

What was challenging to the old you is now a walk in the park, so, now you want even bigger challenges that will bring even greater rewards.

In our over-comforted lives, we need to seek out discomfort.

Your tolerance for discomfort is directly correlated to your resilience.

 

To conclude, an ice bath is not a fix-everything, it's a tool, it's there for you to use it but you have to put the work in, no one can do it for you.

Intus Life believes an ice bath is an exceptional tool because it meets so many criteria in our Cost/Benefit Framework. You can learn more about our Cost/Benefit Framework in our Blog. 

Take our Intus Life 30 Day Challenge and see what momentum you can build from 30 days of doing something difficult, something challenging, something uncomfortable. You might surprise yourself.

Share your journey with us on Instagram or TikTok and tag us @intus_life for your chance to win a prize.