Submerging yourself in icy water is not easy, or at least the cold doesn’t show any sympathy for how you’re feeling that day, but it has a profound effect on our body and mind every time you take the plunge.

Taking an ice bath is the act of getting into a cold body of water (an ice tub or even a lake if you have one handy) and immersing your body for a period of time in order to reap a potential huge variety of cold plunge benefits, which we'll explore in this article.

Cold water immersion is great for a number of thingsand here’s our break down:

Improved muscle recovery and reduced soreness

Some 2022 research shows that cold water immersion can lead to reduced muscle soreness after intense workouts or endurance training, quicker recovery, and benefits to muscle power. It should however be noted that it’s best to wait at least 4 hours after strength training before getting into your ice bath or you might see limited gains. 

Reduced anxiety and better sleep

Taking ice baths activates your vagus nerve, which is essentially in charge of our ‘fight or flight’ response. Cold water exposure tells the vagus nerve to slow down our breathing and heart rate which in turn puts us into a ‘parasympathetic state’– one of reduced anxiety and relaxation. This has great stress reduction implications and in turn can help with sleep quality.

Improved immune system

Sick of getting sick? Cold water immersion might actually be able to help with that. This study in the Netherlands showed a 30% reduction in people calling in sick for work after cold exposure.One study even suggested that cold water could help the body in being more resistant to certain types of cancer.

Better circulation and heart health

When you immerse yourself in cold water your body immediately gets the signal to start warming up. This means your heart starts pumping blood around your body to protect the vital organs but at the same time it constricts the blood flow near your skin. By doing this regularly it's almost like a workout for your circulatory system.

Reduced inflammation

This one might sound straight-forward but getting into the cold causes your blood vessels to constrict and your muscle tissue temperature is reduced. This means that less swelling occurs in damaged areas (it’s actually why we put ice packs on injuries), which can be good for recovery or even things like joint pain. Reduced inflammation is something of a hot topic recently, and can lead to a wide variety of negative outcomes so people are searching for ways to fight it - cold water immersion can be a powerful tool for this.

Skin and hair

Another intriguing thing that happens when you get into cold water is that your skin and hair will benefit. It's actually a fairly straightforward reaction; your skin will get the circulation and oxygenation benefits we mentioned in the section above, but also your pores will be discouraged from opening up due to the cold. This means that puffiness will be reduced and certain oils that are good for keeping your skin moisturised will be accumulated.

As for your hair, the cold water will “flatten the ruffled cuticles and lock in moisture to prevent breakage” and will also generally close up your pores on your scalp allowing for less dirt and grime to get inside. Be warned though, too much cold on your hair will make your hair flat and will remove some of its volume.



Lymphatic system

The benefits to your lymphatic system is one of the reasons why your immune system might be boosted by cold therapy. Your lymphatic system is vital for cleansing the body of unwanted waste and buildup, and is actually a part of your wider immune system.Its job is to keep body fluid levels in balance in order to fight infections, by draining ‘lymph fluid’ back into the blood stream via lymph nodes.The whole system depends on muscle contraction to move this fluid around the body, and in this study they found that cold temperatures significantly improved lymph flow. Cold water makes the lymph vessels contract, and therefore better at moving lymph fluid.

Lung function

What’s the first thing that happens to you when you submerge yourself in an ice bath? You lose your breath and are forced to focus entirely on your breathing.It’s no surprise that this has been shown to be really beneficial for your lung function. When you’re hit by that feeling of breathlessness it means your lungs are forced to work harder and blood flows to your internal organs to heat them up, both of which affect the flow of oxygen and overall well being of your lungs.

Resilience and grit

Grit can be defined as the firmness of mind or spirit. The Finnish have a good word for it: Sisu, which means stoic determination or tenacity of purpose. It’s a trait they are proud to embody. Is it a coincidence it’s so cold in Finland? Maybe.

We all have things we don’t want to do on a daily basis, but building up the mentality to do them anyway because we know they’re good for us can be a challenge and it’s definitely a skill to be learned.When you force yourself to submerge your body in icy cold water on a regular basis you’re flexing this mental muscle and building grit. What’s really important about taking control here is that you can carry this skill over to other situations. It means you’re going to be more equipped to cope better and maintain calm when you’re faced with real world stressors.
 
Ice baths are a fantastic tool for both the mind and the body. You can practice cold water exposure to help with conditions you might be suffering from, for general longevity, or even to steel your mind.

It’s important, however, to know your limits and listen to your body. So while we have explored a wide variety of benefits ice baths can bring, we urge you to take things slow and gradually build up the amount of time you spend and the temperatures you use when exposing yourself to cold.

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