I did cold showers and cold plunging for a month to explore the health benefits of the practice + 7 tips to help you warm up to the idea of getting cold
A Midpractical Challenge :: #MidHof :: February 2023
Read on if…
- You’ve heard that taking cold showers or cold plunges can be good for you…but not sure what that “good” is
- You’ve seen people swimming in cold lakes in the dead of winter and wondered…but why?
- You want to know what a “DIY Backyard Not-Hot Cold Plunge Tub” is and how you can get one.
Why a cold plunge Challenge?
Surfing the chill waves of…Lake Erie?
As I was catching up on my (ever-growing, never-lessening) unread emails, I came across an upcoming The Greyt Big Talk event that caught my eye.
My brother surfs in Lake Erie and I have always thought he was out of his mind to willingly get into Lake Erie for an extended period of time in the dead of winter. Turns out, there is a community of these fresh water surfers and one of them, Sam Skelton of the Skelton Brothers, was going to talk about how the cold water had healing powers at the next Greyt Big Talk.
Like most speaker sessions I’ve attended, there were rows of seats for the audience to sit in, fresh coffee served in the back, and a screen for any visual presentations. The difference though, was that there was a giant tub next to the podium.
I ended up sitting next to Sam’s brother, Caleb. About halfway through Sam’s talk, Caleb walks out of the room. He re-enters in nothing but a bathing suit. With about 10 minutes left in the event, without hesitation or announcement, Caleb immerses himself into the trough that is filled with ice cold water. He remains in for the remainder of the talk.
I sat there in the audience, goosebumps covering my arms, wondering how quickly I could get a warm up on my coffee and go home and sit in front of the fireplace. BRRRRR.
Wim Hof: Not a what, but a who…
Fast forward to January when I was tackling my daily embodiment bingo challenge. One of the bingo squares was ‘10 Minute Wim Hof Breathwork”. The technique begins by inhaling and exhaling deeply 30-40 times. On the last breath, you exhale and hold until you feel the urge to breathe again. After you breathe in, you hold for 15 seconds then let go. You then repeat this cycle 3-4 times.
I thought to myself, “It’s just breathing. I do it everyday. How could this be so different?”
To my surprise, I did sense a change in my body after one round. I felt a little lightheaded and tingly, which went away quickly. After, I felt energized. I was ready for my day (the Wim Hof site suggests to do this breathwork practice first thing in the morning or before your first meal of the day).
After doing some research, I found out that the Wim Hof Method (WHM) was developed by the man of the same name. According to his site, he has bent the rules of humanity and done things that do not even seem possible – climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in shorts, ran a half marathon above the Arctic Circle barefoot, and stood in a container while covered in ice cubes for almost 2 hours. And I learned that the breathwork was just one part of a three-pillar method – breathwork, cold therapy, and commitment.
But WHY would I want to hold my breath and be in freezing cold water???
After scouring both the Wim Hof website and social media for more about the process as well as seeing who else was out in the world doing it, I learned that the potential benefits of the Wim Hof Method and cold therapy in general, were vast:
Cold Therapy Benefits
- Speed up metabolism
- Reduce inflammation, swelling, and sore muscles
- Improve quality of sleep
- Improve immune response
- Improve circulation
- Glowing skin and hair
- Mood booster
- Improve mental health
With the long list of potential benefits, I was becoming more and more interested (but still same amount of terrified) of trying this cold therapy out.
The “Mid Hof” cold plunge cold shower Challenge
My interest was piqued. Since I had explored the breathwork a little bit the previous month, I decided to dedicate my next Midpractical Challenge to cold water therapy.
Wim felt a little too extreme for my taste, so instead of Wim Hof, I decided to do my own ‘Mid Hof’ challenge.
I will take cold showers and ice bathe for a month to explore the mental and physical health benefits of the practice
#MidpracticalChallenge
Challenge Scale
Before getting into the challenge checklist, details and outcome, here’s a brief overview of how much money, time, and effort this challenge may take and how functional or fun it is.
There are a few different ways you can achieve this challenge, so your results may be different than mine. But overall, the cost and time commitment were pretty minimal, but it will take a lot of effort (read: will power) to stay in the cold water.
Cold Plunge cold shower Challenge Checklist
There’s a few ways you could go about taking on this challenge. I tried a little bit of everything and share my experience in the next section.
Breathwork Checklist
- A flat surface to lay on
- An quiet area to avoid distractions
- A timer
Cold Water Therapy Checklist
- Cold water under 60°F. Ideally, between 40-50°F for the benefits of cold therapy.
- A thermometer to be able to see how cold the water is ((I used a meat thermometer LOL, but any thermometer should do)
- Somewhere to take a shower or plunge in water ⬇️
- SAVE on money: Access a cold, natural body of water (i.e. Lake Erie in February)
- SPEND a little $, save on time: Your regular shower, but on the coldest temperature. Total cost is your water bill.
- SPEND a little $: Your bathtub and water bill…plus a giant bag of ice (or 2) from a gas station or grocery store.
- SPLURGE on an experience: A spa that offers cold plunging (and most likely, they will offer a sauna service alongside that!).
Mindfulness Checklist
- Will power. So. Much. Will power. This costs you nothing financially, but you will need to splurge your energy and mental capacity to stick through the cold water immersion, especially those first 30 seconds!
Midpractical Tip – Ask Around For A Tub
During the Challenge: A 4-Week Breakdown of Cold Showers and Cold Plunges
I decided to take on this challenge for the month of February. Yes, it was strategic in that it is the shortest month. But also, it is the coldest month in Cleveland. So a bit of a wash there.
Originally, I thought I would just jump in the cold plunge tub every day, NBD. I’d stay in there for many minutes. I could put a request out on Instagram for topics or questions to talk about while I was in the tub. I would be fiiiiiiine.
I thought that until at the end of my hot shower that day, I turned the handle to cold, just to get a taste of the challenge to come. The sound that came out of my mouth was barely human 🙊.
Weeks 1 & 2 – Building my tolerance with cold showers
I quickly adjusted my plans to build up my tolerance for the cold plunge tub by ending my hot showers with a cold shower. The first official day of my challenge, I did the Wim Hof breathwork right after I awoke. A few hours later, I took my normal warm (read: scalding hot) shower.
At the end, I turned the temperature down and felt the rush of cold water hit me. I thought for sure it had dropped to at least 60 degrees (in my mind, this water was just above freezing). I even brought a thermometer in with me to check the temp. To my horror, it was only 67° and I had to turn the dial again.
I was not mentally prepared for the cold hitting my naked body in such a forceful, angry way. I only lasted one minute. According to Healthline, to reap the benefits of cold water immersion in a shower, you should aim for 2-3 minutes.
Over the next 2 weeks, I did the cold shower (almost) daily and recorded my progress. I tried to motivate and distract myself in different ways to see what worked out the best – listening to hype music, singing along to songs, brushing my teeth, silence, deep breathing, dancing. I tried it all.
Over those 2 weeks, I did start to build my tolerance up – I was up to 3 minutes at one point, and standing in 50-something degree water each time.
Weeks 3 & 4 – A professional plunge, cold jacuzzi and a dip in Lake Erie
As I started to build my tolerance up in the shower, I was mentally preparing for my tub plunge experiences. I wanted to try as many different experiences as I could, to see what I liked the best and also, just to see how long I could sustain the cold plunge in different environments.
I took on the following plunges:
- A Fire + Ice experience at Marigold Wellness Collective – a cold plunge followed by a sauna session
- My DIY backyard tub plunge – aka a tub leftover from my brother’s bathroom renovation that was converted into my semi-private outdoor plunge pool.
- A polar plunge in the (Great) Lake Erie – running into and staying in Lake Erie. In Cleveland. In February. 🥶
The Pro Plunge
My first plunge was at the Marigold Wellness Collective aka the spa. This was fantastic and I highly recommend. Yes, the water was still so cold (in the 40s), but the fact that an infrared sauna set to 130°F was waiting for me to bake in after the plunge made the cold water SO worth it.
In fact, it was even more satisfying going from cold to hot, back to cold. I only lasted about a minute in the cold water each time, but it still gave 👏 me 👏 life. I ended up doing a row class afterwards and I felt like an Olympian. *Crushed it*
The DIY Plunge
My next plunge was in my DIY not-hot-tub. My brother dropped it off earlier in the month and I spent some time cleaning it as best I could. Then I turned the hose on and filled this sucker up. Given the temperatures in Cleveland in February, it didn’t take long for this to get to an ideal cold plunge temp.
When the day finally came where I had to actually go in the water, the temperature was a brisk 42°F.
A friend came over for moral support and helped distract me from what felt like ice daggers all over my body. After the first 30 seconds or so, my body got used to the cold feeling (or maybe just stopped feeling altogether) and I was able to last 3 minutes my first time in the makeshift plunge tub.
A few days later, I went in again and made it to 5 ½ minutes! Kudos to both of my friends that lasted longer than me in the water both times. They are the true challenge champions.
The Polar Plunge
The final plunge was at Edgewater Beach in Cleveland, OH. It was a balmy (but sunny) 41°F outside and the water temperature was almost the same temperature as the air temperature at 35°F! On paper, this doesn’t seem so bad but the reality is that 35° in the water is MUCH COLDER. It’s 3 degrees above freezing and boy does it feel like it.
Luckily my polar plunge in the lake was not solo – a handful of friends and my husband joined me. Some made it a minute and a half. I made it 2 minutes. One of my friends made it 4 minutes!!!
The fact that all of us didn’t run in and run out is a win in my book.
Challenge Outcome – Did I achieve cold plunge nirvana?
So, did I conquer this challenge of exploring the health benefits of cold showers and cold plunges?
Mostly, yes. Almost every day of the month, I did some form of cold water therapy.
Did I reap all the health benefits?
This is a tough question to answer. So let me break it down into what I did and did not get out of this, and why I think it transpired this way (remember – I am not a health expert! This is just my own personal opinion).
I felt like the Energizer bunny
After every cold shower and every cold plunge, I felt ALIVE. I felt like my body did a quick dip in caffeine and got that jolt of energy when you’ve had a little bit too much too quickly.
While the immediate physical tingliness of this passes relatively quickly (within a few minutes), my energy levels were higher throughout the day. I had less of a desire to nap, even on the days where I started my day off a little sleepy. As soon as that cold water hit – BAM – a natural dose of 5 hour energy pulsed through me.
Even now that the challenge is officially over, I am continuing to add cold water at the end of my showers so I can continue getting that natural buzz from the cold water.
In the middle of flu and cold season, I never got sick.
One of the potential benefits of cold therapy is a boost in your immune system. All around me, people were getting sick – family members, friends, neighbors, people at my work out studios. Throughout the month of February, despite being around germs and the like, I never got sick.
Can I correlate that directly to the cold showers and cold baths? No. But did it help? I think so. I’m usually the first one to get sick when there’s a bug going around so the fact that I never got anything at all is a downright miracle in my mind.
I rarely did the WHM breathwork – and maybe that could have helped me stay in the cold longer.
I was not disciplined enough to do the Wim Hof breathwork during this challenge and after the first few days, completely abandoned it. By the time I remembered, I had either already taken my shower or I had eaten something (note: WHM breathwork is best done on an empty stomach).
Had I done the breathwork, I do think I would have been able to tolerate a little longer time in the showers and plunges.
My skin was…meh.
One of the things I was most looking forward to was glowy, clear skin. The first week or so doing the cold showers, I started to see a small difference – my skin was a little clearer. However, it was still dry (likely because of the scalding hot shower I was taking prior to the cold shower). And towards the end of the month, I still had breakouts.
So while it didn’t improve my skin, it didn’t make anything worse either.
I heard from some that were doing the challenge along with me, that it was doing wonders on their skin. One person told me that they’ve always had this skin rash that would not go away with any lotions or medication, but just a few days into the cold showers, the rashes started to disappear.
Cold water is just one part of a larger, whole health equation.
Adding onto my skin not really improving, neither did my weight drop or my metabolism boost. I also had sore muscles most of the time (from workouts) and the cold water didn’t seem to do much for those either.
So, do I think that all of the studies and data around cold therapy is not real then? Of course not.
Do I think that cold therapy is one piece of a larger puzzle? Absolutely.
Sleep, diet, stress, exercise and water intake are some of those other pieces and just because I started this new routine, doesn’t mean I can neglect the others. In the last month, my diet was not so great, so I wasn’t surprised when my skin broke out. I did not expect the cold water to act as an elixir to all of my ailments (aka my vices, like always wanting “just a little something” for dessert after every dinner).
It’s all about balance!
I’m not sure I practiced the art of cold water immersion long enough to gain some of the benefits.
In both individual session time and overall time from when I started taking cold showers, I don’t know if I built my tolerance up enough to realize some of the health benefits. I did cold showers and cold plunges for 4 weeks in 40-60°F temperature water, almost daily. Most of my showers, I stayed in about 2-3 minutes. Same for the cold plunges.
Had I stayed in longer for each session, would I have reaped more of the benefits? And/or if I continue taking cold showers daily for a longer period of time, will I start to see my skin clear up or my sleep improve or my metabolism boosted?
There’s a good chance I would – I just need to build up my mindfulness and discipline to stick with the cold therapy. It’s not only a physical feat but a mental exercise in overcoming being uncomfortable and building up tolerance, as well as convincing myself to do it every day.
Ready to Take On Your Own Cold Shower or Cold Plunge Challenge? Here’s 7 Tips To Get You Started
I’m not an expert in Wim Hof or Cold Water Therapy and I’m not a health expert. I am the biggest freeze baby alive so this was a tough challenge for me. I did want to achieve the host of health benefits studies and research has shown that cold therapy can bring you. And I wanted to prove to myself that I could muster up the mental strength and courage to do it!
If this sounds like you and you want to give the cold water challenge a go, here are a few things I did (or wish I did) when starting my cold water journey that might help you as you are starting out.
1. Talk to your doctor.
Again, I’m not a health expert, so any time you are looking to adjust or add a new regimen into your healthcare routine, don’t consult me – consult a doctor. They will be able to tell you if there’s anything you should be concerned or careful about, especially those with pre-existing conditions where the cold water would have a negative effect on you.
2. Follow hashtags on social platforms – #coldplunge #coldtherapy #wimhof (and many others!)
Whether you need inspiration, motivation, or education, if you follow hashtags related the topic, your feed will start to sprinkle in this content. These were a few of the tags I followed over the past month and it was comforting to know that there are many others out there that were taking the plunge!
3. Find a pal to plunge with!
Having a friend around is not only good for moral support, but for safety as well, especially when doing an ice bath or plunge. You never know how your body is going to react so it’s good to have someone there if something does go wrong (or there to film your reaction when your body meets the 40 degree water for the first time 😝)
4. The first 30-60 seconds of each session are the toughest.
Even after doing cold water showers and immersions for a month, the initial shock of the cold water got me every time. My mind would immediately think “No WAY can I stay in here longer than 10 seconds.” And then I would power past it. The longer I stayed in, the easier it became to acclimate to the cold temperature.
5. Mind over matter – find what helps you stay focused.
Do you find calm in total silence? Do you need someone to talk to you to distract you from the cold? Does focusing on your breathing help? Maybe you need a playlist with hype songs? Find whatever keeps you motivated and focused in the cold water and stick with it. It will make those few minutes go by so much quicker.
6. Listen to your body and go at your own pace.
Some of the articles I read suggested that you need to be in the cold water for a few minutes to get the health benefits of cold water therapy, but you should be mindful of what your body can handle. Almost all of the articles I read said not to go past 10 minutes of cold water immersion. This is sprint, not a marathon!
7. Warm yourself up with the horse stance.
After you get out of the water, your internal body temperature will have likely gone down. You can try the horse stance to naturally and gradually warm your muscles and body back up. All you need for this is your legs, no horse required.
Did you try the challenge? How did it go? I’d love to hear your experience. Shoot me an email at hello@midpracticalmodern.com or tag/DM me on Instagram!
bonus!
If you need some cold plunge “pump you up” theme music, check out this Spotify playlist, curated specifically for this challenge!
Up Next…
The next Midpractical Challenge is going to be…muy buena.
Stay tuned 🇪🇸
What is the Midpractical Challenge?
It is a challenge for a set amount of time that puts extra focus and emphasis on a specific task to complete, trying something new or overcoming an obstacle. These challenges show how midpractical decisions around money, time and energy can help us not only live, but thrive, in the middle of a modern world.
See what the latest challenge is and tag @midpracticalmodern with your own challenge progress!