This newsletter comes out every other Thursday and hopefully provides you with thought-provoking content about the mundane, wacky, and weird. I will be writing until the 75th edition 😲 If you know someone who may enjoy the last newsletter and access to previous ones, share it with them here.
My mind was screaming no, but I did it anyways. I shut off the hot water and cranked up the cold knob in my shower. Reflexively, I gasped and shuddered. Then my self-talk kicked in. “Take a deep breath, this is good for you, enjoy it.” A minute later the showers over, but the effects of the cold water stay with me. My body releases a wave of endorphins and I feel both calm and energized. I’ve been doing partial cold-showers for 5+ years now and jump at the opportunity to plunge into any frosty body of water. I’m not a nut who loves the cold weather, I merely love the feeling after I get out of the cold water.
Cold plunges also known as cold water immersion or ice baths, have seen a rise in popularity in recent years as a way to improve physical and mental well-being. The practice involves immersing the body in cold water, usually below 60 degrees Fahrenheit, for a short period of time. Cold plunges have been used for centuries as a means of healing and rejuvenation, and are now being embraced by people around the world as a way to improve health and performance.
There are many benefits to cold plunges, including improved circulation, immune function, and mental clarity. Cold water immersion has been shown to reduce inflammation and improve recovery after physical activity, and may also help to boost the immune system. There are even some studies showing the benefits of taking a short 30-60 second cold plunge before working out.
Getting your body into cold water may be trendy now, but it has been around for thousands of years. Check out this architectural breakdown of an ancient Greek bath house. Can you find the cold plunge?
The Greeks used ice baths to treat, fevers, skin diseases and muscle and joint pain. It’s not just the Greeks, Nordics, Scottish, Chinese and many other cultures have been taking the cold plunge for centuries.
Today, getting cold exposure has gotten fancy and expensive. Many modern cold plunges cost between $2k-10k. They cost more than a bathtub because they allow you to dial in the temperature to a specific degree and keep it there. Plus, they have to get the water colder than the cold nozzle on your shower.
Baths filled with ice will give you the initial benefits of cold exposure, but your body temperature will quickly cause the bath temperature to rise, making the experience shorter and less effective. To get the health benefits you want a cold plunge, not a cool plunge.
What are the health benefits?
Deliberate cold exposure improves mental performance (resilience, grittiness, the ability to move through challenges). Starting my day off by doing something hard, makes everything the day is going to throw at me easier.
Relieve symptoms of depression, particularly helpful for people suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Increases brown fat, which aids with weight loss.
Doing something deliberately and believing that it’s going to be good for us, can lead to a different set of psychological effects as opposed to something happening to us against our will. I’ve heard this too with being hungry. Muslims fasting for Ramadan have a different outlook on eating than someone who can’t afford food and is hungry. Context and mindset matter.
The body responds to cold water by up-regulating feel-good molecules like dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine, as a way to compensate. For example, a “study found that immersion in cold water — 57 degrees, to be exact — raised people’s blood levels of the neurotransmitters noradrenaline (by 530 percent) and dopamine (by 250 percent).”
⛄ Cold showers can help fight off the common cold. Plus, getting a dose of cold with your shower can help your body adjust to the winter weather.
Why are cold plunges popular now?
The term “biohacking” started gaining steam in the early 2010’s as people started to find ways to combine biology and technology to improve physical and mental health. For example, Fitbits, mushroom coffee, and meditation apps are all a form of biohacking. Cold plunges are part of the biohacking wave. This converged with the popularity of Wim Hof (who I wrote about in BBW #2) who is considered “the Iceman”. His teachings of the Wim Hof Method involves a combination of cold exposure, breathing techniques, and commitment.
Hof initiated people’s interest in modern cold plunging, including many researchers. This has led to more research and studies confirming the previously anecdotal evidence of health benefits. In turn, this has given more credence to cold plunges and created a global market. The cold plunge market is expected to grow from $298 million to $427 million by 2030. Here is the global breakdown.
As more people discover the benefits of cold water therapy, it's likely that this ancient practice will continue to gain popularity in the modern world.
How to get started?
If you want to give the cold a go, I recommend first trying to end your showers with 30-60 seconds of cold water. The first few seconds will always suck, but your body will eventually adapt. A study with 3,000 participants instructed a group to take a daily cold shower (following a warm shower) of 30 seconds for one month. The cold shower group self-reported sickness 29% less than those who had a warm shower only.
After you get comfortable with that amount, increase the time. You can still reap many of the cold exposure benefits from a shower, but nothing beats getting in up to your neck. So if you see a cold body of water this winter, I recommend stripping down to your skivvies and taking a dip!
Song I’m enjoying
Cultura Profetica - La Complicad. We had Cultura Profetica on repeat all week for our trip in Baja California.
Book I’m reading
Never Finished by David Goggins. This is the follow-up to his #1 best selling book “Can’t Hurt Me” and surprisingly it is just as good. He uses ultra marathons as a way of dealing with trauma and making his “mind hard”
Pic of the week
It was wonderful being back in Los Cerritos, Mexico this Christmas for a surf trip with Jenny and friends. Los Cerritos is a tiny surf town (only dirt roads), just south of Todos Santos which is a popular tourist town and listed as one of Mexico’s “pueblos magicos”.