I’m just not able to recover like I used to. Back to back hard runs, hard workouts, and yoga sessions were depleting; seldom invigorating. Thats why I took the cold plunge.
I filled the tank, inserted the chiller, distilled the water down to 44 degrees and stepped in. The water greeted me like a slap in the face. I fought back. I’d done this before; 8 years prior I made it 3 and a half minutes before being mercifully yanked during a Wim Hof workshop.
I stared at the clock now; willing the seconds to pass.
Why the ice bath?
Low grade chronic inflammation kills us slowly. Time Magazine published ‘Inflammation: the secret killer‘ in 2004, and then more recently ‘Inflammation May Be the Culprit Behind Our Deadliest Diseases‘ in 2023. Let me summarize: Inflammation is a biological mechanism that marshals “a defensive attack that lays waste to both invader and any tissue it may have infected. Then just as quickly, the process subsides and healing begins.”
But what if the body is inflamed chronically?
“When that occurs, the body turns on itself — like an ornery child who can’t resist picking a scab — with aftereffects that seem to underlie a wide variety of diseases”. Low grade persistent inflammation is like a slow persistent water leak that eventually breaks the dam. Look it up: inflammation is linked to serious health risks things like heart disease, and cancer.
My own low grade inflammation is a product of poor sleep, stress, hard workouts, long work days and sometimes, poor eating. I love working out (which reduces inflammation btw) but sometimes I felt too lethargic to work hard after a hard days work. So I took the plunge: I figured some of my clients suffered this general lassitude, and bought one for the studio.
The water rose to cover my chest. Immediately I fought the urge to leave. Next I fought the clock. I started yelling curse words (don’t worry- I was alone) to psyche myself up. At last the clock passed 4 minutes. I rose from the water and toweled off. I felt euphoric.
There are some who posit that because our bodies no longer fight starvation, extreme cold, or extreme heat they instead fight themselves via autoimmune disease, depression and inflammation. When we plunge we’re reminding our bodies that we are still primitive animals at war with our surroundings, not ourselves.
It’s an interesting theory.
Worth it?
I’ve cold plunged after every hard workout recently. I emerge refreshed, looking forward to the next workout more than I have in years.
And miraculously, I look forward to the plunge, in fact sometimes my workout is an excuse, a justificariom, for the plunge.
Never thought that would be the case.