Ice Cold Dips, Are They Good For You?

What could possibly be good about ice cold dips? To answer that question, we must look at the response your body has to drastic changes in temperature. Ice cold dips improves circulation by sending blood to your extremities to try and keep you warm.

Your body produce white blood cells when you are forced to adapt to the changing temperature, boosting your immune system in the process.

Ice cold dips boosts your libido by increasing estrogen and testosterone production. Ice cold dips also increases your heart rate thereby burning calories. Ice cold dips also gives you a natural high by increasing endorphins.

Now that we know what beneficial effects ice cold dips has on our body, we must go through the safety precautions that must be followed to ensure that you stay safe.

The first action is to acclimatize you must keep swimming as the temperature drops so that your body can get used to the temperature.

Open water is extremely dangerous so make sure you stay in an area where you can enter and exit the water quickly and easily don’t ever go swimming in water on your own.

Ice cold dips can also cause gasping of breath and cold-water shock so never jump or dive into ice icy water unless you are used to it.

The last thing to remember is to make sure you warm up slowly DON’T HAVE A HOT SHOWER. Hot water cools your core and that can be extremely dangerous. Have a hot drink and wrap yourself up in plenty of warm clothes.

Wim Hof has been quite a vocal and exemplary person in the cold-water immersion community. People call him the ice man. He still holds a Guiness world record for running a half marathon on ice and snow. He has also set records for swimming under ice and prolonged full-body contact with ice.

The High On Life YouTube channel recently released a video titled “Why Are Cold Dips Good For You?”  Two people can be seen in the video heading to the beach at the early hours of the morning to dip into the ice cold water. Watch the video below:

If you would like to find more information on the benefits of cold-water swimming please visit: iprs health 

If you would like to find out more about Wim Hof please visit his website here: Wim Hof Method

Also try his Wim Hof breathing exercises we have tried them here at Truth Theory and they have been so helpful and beneficial.

By Ruan Van Zijl / Truth Theory