How to Get Started Using Deliberate Cold Exposure
Today I’m going to touch on deliberate cold exposure and why it hurts so good. Deliberate cold exposure can be beneficial for many different reasons, so I’m going to break it down into simple digestible pieces. You will learn about how to use deliberate cold exposure safely, how cold your exposure should be, the different types of deliberate cold exposure, different benefits, and finally, protocols to follow.
Deliberate cold exposure has been an extremely popular topic in health, wellness, and performance for some time now. With people like Dr. Susanna Søeberg, Wim Hof, and Dr. Andrew Huberman bringing to light the many benefits of subjecting yourself purposefully to the cold. The main reasons for this being the beneficial affects it has on body health and the brain.
cold exposure safety
If not done correctly, deliberate cold exposure can be dangerous and potentially life threatening. So how do we make sure that we are doing it safely? First, be careful where you try or practice deliberate cold exposure. For example, if you are doing it in a cold river, make sure that you are not putting yourself in a dangerous position. Second, make sure you start at a warmer temperature. You do not need to immediately hop into 45°F water your first time. Find a temperature that makes you think “That’s cold! I want to get out! But I know I can stay in safely”. You will know it’s cold enough if you can’t help but gasp out loud when you get in or make some other audible remark. The right temperature can vary greatly for different people. Some people might find 60°F does the trick at first, some people might need to start colder to get the same effect. A very important thing to keep in mind is that the colder the exposure is, the less amount of time you will need exposed to the cold. Studies have shown significant and prolonged dopamine release in 60°F water up to the neck for one hour and significant releases of epinephrine in about 40°F water for just 20 seconds. Cold exposure is just like anything, the more exposure you have to it, the more able you will be to tolerate the cold. Meaning that with due time, you will be able to tolerate colder temperatures.
Different types of cold exposure
As of now, the gold standard for deliberate cold exposure is ice baths or cold-water immersion to the neck. Most studies are conducted using this method because it is much more practical and controllable. If you don’t have access to an ice bath or a cold body of water, cold showers can also work. Showers are just harder to control the temperature of and harder to cover the whole body with water consistently. Cryo is another method but has not been studied as much because it’s hard to cause much variation in its use. Furthermore, they can be expensive and hard to find.
The benefits of cold cold exposure
There are so many positive benefits associated with deliberate cold exposure, it’s hard to not want to give it a try after hearing about them all. Here are the different benefits of deliberate cold exposure:
Increases energy and focus: Deliberate cold exposure causes the release of epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) in the brain and body for some time after. These neurochemicals cause us to feel alert, which can increase focus and energy levels. These can then be applied to other activities after cold exposure.
Building resilience and toughness: By deliberately putting yourself in an uncomfortable or stressful situation, you exert what is known as “top-down control” over deeper brain centers that regulate reflexive states. Top-down control involves a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, which deals with planning and suppressing impulsivity. Working in this type of situation therefore can help us cope better and stay even-keeled in real life stressful situations.
It improves your mood: Using deliberate cold exposure also causes the prolonged release of dopamine. This molecule can improve mood, focus, attention, energy, and goal-directed behavior. Even short exposures to cold can provide long lasting increases in dopamine.
Higher metabolism: Because you drop your body temperature by being in the cold, your body then must burn calories to heat you back up. When it comes down to it, the amount of calories burned is not that substantial, but that is not the only beneficial effect deliberate cold exposure has on metabolism. Cold exposure also has the ability to shift white fat to beige or brown fat. This is important because white fat is generally just used for energy storage. Beige fat on the other hand is “highly metabolically active”. Meaning that beige fat can help people feel more comfortable in the cold and cause further, longer lasting increases in metabolism.
As a recovery tool: Cold exposure can also be an immensely useful tool to have when it comes to recovery. Research has shown that cold water immersion is highly effective after high intensity exercise or endurance training. Short bouts of less than 5 minutes demonstrated improvements in muscle power, perceived recovery, and decreased muscle soreness (due to reduction of circulating creatine kinase). The only issue with this is that if your goal is hypertrophy (building muscle mass), strength, or endurance you need to be careful when you use an ice bath because cold water immersion can blunt the effects of hypertrophy, strength, and endurance training if done too soon after a workout. If you plan to use cold water immersion after a workout and don’t want to blunt the effect, wait at least 4 hours after your workout but ideally you should wait 6-8 or more hours if you must do it after a workout. The best method is to do your deliberate cold exposure before your workout. If your goal is to just recover (for competition, etc.) and you do not care about the adaptations involved with training, then an ice bath right after the workout is great.
Best time to hop in the ice bath
So how do you get started using deliberate cold exposure? The first thing to think about is what time is best to use deliberate cold exposure. The best time is largely related to our circadian rhythm and the body temperatures associated with them. When we look at our circadian rhythm, increases in body temperature are what tend to wake us up in the morning, as our body temperature is lowest during our rhythm right before we wake. As the day moves on, our body temperature continues to rise. As it gets later in the day though, our body temperature drops, causing us to get sleepier.
For this reason, it is suggested that using deliberate cold exposure is best early in the day and not too close to bedtime. This is because, if we use cold exposure early in the day, our body temperature is already low due to our circadian rhythm. If we use deliberate cold exposure here, it will drop our body temperature but then our body will overcompensate to heat us up as our body is already naturally heating up. Helping us wake up, increase energy, mood and focus as it would be occurring naturally.
If we use deliberate cold exposure right before bed, it drops our body temperature as it would be dropping naturally, but then our body starts to heat us up to overcompensate for the cold exposure. This then counteracts what our body should be doing to put us into our optimal state to get ready for sleep. A better idea would be to expose yourself to higher temperatures before bed (shower, sauna, or hot tub) so that you body overcompensates to cool yourself down before bed, therefore putting yourself in the optimal state to het ready for sleep. I would say that cold exposure is better late than never, but if it effects your sleep negatively, don’t do it later in the day.
DEliberate cold exposure protocols
Research shows that the minimal effective dose is 11 minutes TOTAL per week. Ideally, you want to spread this out over 2-4 sessions of 1-5 minutes each week. Like mentioned above, the water should be uncomfortably cold so that when you get in you think “That’s cold! I want to get out! But I know I can stay in safely”. If your main goal is just adrenaline release, you can do very cold and very brief exposures instead (around 40°F for 20 sec).
Huberman’s “Counting Walls” Approach
Dr. Andrew Huberman also talks about his protocol of “counting walls”. Saying that you will most likely encounter your mind pushing back when it comes to getting into the ice bath or cold shower and you will definitely get push back once you are in. Think of this push back as “walls”. He states that these pushes back are the effect of adrenaline pulses in the brain and body, which in this scenario is what causes the adaptive response you are looking for. By maintaining your “top-down control” and fighting the reflexive urge to get out, you will have conquered that wall. Dr. Huberman says that the “counting walls” approach transitions more seamlessly to other situations because most stressful situations aren’t just for certain amounts of time then go away. To use this protocol, set a certain amount of walls to push through (3-5 maybe), then stay in until you have pushed through those without worrying about time.
The SØeberg Principle
Another protocol talked about by Dr. Susanna Søeberg and Dr. Huberman is the Søeberg Principle. This is a protocol used at the end of your deliberate cold exposure. Dr. Søeberg states that to enhance the metabolic effect that cold exposure has, you should force the body to reheat on its own, meaning you should end with cold. In other words, don’t huddle for warmth or cross your arms together during or after and don’t towel dry off afterwards. Let your body reheat and dry off naturally. This is really tough but can enhance the metabolic effect of deliberate cold exposure. Allowing your body to shiver may enhance the metabolic increase from cold due to the release of succinate from the muscles which further activates brown fat thermogenesis (the use of energy through the production of heat).
GEt yourself started
You should now be able to get started benefiting from all the awesome benefits of deliberate cold exposure. Whether you can get started in an ice bath or cold plunge or you are going to use the shower, you should be more than able to do it on your own. Cold plunges are something that I have been doing for a long time now and I think they have made a hugely impactful impression on my health and performance. I highly recommend you go give them a try.
References:
Huberman, A. D. (2022, May 1). The Science & Use of Cold Exposure for Health & Performance. Huberman Lab. https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter/the-science-and-use-of-cold-exposure-for-health-and-performance
