A Practical Guide To Cold Training Second Edition 2020

 

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Midwestern Method LLC Copyright 2019 all rights reserved

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WARNING

Cold Training should not be practiced by those who suffer from epilepsy. Those with high blood pressure or heart disease should not practice cold exposure without the approval of a doctor.

Do not practice cold training when pregnant, under the influence of alcohol, or when under the influence of drugs. Remember that you should exit the cold if you ever are in doubt. Safety is important.

Remember that overtraining in the cold can lead l ead to injury or death. Always practice the safety rules described in this book, and never take chances with your safety. If you are ever in doubt, get out of the cold. Remember to always play it on the t he side of safety. See a doctor to be sure you are healthy enough for cold training if you feel unsure. un sure. Your safety is your own responsibility. Take it seriously.

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A Practical Guide to Cold Training Contents Reasons toin Train the...................... Cold and a Rationale for the Style of Training Described this in Book ..... .................................. .................................. .................................. .................................. .....................6 The Rules of Cold Training.................................. ................................................... .................................. ...............................16 ..............16 The other 10%- After-drop, hypothermia, and frostbite f rostbite .................................24 .................................24 Setting Up a Cold Training Routine ................................. .................................................. ..................................27 .................27 Facing Your First Cold Shower ................................. .................................................. .................................. .........................30 ........30 Cold Shower Training .................................. .................................................. .................................. ................................... ......................33 .....33 Cold Baths first; Ice ba baths ths later! ................................ ................................................. .................................. .........................37 ........37 Ice Bathing .................................. ................................................... .................................. .................................. .................................. .........................41 ........41 Cold Weather Exposures............. Exposures.............................. ................................. ................................. ................................... .......................47 .....47 Snow Walking (Barefoot in the Snow) ................................ ................................................. ...............................55 ..............55 Skin to Ice/Snow Exposures ................................................ ................................................................. ...............................58 ..............58 Outdoor Ice Bathing.............. Bathing............................... ................................... ................................... .................................. ............................60 ...........60 Ice Swimming ................................. .................................................. ................................... ................................... .................................. ...................68 ..68 Hands and Feet ...................... ........................................ ................................... .................................. .................................. ............................74 ...........74 Cold Meditations.................................. ................................................... .................................. .................................. ...............................77 ..............77 Cold Exposure and Colds and Flus .................................. ................................................... ..................................81 .................81 Cold Training and Strength & Conditioning Training.................................. ....................................83 ..83 Saving Money on Regular Ice Baths |Converting a Deep Freezer .......... ...............85 .....85 How far can I Take My Cold Training? ................................. .................................................. ............................86 ...........86 Conclusion.................................. ................................................... .................................. .................................. .................................. .........................87 ........87 Bonus Code: .................................. ................................................... .................................. .................................. .................................. ......................88 .....88

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Section 1. Reasons to Train in the Cold and a Rationale for the Style of Training Described in this Book  Cold water immersion and cold training have been revered by countless cultures throughout human history as a way to improve health and vitality. In today’s modern world, cold training and cryotherapy have been studied and validated to have measurable health benefits. From improving one’s immune system to reducing inflammation, cold therapy is a growing in popularity as a natural way to combat some of humanity’s most persistent problems.

 What happens when we step into a cold exposure? ex posure?

Cold exposure is different for a beginner than it is for one who is cold adapted. This is because of the human body’s incredible ability to adapt ada pt to stressors if they are experienced in the right amounts. This is a process known as hormesis.

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Hormesis is something something that humans experience all of the time, but most of us have never really thought about it. For instance, athletes push themselves in training, and over time, they become stronger, faster, more agile and capable of feats of strength and skill. As these changes occur, we also experience other health benefits as a result of the adaptations over time. People see this all the time, but we don’t usually realize that this is all the result of the body adapting to regular doses of stress. But wait, isn’t stress a bad thing? The answer is yes, and no. Chronic or acute stress that is above your ability to recover from is bad for you. When we hear the word “stress,” this is likely what we are thinking of. People who are being overworked, overstrained, overstrained, and under-recovered are examples of how stress works to our detriment.

However, when you see a gymnast land a perfect routine, r outine, arms raised in victory, muscles perfectly toned and healthy; you are seeing the end result r esult of hormesis, the body’s ability to become stronger and more capable as the result of the right dose s of stress over time. Muscles become stronger when they are stressed enough to need repair. Bones become dense when they endure the stress of gravity’s pull -and even stronger when we do things like jumping, running, and skipping! Even our ability to deal with psychological stress increase as a result of getting the right amount of stress over time. Too much of any kind of stress can cause us injury. Too little stress can cause us atrophy. We are looking for the right dose over time to make us stronger.

I will not make this an exhaustive physiologi physiological cal breakdown of cold exposure since that is not the purpose of this e-book. However, I will break down some of the things that do occur in the cold.  When an untrained person steps into a cold co ld exposure exposure… … 

People who are not cold adapted will react to the cold in the following way: 1.  Breathing will be difficult. This is because the Central Nervous System will be overloaded with new information, and the sympathetic nervous system will cause a very strong “fight or flight” response. Untrained people will breathe heavily and sporadically, which in turn re-enforces the panic response. 2.  Cutaneous (of the skin) vasoconstriction occurs, possibly causing pain. Blood is moved from the extremities to the core to preserve core body temperature. 3.  The heart beats slower to accommodate the vasoconstriction. 4.  The body uses vasoconstriction and shivering to attempt to slow body cooling. 5.  During this process, various neurotransmitters and hormones are secreted (Norepinephrinee being the biggest bump, but also epinephrine, cortisol, and too (Norepinephrin many others to name here.) 7

 

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6.  Little to no improvements in immunity/ possible weakening of innate and specific immune response. Those who are not cold adapted receive some benefits from cold exposure as long as their exposure is long enough… and short enough. In this chapter, I will discuss some of the most pronounced benefits of training in the cold. Those who are not cold adapted generally are unable to endure the cold for long enough safely to receive the benefits of the training. They are also unaware that the repetition of exposures over time will produce positive results. So, when a person does one cold exposure without repeating it regularly, that person is no better off than the person who does one good day da y at the gym without repeating it regularly. Yes, there are some initial benefits, but they are acute, and they probably are overshadowed by the unpleasantness of the experience.

 When a Cold Adapted Person Experiences the Cold…  Cold… 

People who are cold adapted experience the cold in the following way: 1.  Breathing remains within the control of the practitioner. Though it may be quickened, it is manageable. This stops the positive feedback loop started by the sympathetic nervous system. This means that the person remains in control of his/her faculties rather than escalate into a heightened state of “fight or flight.”  2.  Cutaneous vasoconstriction occurs quickly and efficiently. While there may still be discomfort, pain is unlikely. Blood is moved from the extremities to the core to preserve core body temperature. 3.  Heart rate reduces to accommodate vasoconstriction. 4.  Adaptations express themselves in various ways: a.  Habituation adaptations in the body’s response to the cold manifest; such as control over breathing, shivering, etc. Many of these adaptations can also be experienced outside of the cold in other situations of stress. The practitioner simply has more control under stress. b.  Metabolic adaptations manifest themselves. Mitochondria are more efficient; thermogenesis thermogenesis creates body heat to maintain homeostasis; Brown Adipose Tissue becomes more active. c.  Insulative adaptations manifest themselves; the skin is able to more efficiently conserve body heat against longer and more extreme cold exposure due to adaptations in cutaneous vascularity.

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5.  The cold adapted practitioner is now able to endure the cold for longer periods without dips in core temperature. This allows the practitioner to fully experience the benefits of cold exposure. 6.  The body responds to the cold with a wide variety of hormones and neurotransmitters neurotransmitte rs that result in various benefits that will be discussed in this chapter. 7.  Only after regular exposures is a strengthened immune system evident. Therefore, just as an athlete a thlete will experience acute and long-term effects from physical training, a cold trainer will experience acute and long-term effects from regular cold exposure. Links to related studies:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26924539   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8925815   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23867626  

So Much Research, So Many Modes of Cold Training-

 A Rational for the Style of Training Train ing in this e-Book e-Boo k When researching the science behind cold exposure, there are many sources to choose from. The problem that I have always ran r an into is how to interpret the data. As will be discussed in this book, there are many different ways to approach cold exposure training. Some studies involve exposures exposures of 90 to 170 minutes with relatively mild cold temperatures. Others use extreme temperatures for short periods of time. Even Ev en others use cold exposure for only select portions of the body or under circumstances that may or may not be relevant to the average person who wants to get health benefits from cold exposure. Please understand that this makes the topic strangely difficult to research. While there are mountains of data, scientific evidence for the kind of training tr aining that the average person can reasonably incorporate into their daily lives is often hard to find. Making Consistent Cold Training Possible

Volume and Intensity

My assumption is that you, like me, do not want to spend hours each day in a cold bath if you could get the same benefits by training shorter amounts of time in colder temperatures. This is why I focus on progression, not only in terms of time, but in terms of intensity. 9

 

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Hormesis occurs when we provide the body the appropriate amount of stress. Not too much; not too little. This can be done in a variety of ways, and I encourage you to use the information in this book to help you develop your own path. Maybe you find that you want to do longer periods of ti me in the cold; that’s fine. You’ll just need to accommodate with the appropriate temperature. This is also inversely true. If you go super cold, you will have to accommodate that with a shorter duration. Some people prefer building athletic strength with high volume and low intensity. Others prefer high intensity with low volume. While you may eventually get to a point where novice trainers think that you are doing both, the truth is that you will always have to be mindful of those two variables. For my lifestyle, I don’t usually have time to do high volume, so I prefer to progress in intensity. This does not mean that I do not also need to work on volume. Before I move up in intensity, I want to be able to endure more volume under a specific intensity to be sure that I am ready r eady to progress. For example, before I attempt a 2 minute ice bath, I would want to be comfortable doing a 5 minute cold shower. While I might be able to endure a 2 minute ice bath (0-2C) after only being able to do a 2 minute cold shower (18-29C), the added endurance ensures a greater degree of success. Eventually, I know that with a higher intensity intensity,, I will receive approximately the same benefits as I would with a longer cold exposure at a warmer temperature. I use this principle to make a daily practice feasible in my busy life. With all of this said, I am including a variety of studies that vouch for many of the benefits of cold exposure. While the studies often involve different training parameters, the difference, in my view, can generally be viewed through the lens of volume and intensity. This is why I take extra care to t o explain the first study as it pertains to t o the body’s consistency in delivering norepinephrine over time. The study used 2 different intensities, 2 different volumes, 2 different modes of delivery; but it found nearly identical results. While there has been a lot of research on the way the human body responds and grows as a result of cold exposure, I have still never seen the kind of research that I specifically would love to see; namely, long-term studies over years with thousands of participants doing the same training regimen involving slow and a nd gradual increases in volume and intensity of the cold stimulus. Of course, if I am going to create this fantasy study, I would be sure to make the training regimen something that the average person could practice at home, like what is detailed in this book. However, to my knowledge, this study does not yet exist. As a result, we are left to parse information from what does exist and use our powers of reason along with our own personal experience to arrive at conclusions. My friends, this has been my 10

 

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obsession for nearly five years now, and I am confident that cold exposure, when practiced regularly, will yield the following (and probably many other) benefits. There are countless studies that have been published on the benefits of cold therapy, and I encourage you to do your own research. However, I will list some of the benefits here that I believe are the most backed by hard science and my own experience. 1.  A Consistent Dose of Norepinephrine (Anti-inflammation, enhanced learning, alertness)

I want to emphasize the word “consistent” here. So many people ask me if they will have to constantly increase their cold exposure times or temperatures to get the same benefits. Since building a tolerance is a very common response to any kind of stimulus stimulus,, it’s a rational concern. The cold, however, seems to deliver a consistent dose of norepinephrine, and this is documented in one of my favorite studies on the topic. This study is also the most commonly referred to in the cold therapy communi community. ty. I’m going to go on and on about it here because I feel that it is such a “cool” study. 

In 2008, a study was published in the The Scandinavian Journal of Clinical & Laboratory Investigation titled “Effects of long-term whole-body cold exposures on plasma concentrations of ACTH, beta-endorphin, cortisol, catecholamines and cytokines in healthy females.” This study was specifically focused on cold exposur e as a way to alleviate pain. Apparently, the research team set out to do this experiment by recruiting volunteers through a local newspaper ad, and it just so happened that nearly all of the respondents were women -hence the title! Out of the 42 people who responded to the ad, 20 women were chosen for cold exposure study; 10 women used cryo (-110 C), and 10 engaged in outdoor winter swimming in a nearby pond (0C-2C). Both groups did 3 exposures a week for 12 weeks, and blood was analyzed for various values such as ACTH, beta-endorphin, IL-1-beta, IL-6 and TNFa. If you know what those are, great. If you don’t, it’s fine too. Just know that they are all chemicals that our bodies make that are involved in the mitigation of pain. The study found that both the cryo group and the winter swimmers had no significant increase in epinephrine or cortisol, but both groups saw consistent spikes in norepinephrine all throughout the 12 week study. The spikes remained consistent throughout the study, so even after three months of regular exposure to these extreme temperatures, the participants did not develop any kind of “tolerance” or a reduction in the dose of norepinephrine delivered to the body. It was a consistent dose every time.

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One big difference between the two groups was the time that they were exposed to the cold. The cryo-group was exposed to 2 minutes of -110 C air while the winter swimme swimmers rs swam for 20 seconds in water that was at or just above freezing (0C – 2C). The researchers found it very remarkable that the values v alues of the cryo group and the winter swimming group were pretty much the same across the board. Over the course of the 12week study, the basal values (normal values throughout the day) of norepinephrine showed no significant changes, so it’s not like these women were changing their everyday/normal levels of this hormone. However, after the exposure, the va values lues peaked at about the same level and decayed at about the same rate. Isn’t that interesting?

Norepinephrine is a chemical that acts as a hormone and as a neurotransmitter. It is primarily responsible for wakefulness and alertness, learning and attention, and

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enhancement of memory formation and retrieval. It is also likely to be responsible for top-down regulation of pain in the body. If norepinephrine can help to control pain, and if the body naturally produces a consistent spike over long periods of regular cold exposure, it is no wonder that so many people around the world tout the pain-reducing benefits of regular cold exposure. I find this study to be especially interesting because after only 20 seconds in just-abovefreezing water, participants received almost exactly the same benefit as the group who used cryotherapy for 2 minutes. The most important aspect of this study is that cold therapy offers repeatable results that do not diminish over time. This is why I chose to go over it so thoroughly. You can find this study here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00365510701516350  

  2. Improved Immune function There are many studies that point to regular cold exposure as an immune system booster. The problem with making this claim is that the immune system is very complex and difficult to fully measure system. However, there are many tests that have been done that point to what so many people have come to believe through their own experience with cold exposure, namely that cold exposure improves immune function. Below, I have listed several studies that point to this conclusion.

Regular winter swimmers had a higher stock of white blood cells when compared to novice winter-swim winter-swimmers. mers. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10735978

Increase in glutathione when subjected to regular cold exposure. Glutathione is the body’s strongest antioxidant. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0891584994900302  

Men who were exposed to the cold in a cold chamber at 4C for 30 minutes were shown to have an increased number of killer T Cells, which is another indicator of a more robust ability to fight off illness and even cancer cells. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2457640  

Regular cold exposure (3 times per week over the course of 6 weeks) was shown to increase lymphocyte numbers. Lymphocytes are a type of white blood cells that are one of the body’s main types of immune cells. 13

 

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8925815  

3.  Increases Adiponectin Levels

Adiponectin levels have been shown to increase by as much as 70% after cold exposures. Adiponectin a protein hormone whichdown is involved in theItregulation blood glucose levels. It isisalso involved in breaking fatty acids. has been of associated with improving insulin sensitivity. This may be one of the reasons why people associate cold therapy with maintaining a healthy weight. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19303978

4.  Improves Metabolism and Weight Loss

While the mechanisms that link cold exposure to weight loss/having a healthy body fat percentage may be more complex than previously thought, the traditional view that is still held by countless cold trainers around the world relies on the fact that the human body will increase its metabolic rate to maintain a normal body temperature. Many also point to increases in brown fat activity. All of these things are true. However, I want to say that in my years training others and in my own experience, it is not as simple as: cold exposure = weight loss. While I have seen people lose weight when cold training, it was in conjunction with reduced caloric intake and exercise. Cold exposure does cause the body to turn up its metabolism. I believe that cold training can enhance weight loss, but it is not a magic weight loss secret. It is also not something that people should fear if they want to cold train but are already quite thin. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30511507  

5.  Improved Mental Resilience

This is the aspect of cold training that I believe is the most overlooked. Sadly, it is not something that can easily be scientifically measured. The cold is a hostile environment. It is uncomfortable. It is lethal if taken in high enough doses! And you are capable of safely facing this challenge daily. da ily. You are looking a primalday! fear in the eye every time you get into the cold. Imagine the power of doing this every 14

 

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When you train with the cold, you practice seeing yourself as someone who is capable of facing a lethal force. You practice seeing yourself as someone who is capable of making difficult choices. If you don’t believe me, get into a cold therapy routine for any period of time; there will be many times, maybe every time, that you don’t really fe el like getting into the cold… but you make the choice to do it anyway. Make no mistake, when you do this on a regular basis, you begin to notice; and you will begin to see yourself as someone with grit, someone with confidence, someone who is capable capa ble of being comfortable in the midst of discomfort. This is a benefit that cannot be measured, but ask any experienced cold trainer, and you likely hear about this benefit. For me, it is the greatest benefit. I voluntarily step into conditions that most people would never even fathom. It is like realizing that you have superpowers, and the cold is the key.

There are many more scientific benefits of cold training. This portion of the book is focused on how to train in the cold, however. So, let’s get started… 

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Section 2. The Rules of Cold Training Though there are ample reasons for training in the cold, why doesn’t everyone do it? It seems like it would be a really common thing. It’s a cheap way to improve your health and your overall well-being, so what is the problem?

Well, I think we all have to acknowledge the fact that the cold is uncomfortable. It is a very powerful force, and when the human body is exposed to the cold, the central nervous system is fed a lot of information that it doesn’t normally receive. This causes us to freak out! We are thrown t hrown into a panic, and we simply cannot do anything but try to get out of the cold and a nd back into the comfort of the warmth again.

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In our minds, the cold is a lethal force, an unbearable thing that we must avoid immediately. And unless you actually have the ability to get out of the cold when you need to, your mind is correct . It doesn’t matter who you are ; you will die if you are exposed to the cold for long enough. It is a deadly force, and it must be respected. However, when we use the cold as a training stimulus, with respect, we are in no real danger. We can simply turn off the cold shower. We can get out of the ice bath. We can walk inside from the cold air and a nd snow outside. Yes, we are no longer at the mercy of the cold when we put ourselves in a controlled environmen environment. t.

 

Rule #1: The Primary Rule of Cold Training: Always Train in a Controlled Environment The primary rule of cold training is that we must always train in a controlled environment. What does this mean? I want to be able to go jump into a frozen over lake! That doesn’t sound like a controlled environment, so does that mean I can never do that? No, of course not. With the right training and preparation, you will be able to  jump into aof frozenfrozen-over over lake without taking ingand a dangerous But you must mus t start from the bottom a mountain to get to thetak top, that is howrisk. it works with cold training. In this book, I have outlined a basic progression that should be doable for anyone, without exception, provided that you do not have any of the health concerns outlined in the beginning of this book. What is a controlled environment? 1.  A controlled environment is one that you can exit at any time without delay or obstacle. This means that you should be able to t o turn off the cold shower, you should be able to get out of the ice bath, you should be able to walk indoors or put on clothes if you are outside. You should never take a chance with the cold. Never. if you done particular of cold  will this exposure exposure many times Even before, you have should notaassume thatkind happen without a problem. The body can react in ways that might surprise you at the worst times, so always be able a ble to exit the cold as soon as you wish. We will discuss this rule as it applies to each kind of cold exposure in the following chapters.

2.  A controlled environment is one that is not a giant leap from your current training regimen.  This means th that at if you are currently takin taking g 2 minute cold showers in 15 C (60 F) water, a 2 minute ice bath in 2 C (35F) is an uncontrolled   environment. It is too big of a jump from what you are used to. Instead, you would want to begin with as close to the same time and temperature as 17

 

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possible; this way there is only one variable; the medium of the exposure (showers vs bath), not multiple variables (time, temp, and medium). This rule is the most important rule of cold training. And it is also the one that I see people ignore the most often. This is because, if you are a person p erson who is adventurous and brave enough to even begin cold training, you are probably a person who enjoys taking risks or at least someone who believes in pushing yourself. How do I know this? Hello, my friend. I am one of you. And let me tell you from my years of experience training in the cold that this is one area of your life where it pays to be slow and “boring;” where being conservative with our safety will not only be the path that leads you to fewer injuries (or death), it will also lead you to a faster progression in the cold. What? Did I just make the claim that t hat slow and cautious training will lead to faster progress? Yes, I did. This is for two reasons: 1.  When you push yourself too far in the cold you might die (which brings your progress to a pretty swift stop), or you might seriously injure yourself (ie. Frostbite, severe after-drop, or hypothermia). Not only will this result in injury or death, your recovery time will take you out of the cold. But the slow and cautious trainer will only have an injury or after-drop in rare occasions, meaning that s/he will be able to constantly work toward progress. 2.  Cold exposure is only 10% physical. It is at least 90% mental. Cold training is unlike most other forms of training in that you are utilizing parts of your nervous system in a very specific way when you train. This makes the mental aspect of the training something that cannot be “muscled through.” The harder you try to “grin and bear it,” the deeper you prove to your psychology that the cold is a negative experience that should be avoided. You will have a deep urge to avoid the cold that you will not be able to intellectually overcome like you can with most things. Quite literally, if you push yourself too hard in the cold, c old, you will create a psychological trauma that will prevent you from progressing. progressing. I know that this sounds odd, but please take my word for it. It is very hard to overcome a learned fear of the cold, even if you know that it wasn’t your intent to create such a phobia. Slow and cautious is the only way if you want to look forward to snowy days when you can play outside only wearing shorts. It starts with how you train your mind to respond to the cold, which means that it starts in the shower, and there is no way to skip to the end.

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Rule #2: Progress Slowly So, again, if you are like me, the first thing that you want to be able to do is brag about how long you can go and about how cold you can go. Of course, I wouldn’t have admitted this early on, but every time someone asked me about my ice bathing practice, I wished I could say longer times and colder temperatures. As humans, we crave bragging rights. It’s normal, so don’t feel bad if you want to brag. This kind of vanity is especially common in the weight room. People want to move more weight than the person next to them, and it usually causes improper form, which generally leads to injury. Come to the cold with humility and remember that vanity in the cold is a recipe for problems, especially when it comes to progression over time. We have all heard the story of the turtle and the hare. The hare is quick out of the gate, but it is the slow and steady turtle who actually wins the race. Be the turtle. Yes, you can  speed through the first steps of training and progress yourself to temperatures and times that will sound quite impressive, but believe me, the person who progresses slowly with discipline will be the person who is swimming circles in the ice twenty years from now while the hares have given up because they just can’t seem to get past their initial sprint. Yes, it is possible to progress quickly in the beginning, but those who are patient and disciplined will go longer and colder in the long run, and when it comes to cold training, we are really mostly interested in it for the long run because we want to continue to receive the benefits for our physical and mental health.

Rule #3: Decide to Enjoy the Cold As previously discussed, it is natural to be repelled by the cold. This is a natural reaction to a temperature outside of the comfort zone, one that challenges our bodies’ homeostatic status. And also as previously stated, cold training challenges the body, but the mind plays the largest role. As it is with anything that involves mental discipline, if one can enjoy the experience, one is more likely to be successful. So, practice smiling in the cold, and laugh at the sheer audacity that you have in order to even try such a feat. Many people believe that you must have a straight face and closed eyes. They picture a monk meditating on a snowbank, and they think that it is the silent posture that allows the monk to be able to handle the cold. This is not the case. Smile big. Look around. Witness the moment. Listen to music that makes you happy. At first, you will likely notice that it is much easier to play and listen to music, laugh and have fun. With time, you will likely challenge yourself to silence, to seated postures like you might see a monk engage in, and ultimately to untimed long exposures where

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you listen to your body whisper and need nothing else but silence. It’s harder  to  to do what the monk is doing. Going back to Rule #2, remember r emember that you don’t need to hold yourself to the monk’s standard of cold exposure for a long time, possibly many years. For now, your goal is to reprogram yourself from being repulsed repulsed by the cold to being pleasured by the cold.

This cannot be rushed, but in time, you will feel an a n icy gust of wind and smile. It will be as pleasurable as a cool breeze on a hot summer day. This will only happen if you are serious about training yourself to enjoy the cold.

Rule #4: Prepare, Endure, and Recover from Every Cold Exposure Every cold exposure consists of three parts. Each part is important, and one will benefit if one takes them all seriously. 1.  Prepare: Before getting into the cold, one should visualize the experience. Prepare yourself mentally forthe thecold coldinbyyour thinking it will feelit in beforehand, by experiencing mindabout beforehow experiencing reality. One should also be sure to take safety precautions that will vary depending on the kind of cold exposure you intend to do (This book will cover how to safely prepare for each kind of cold exposure). 2.  Endure: When you are actually in the cold, you must be fully there. You should not be distracted. Much of the secret to cold exposure lies in one’s ability to focus only on the cold and nothing more. During a cold exposure, one should scan the body and mind, learning how your body and mind work under cold stress. Listening to one’s self is one of the skills that you will develop as a cold trainer. You must know when your body is telling you that you should When get outwe of are the in cold, this something that comes only with experience. theand cold, weispractice listening. 3.  Recover: After a cold exposure, two of the most common mistake mistakess that people make is to rewarm too quickly or to start working on another project way too quickly. In this book, we will cover rewarming in-depth, but it is important to always recognize that after one exits a cold exposure, one will still need to set aside time to recover from the cold. It is during the first few minutes that follow a cold exposure that super-cooled blood will begin to circulate from your extremities to the core of the body. If this t his happens too quickly, one can experience “after-drop” or even hypothermia. It is normal to feel a chill after a cold exposure, but it should subside in a matter of a few minutes. 20

 

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Rule #5: Learn to Listen to the Body’s Whispers  Whispers  In many parts of this book, I will talk about how we are to listen to the “body’s inner voice.” This may sound esoteric or spiritual in nature, but it is a very real thing that we learn to do when we engage with the body. When we discuss the prospects of communicating to the body, we often get bogged down with misconceptions and questions like: “What does the body’s voice sound like?” “How do I know my body is listening?” “How do I know that my body has heard me?”  All of these make erroneous assumption that the body speaks a verbal/written language. It doesn’t. You can say words to your body all day, but the only part of you r being that understands what you are saying is the language processing centers in your brain. So, how do we speak to the body? The concept of “mind/body connection” has been discussed in various forms in the plethora of athletic fields that exist, and I think it is a great example of learning to listen to the “inner voice.” It is the notion that we can become aware of our body’s state and a nd needs based on a regular and repeated r epeated cycle of action and self-observation. For instance, with enough experience, a weight trainer t rainer will know the difference between the pain that comes from an injury versus the pain that comes from soreness. soreness. He will know when he is fully activating his muscle fibers and when he is only getting 80%.

When we use our bodies and pay attention, a ttention, we begin to get to know ourselves in a way that would not be possible if we didn’t. This connection is how we are able to gauge g auge how we feel, “how much we have left in the tank,” and how far we can reasonably push ourselves. It also informs us on how we should approach recovery, what we should feed ourselves, and whether we should push ourselves as far tomorrow as we did today. This process of learning how our body responds to stimuli is the process of learning to communicate with the body. For the purposes of this book, we are learning to listen to our inner voice, the non-verbal/nonnon-verbal/non-word-using word-using voice, that informs us how far we can push ourselves without experiencing injury, how long our recovery time will be, and how ready we will be for another exposure. The body doesn’t use words. It uses a far more subtle method of communicating that you must learn to decipher for yourself. Learning to listen to the body is the most important goal of every cold exposure. It is very difficult to describe well, so you must make an effort to listen to your body from the very first exposure.

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Your body wants to maintain homeostasis above all things. While you may be interested in improving your immune system over time or ridding yourself of inflammation, your body has only one goal; to survive. When we provide our bodies with a proper training stimulus, we are communicating to our bodies; not with words, but with a message that our bodies will understand. This book is a guide to help you to use cold training to communicate effectively with your body. When we get into the cold, we are asking our bodies to become more resilient, stronge stronger, r, healthier, and more fortified. However, if we fail to “listen” (again, not with our ears, but with our awareness), we run the risk of sending the signal stronger (or weaker) than we actually intend. There is a difference between between a pat on the back and a hard slap on the back! Therefore, it is important to constantly try to be aware of how our bodies respond to the cold, making mental notes as we go. If you train progressively as described in this book, you should be able to “hear” your inner voice and learn to home in on its signal before you get into an extremely cold situation. We want to be able to hear the body whisper to us, and the only way to do this is to pay attention to how our body responds to the cold over repeated exposures. Learn to listen to your body, and a nd you will develop a mind/body connection that you never thought possible. It’s not magic. It’s awareness. Here are some tips on how to best begin your practice of listening to your inner voice:

1.  Before every cold exposure, scan your body. How does it feel? How do you feel psychologically?? Can you make a connection between your p psychologically psychological sychological state and the way your feel? 2.  Right before you begin your cold exposure, scan your body and mind. How does this feel? Can you make a connection between your psychological state and the way you feel right now? How is your body preparing for the cold? Notice subtle changes. 3.  As soon as you enter the cold exposure, what happens? Where does it happen? Be observant! Are these feelings fleeting, or do they seem to intensify? Perhaps they feel like something that might subside with time. Be present and listen. 4.  As you endure the cold, how does your body adapt? What messages could your inner voice be sending you? How long does it take to adapt? ada pt? Is it longer this time than last? Shorter? Observe the way you feel psychologically. Can you observe changes as you endure the cold? Be present and listen. 5.  As you exit the cold, how do you feel? What messages could your inner voice be sending you? What is your inner voice trying to say? What are the immediate physical changes that that occur when you sstep tep out of the cold? Be present. Listen. 22

 

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6.  As you recover from the cold, what changes occur? What could your inner voice be trying to say? Is there a span of time when you feel like your body is processing the cold blood from your extremities extremities?? How long does it take before you feel normal again? Did you push yourself too far? Be present. p resent. Listen. Your body is always speaking to you. Ultimately, you will be getting to know yourself in a deeper way than ever before. You and your body will become partners in your shared mission to live a healthier life.

Rule #6: Control Your Breath in the Cold In this book, I will describe various kinds of cold exposure. I will remind you that you should always try to keep your breathing slow and controlled, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. The reason why this is the best way to t o breathe in the cold is because we want to tell our bodies to stay calm. And your body doesn’t speak English… or any language for that matter! You must know how to speak to it, and words are not going to do anything. Therefore, we use our breath. We slow the breathing down to send the message to our autonomic nervous system to downregulate the “fight or flight” response. This allows us to adapt to the cold more easily and make safe controlled choices when in the cold. Yes, you will likely feel a very strong urge to breath quickly and frantically at first. Just know that this is normal. An important part of cold training is learning to stay calm in the face of the cold. So always focus on your breath. Slow it down. Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth.

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Section 3. The other 10%- After-drop, hypothermia, and frostbite While cold training is 90% mental, it should be obvious that the physical side is still very important to take seriously. When we train in the cold, we are training both the body and the mind, so every cold exposure is a very important training session. The cold is an unforgiving force. It can be lethal, so it is important to be careful. There are three major aspects of cold training that one should be aware of from the beginning. They are frostbite, hypothermia, and after-drop. 1.  Frostbite

Frostbite is something that no one thinks will happen, but it is a real danger, especially for those who wish to engage in outdoor cold exposures with exposed extremities. Frostbite is the result of cell damaged caused by the cold. It usually affects the extremities first, but any exposed skin can become frostbitten if temperatures are low enough for long enough. Generally, this is only an issue when training outdoors or skin-to-ice, skin-to-ice, but it is something to always be wary of.

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2.  Low Core Temp: After-drop and Hypothermia   After-drop is a mild form of hypothermia that is not pleasant p leasant and should be avoided, but it can be survived without the need for medical aid. Hypothermia is a life-threatening condition that should never be flirted with. Core blood cooling occurs when core body temperature drops below 95 F (35 C). At this point, it is practically impossible for the body to recover its homeostatic temperature of 98.6 F (37 C). Like frostbite, it is easy to succumb to this because many of the symptoms that precede hypothermia are a sense of numbness as if one is not overcooled. The stages of hypothermia go like this:  Safety Zone: At first you feel the initial cold shock; then you adapt to the cold

and feel somewhat comfortable in the cold. This is the training zone, and you should end your cold exposure before this period ends. Upon getting out, you might feel a slight chill about 3 to 5 minutes after you get out of the cold. This is normal and it will go away. Getting out while still in the safety zone is the ideal ending to a cold exposure. Danger Zone: After the initial adaptation, there will be a safe zone. The length of this time will vary. But eventually you will feel uncomfortably cold again. At this point, you have stayed in the cold for too long. If you get out of the cold quickly, you will probably only suffer “After-drop,” the condition of a cooled core that is uncomfortable,, but something anyone can recover from naturally if one has left uncomfortable

the cold exposure. Symptoms of After-Drop: If you experience After-Drop, you will likely not realize that you have been in the cold too long. You will likely feel “fine” when you exit the cold exposure, but after three or four minutes, you will begin experiencing chills, uncontrollable shivers, possible body aches and weakness, and a sudden loss of energy. It feels bad.  How to Treat After-Drop: The most important thing to do when you experience after-drop is to stay calm and avoid av oid over-doing your re-heating. This is because

after-drop is caused by the release of super-cooled blood from the extremities 25

 

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and skin returning to the core. We want to slow this return down as much as possible. If we get into a hot shower or a sauna, we will open those blood vessels wide open, allowing a rush of cooled blood to the core all at once rather r ather than slowly, and that can cause things to become even worse. The best remedy for after-drop is slow body movement or lying down, put on thermal clothes, have hot tea, and try to relax. Focus on inhaling slowly through t hrough the nose and exhaling slowly through the mouth. Relax, relax, relax. I would say “chill,” but when you are suffering from some tough after-drop, puns aren’t funny. Just relax and focus on slow and controlled breathing. The after-drop will reach its peak and then slowly recede. Normally, after-drop will be over within 30 minutes, but you will likely feel chilly off and on throughout the rest of the day.  Extreme cases of after-drop: In the worst cases, you can use warm water bottles placed in your armpits to speed the rewarming process, but if you are to the point where this is needed, be sure that another person is present to call 911 if you do not recover quickly. If you are even slightly worried that you might be hypothermic, take your temperature. temperature. If it is 95 F (35 C)or lower, have someone take you to the hospital immediately. If it is above 95 F (35 C), retake your temperature every two minutes. It should consistently increase until you reach homeostasis. DEATH Zone: After the person has been in the Danger Zone long enough, s/he will have a strange thing happen. S/he’ll begin to feel warm. Sometimes people believe that they have adapted again, but in most cases, people who have allowed themselves to endure the cold to this level are either incredibly unskilled or they are in an uncontrolled cold exposure that has gone awry. At this point, the person will likely be delirious and will need immediate medical care to avoid a void death. Do not take any chances. Never get to this stage. Never try to treat hypothermia by yourself. Get immediate medical care.  

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Section 4. Setting Up a Cold Training Routine Training in the cold means that you are regularly engaging with the cold. It doesn’t mean that if you miss a day or two you aren’t a cold tr trainer ainer anymore, but it does mean that you try to train daily. Sometimes you just can’t take a cold shower or an ice bath. For instance, maybe you are going on a tropical cruise. There will likely be few opportunities for a cold exposure. No biggie. You can get back into the flow of things when you get home. However, you must remember that you are constantly training, no matter what. When you are training with the cold every day, you are training yourself to endure the cold. But when you are not training in the cold, you are still training yourself, but you’re untraining yourself to endure the cold. If you go long enough in either direction, you will eventually become acclimatized to one thing or the other. 27

 

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It’s just like working out in any other form of fitness. Your strength in any area depends on your training consistency. I always inwardly roll my eyes when people tell me how much they “used to be able to lift” or how they “used to take ten minute ice baths every day,” and somehow they expect to be able to jump right back into it at that same level. We are constantly training or un-training. If you intend to train in the cold, just know that it will require consistency in your program. With the cold it’s pretty simple, try to engage in the cold each day, remembering to observe the Rules of Cold Training as described in the previous chapter.

You will notice that there is a lot of flexibility in the schedules below. This is because one of the most important things you can do as a cold trainer is to t o learn to listen to your inner voice. Let it be the guide. So, what does that mean? Basically, that t hat you should be willing to be flexible with yourself as you train. Don’t make your training fit a mold. Be willing to adapt as your body and mind adapt. The schedules below are examples of how to make this work for you.

 Weekly Training Schedule for Beginners Begi nners and Intermediate Practitioners Practiti oners

Between 3 and 7 Maintenance Days (Just doing what you have already done before) Between 0 and 3 Challenge Days (Adhering to Rule #1, but adding difficulty) Optional 1 or 2 rest days (Yes, you can take a day off!)  Weekly Training Schedule for Advanced Practitioners Pr actitioners

Between 5 and 7 Maintenance Days Between 0 and 2 Challenge Days Optional 1 to 3 rest days (as you become more advanced, you can take more days off) The caveat that I will add with Advanced Practitioners is that if you can clearly listen to your inner voice, you don’t need a training t raining schedule anymore. You’ll know what is best for you. However, I want to put this t his here so novice practitioners will see that that there will eventually be a point where we will need to take fewer challenge days rather than more. This is because, as you get deeper into the practice, you will find a limit. What? Did you think that you progress forever? Sorry, there will be a limit. There will be a limit to how cold you can safely go and a limit for how long you can train in the

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cold. This means that pushing yourself into a challenging exposure will involve more risk. Advanced Practitioners should understand that.

How Should I start cold training? Cold training can begin with almost any kind of cold exposure, but the easiest and safest way to begin is with regular cold showers. Some people choose to begin with outdoor exposure, but the cold shower is usually preferable because it offers a consistent and measurable temperature that will not be affected by the wind or the uneven distribution of cold caused by clothing. It is also generally safer because it offers easier protection from frostbite. However, if you would like to challenge yourself with a chilly outdoor exposure, that is fine. Don’t start with ice bathing or with any skin to ice exposure.

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Section 5. Facing Your First Cold Shower In almost every place on the planet, a cold c old shower’s temperature will vary depending on the season. For instance, in the summer when the days are warm, the coldest cold shower will always be warmer than a cold shower in the wintertime. This is generally because thethis ground temperatures pipes. For reason, it is helpful affect to takethe thetemperatures temperatureof ofthe thewater wateras asitittravels leaves in thethe shower head to gauge the right temperature for you. What is the right temperature for you? Ideally, you should try to go as cold as possible, but that might be unbearable for you in the beginning. For this reason, you should shoot for the coldest that you can stand for 30 seconds. I recommend starting with warm-ish water and slowly turning the knob colder. When you get to the edge of your comfort zone, push yourself to go a little colder. Keep edging yourself colder until you are very uncomfortable but still willing to proceed. Take the temperature then.  With what shall I take the temperature? tempera ture?

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A laser thermometer is the most accurate method of taking the temperature of your shower. Just press the button and point the laser thermometer at the water. It’s that easy. There are lots of great laser thermometers on the market for good prices.

Here are two laser thermometers that work very well: Mini Pen Type LCD Non-contact Ir Infrared Pen Type Pocket Thermometer Meter DT-8220 Black 

Ulife-JOY GM320 Digital IR Infrared Thermometer Non-contact LCD Laser Temperature Gun - -50 ~ 380℃（-58 ~ 716℉), Instant-read Handheld for Hot Water Pipes / Hot Engine Parts / Cooking Surfaces  

Your first 30 second Cold Shower To begin receiving the benefits of cold training, you need to be able to endure it. Where does that begin? For this program, it is 30 seconds. Again, this might mean that youyou enter the shower at warm on your first attempt, then r educe reduce the temperature until find the right temperature for you. This is fine, but don’t start the clock until you have come to that temperature! It is fine to have your favorite music playing. That always helped me! How to enter

Before you enter the shower, make the decision for yourself. You aren’t doing this for me. You’re not doing this for anyone else. You are doing d oing this for yourself. You are choosing to endure something that is uncomfortable, so much so that most people won’t ever even try it. I salute you just for trying it. And even if you don’t make it aall ll the way to 30 seconds on your first try, just know that you are closer to 3300 seconds in a cold shower than you were before you tried. Before you get in, smile. Laugh and have a good sense of humor. Giggle at the audacity of what you are doing. Visualize the experience and decide that you are going to enjoy it. Smile. Then get in with resolve.

 What to do in the shower

Once you are in the cold shower, just know that there will be an initial “cold shock” that you will feel. It’s your body telling t elling you that it is uncomfortable and that it is scared because it is in a foreign environment. This is when you will have to remind yourself 31

 

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that you are in control, that you are safe, that you can exit whenever you want, and that you are in no danger because you are in a controlled cold exposure. While you are in the shower, move slowly to be sure that all of your body gets exposed to the cold. Try to cover all parts of your body equall y. Don’t make sudden movements.  Just slowly rotate and move around to g get et the water all over y your our body. Avoid the head at first, and just know that you never really have to get your head cold. The body is the primary target. After a few seconds, you will acclimate to the cold. This may not be obvious the first few times, but as you continue your practice, you will notice a calm feeling that follows the initial cold shock. This is your body accepting that it must endure the cold and taking actions to endure it. It is your first taste of a response that you will feel many times in the future as you progress. Take mental note of it with each shower. Exiting Your First Cold Shower

When you have finished your first cold shower, don’t exit your shower right away.

Turn off the water, and spend a minute in the shower, dripping wet. Observe your body. Are you cold? Are you warm? How do you feel? It is important to get into the habit of learning to listen to the body. Be B e observant. Everything you feel now is something you will feel later. It’s all blurry and confusing at first, but with time, you will be able to recognize how your body responds and recovers r ecovers to cold exposure. This starts on day one, and it never ends. We are always learning, even as we become masters.

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Section 6. Cold Shower Training Cold showers are the foundations of almost every cold trainer in the world. They are cheap, easy to access, and they are a great way to keep clean. Technique:

The entire cold shower should be cold water only. While you are in the shower, move slowly to be sure that all of your body gets exposed to the cold. Try to cover all parts of your body equally. Don’t make sudden movements. Just slowly rotate and move around to get the water all over your body. Slow your breathing down. Breath in through the nose, and out through the mouth. Try to come to a normal breathing pace as quickly as possible. Just focus on your breath and the feeling of cold water. Nothing else. While the face is fine, avoid focusing the head at first, and just know that you never really have to get your head cold. The body is the primary target.

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Temperature

As soon as you possibly can, only cold shower with the coldest possible setting that your shower will produce. I recommend checking the temperature with a laser thermometer to ensure that you account for the changes in the seasons. The warmer your cold shower, the longer you will want to spend in it to get the most out of it. However, I recommend maxing out at 10 minutes, no matter what temperature you have. If you no longer find this challenging, it is time to ice bathe or to spice up your training with extremities training that we will explore later in this book. Duration

Start with increments of 30 seconds. Your time will likely increase very quickly in your first month. This is great, but don’t expect this to be the norm forever. Think of it as returning to your normal state of health in the beginning. Modern humans have been de-conditioned from being able to withstand extreme temperature swings, so think of your initial gains as returning back to your original state of wellbeing. Avoid the head in the beginning. Really, the body is what we are wanting to focus on. The head is not needed at all for the benefits of cold training to be achieved via a cold shower. However, eventually, you will likely want to experiment with putting your head under the water. This is fine, but do not keep it under the water for very long. Between 1 and 10 seconds is enough to get a nice rush! Avoid excessive times or extreme temperatures with the head. The head is unlike the core and does not have the same amount of insulation. It houses your brain, a very v ery important organ! Don’t take chances with this. It isn’t worth it.   Your goal is to slowly work your way up to a regular 5 to 10 1 0 minute daily cold shower. Post-exposure Warming

After you have stayed in the cold shower for the duration of your cold exposure, turn off the water and remain in the shower for at least a minute. This is especially important early in your training. tra ining. During this post-cold shower time, focus on observing your body and mind. What has changed? How does your body recover from the cold. You are looking for subtle changes that will vary from person to person. The most important thing is to try to listen to your body. You are learning its subtle language. You are learning how a cold recovery should feel. This will inform you later, when you progress to a new temperature or a new duration; you will be able to know from your first few minutes after a cold exposure whether or not you have pushed yourself too far. Listen closely to your body’s whispers. least a minute After have spent listening to your out ofskin. the shower towel you off. As you dry at yourself, try to avoid rubbing thebody, towel get on your Just daband 34

 

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yourself dry. Excessive rubbing can cause friction heat which may cause the blood vessels on your skin to open too quickly, leading to after-drop. Most of the time, it won’t, but get into this habit to avoid problems down the road. Redness of skin is normal. Progression

In your first two to eight weeks, you may progress in time or in temperature more quickly than later in your practice. Here are your goals in your first two weeks: 1.  Your first goal is to shower with the coldest water possible. 2.  Be able to enter a cold shower without beginning the shower shower with warm water. 3.  Increase your time by a minute on your first challenge day once you have become comfortable with 30 seconds in the coldest water possible without a water 4.  Find your “Maintenance Level” -This is a time and temperature that you can endure without having to grind your teeth or “white knuckle it.” This is an exposure that would be similar to a regular day at the gym; not going for records or personal bests.

Training Schedule for Beginners and Intermediate Practitioners

Between 3 and 7 Maintenance Days Between 0 and 3 Challenge Days Optional 1 rest day

Interval Training One technique that you can apply to cold training as a way to spice up your training is interval training: going back and forth between the cold exposure and a warm temperature. When you do this, you effectively open and close the capillaries on your skin. This is a workout for your cardiovascular system, and some people find it to be helpful for speeding up cold adaptation. If you choose to do interval training, always begin and end with cold. For instance, you might train with the following: 2 minutes cold 35

 

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2 minutes warm 2 minutes cold 2 minutes warm 2 minutes cold

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Section 7. Cold Baths first; Ice baths later! Creating the Right Temperature

When it comesistoatransitioning from full-body immersions, safe transition cold bath. This is acold lightshowers ice bath,toand you will need to addone icevery to the water in most cases to ensure that you are getting the water cold enough. However, your temperatures should should range between 10C (50F) and 20C (68F). This means that you will need most likely need to cool the water below the tap water temperature. If you have a bathtub, ba thtub, this will normally work. It isn’t ideal for larger people because parts of the body might poke out of the water or there may not be a lot of skin-to-water contact. Many bathtubs also have an auto-drain function that makes the cold bath water level recede as you bathe. I experienced all of these issues early on, so I just want you to be aware that even with all of these issues, a bathtub is a fine starting place. It is not ideal for the long run, but it is a fine place to start. Cooling the water with Reusable Frozen Bottles 37

 

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For cold baths, you may opt to freeze water bottles in your freezer and reuse them with each bath. This saves money, and it is relatively effective at cooling your bath. It is not going to be anywhere as effective as using ice, but it is cheap and it makes the process easy, especially in the beginning. If you choose to do this cooling method, give your bath around 10 minutes to cool down, stirring the water periodically to ensure that the water cools uniformly. Pro tip- Because ice expands and will likely burst your bottles, there are a few things you can do to improve your experience. I recommend adding about one ounce (approximately 30 milliliters) to the water in each bottle and leave a little space for expansion in the bottle. This will allow the water bottles to give you the cooling power you want without forcing you to replace the plastic bottles. Cooling your Cold Bath with Ice

This is the ideal way to cool water down. It is fast, and it is far more effective than the frozen bottle technique. You can use the ice in your ice maker, or you can buy some ice. The amount of ice will vary depending on the temperature that your tap water starts with, so you will need to experiment. For most people, you will not need more than 18 kg (40 lbs) to get your water to the desired zone. If you use ice, be sure to stir the ice around the tub to ensure that the water uniformly cools cools.. Then get in as soon as you want. Don’t worry if the ice fully melts. You don’t need ice floating at the top. The goal is to bring down the water temperature.

How to Prepare Scan your mind and body. Try to listen to your inner voice as you prepare for the experience. Visualize yourself getting in, slowing down your breathing, and adapting to the cold. Visualize yourself smiling in the cold, triumphant over your fears and the discomfort that the cold might bring. Visualize yourself getting out of the tub, slowly and deliberately, successful.

How to Enter Whether you are entering a cold bath, an ice bath, or a cold body of water outdoors, the way to enter is always the same. You should move with control and purpose. You want to be submerged up to your neck as quickly as possible without slipping or tripping or bumping your head. So, while you should submerge yourself quickly, don’t go so quickly that you make a sudden wrong step and injure yourself. Try to slow down your breathing. Inhale slowly through the nose, and exhale slowly through mouth. deeply This may beuncontrollably difficult at firstfast. because natural don’t inclination to gasp andthe to breathe and If thisthe happens, worry.isJust 38

 

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focus on slowing your breathing down to a controlled pace and focus on relaxing with each new breath. In through the nose, and out through the mouth. Put your hands on your legs or hold them above the water to keep them from hurting. You aren’t losing any benefits of cold training  by doing this. You’re not being weak. Aching in the hands will likely cause your experience to suffer and possibly be cut short. Just hold them next to your body or hold them out of the water. Mastering the entry at this level will help you when you take your first ice bath. There will be an initial shock. This is normal, and it generally lasts for about 30 to 60 seconds. If you are at this level, you should be prepared to endure at least 30 to 90 seconds in the cold water, possibly more. Once the shock wears off, the water will still feel cold, but you will have adapted to it. It will not be the monster that it once was. You will be one step closer to mastering the cold, but more importantly, you will be one step closer to mastering your stress response. response. This is how we tr train ain it! Duration

By the time you are at this level, you should be prepared to spend around 90 seconds in the cold water. Don’t go for more than 3 minutes on your first attempt. If you get out o ut and allow yourself to warm up, you can re-enter re -enter the water for up to 3 minutes if you wish. But just remember that this is the first of many future cold baths. Don’t try to get 2 cold baths in 1. Remember that it takes many exposures over time to build your mastery over the cold. As you continue your practice, feel free to add more time in increments of 30 seconds to 1 minute at a time, but no more. The colder the water, the shorter the duration. Don’t try to push barriers too quickly. Remember to focus on the feeling of your body in the cold. You are listening to the body to prepare for colder and longer exposures -but you have to do this work first so you can listen to the subtle whispers of the body. If you skip these steps and go straight to longer exposures or exposures in intense cold, you will not have learned to listen to the way your body responds to the cold stimulus. We need to be able to listen to our inner voice to be safe in extreme cold exposures later on. It varies from person to person, but you are searching for the moment of “adaptation,” that moment when you are no longer in the shock of the cold. Your breathing will slow down, your muscles will relax. Will you still feel the cold? Of course, you will. But you will not be as shaken or affected by it. You will still feel cold, but you will be calm rather than tense. How to Exit

When your that timeyou is up, andtopurposefully make yourbeway out stiff; of thethis cold bath. Remember doslowly not want slip or fall. You might a little is okay. 39

 

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 Just gently get get out of the cold w water ater and move to a place where you can drip dry for a few minutes. Post-Exposure Warming

After a cold bath or any full-body water submersion, the post-exposure warming procedure is the same. The rule with full-body cold water immersions is that you are “in the cold” for double the time that you were in the water. What that means is that it will take roughly twice the time for your body to warm itself than you were in the cold exposure. There is a lot of cooled blood that has been held in your extremities that will need to recirculate throughout the body. Remember what we said about after-drop and hypothermia. Ideally, we want this rewarming process to be slow and controlled, not a fast rush of cooled blood back into your core. So, you do not want to add any heat to your body. You want to keep the cooled blood out in the extremities so that body temperature will warm the blood some before it recirculates. So, here is the protocol: Do not towel off immediately. Sit or stand, eyes closed, focusing only on your breath (in through the nose, out through the mouth). If you want to make slow limited movements you may, but don’t do anything strenuous (no push-ups, jumping jacks, etc.) Observe the way your body reacts to the change in temperature. Learn the way your body rewarms itself. Where does it feel cold? Where does it feel warm? You have to find this out for yourself. The specifics will vary from person to person. After you have spent double the time out of the cold re-warming than you were in the water, you should feel back to normal. If you don’t, just keep your your mind clear and continue relaxed slow body movements. It is possible that if you don’t feel back to normal after twice the time that you were in the bath, that you pushed yourself a little too much in this exposure. Either dial back the degree of cold or the duration in your next cold bath. Reassess using the same metric next time. Towel off, and feel free to wear thermal t hermal clothes after your post-exposure post-exposure warming is complete. Just be comfortable the rest of the day.

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Section 8. Ice Bathing Many people engage in ice baths as a post-training remedy. Many athletes will tell me that they have spent 20 to 30 minutes in an ice bath. When I first started ice bathing, I couldn’t understand how this was possible. I later discovered that many people h ave different interpretations of what an ice bath is. Athletic ice baths are generally between 10C (50F) and 20C (68F). This is certainly cold, but it is not the extreme cold that one can achieve if you add more ice. 41

 

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In my practice, I generally shoot for 2C (35.5F) to 5C (41F). This is because my goal is to imitate a naturally occurring frozen over body of water. The ice bath, for the purposes of this book, is an artificial frozen over lake. The goal is to replicate nature. Before attempting an ice bath, please train in a cold shower or cold bath. You need time to develop mental and physical endurance before you attempt ice bathing. See the t he training schedule to help you know when to advance.  Warnings Ice baths are normally where people begin to push themselves too hard, so I want to give you some caution. Please don’t wait until you are shivering to get out of the water. There will be an initial shock, followed by an adaptation. a daptation. This is the safety zone for cold training. It is during this time that you must learn to listen to your inner voice to know approximately how long this safety zone will last. We don’t have to exit as soon as this safety zone starts, but we need to exit the cold before the safety zone ends. Get out while you are still feeling good; like you could still go longer if you needed to. Do not wait until you feel bad. You should always have someone present to observe you in the ice bath, just in case you need help. How to prepare an Ice Bath

For someone who is serious about ice bathing, one must graduate from the bathtub to some other kind of tub that can be filled with enough water and ice to fully submerge your entire body without anything but your head poking out. I have a 100 10 0 Gallon horse feeding trough that works very well, but there are lots of options. Here is what I use: https://amzn.to/34SYQNi   https://amzn.to/34SYQNi

How Much Ice Does an Ice Bath Require?

Many people ask me how much ice they need to add to water to have a proper ice bath. The answer will vary depending on the temperature of the tap water and the temperature of the air. However, the following is my usual formula: 65 Kilograms of ice per 380 Liters of water

Or for my fellow citizens of the USA: 145 Pounds of ice per 100 gallons of water

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This will provide a very good ice bath in almost all cases. Obviously, this is a lot of ice! And it is also a lot of water! So, splitting the bill with a friend who also wants to ice bathe is a great option. This is why I recommend only ice bathing once or twice per week. It gets expensive fast! Sadly, this is also why many people push themselves too hard in ice baths in the beginning. It is a lot of setup and money for something that will only last between 90 seconds and a hand full of minutes. Please believe me when I tell you this; do not try to “get your monies worth” by staying in the ice for longer than what is safe. I know that you will feel like it is a waste of money when you dump out the ice water, but it will actually harm you and your progress if you stay in the cold for too long. One solution for the time and expenses is to use a tub that you can leave outdoors in the winter. Just cover the tub after you get out, and let the cold weather keep it cold for you. You can get a week or much more out of just one prep if the weather cooperates. Another option that many people are doing now is converting a deep freeze into a cold plunge. Thisonline. is basically a 24/7 ice bath. There are lots of good resources for creating one of these Temperature

Again, the goal is to shoot to imitate a natural frozen over lake, but that does not mean that you should start there (or end there). If you have been paying pa ying attention to your body and have graduated slowly from cold showers, to cold baths, to ice bathing, you should know your body well enough to begin understanding that there is a special “sweet spot” just for you. Many life -long ice bathers prefer 7C (45F) or 10C 1 0C (50F) to a temperature that is as extreme as nearly frozen. Others add salt to their ice baths to attempt to reduce temperatures lower than what are typical in fresh water. As for myself, many different temps, butEven I prefer between 1C and 2C foror a longer durationI have of 3 totried 5 minutes for a daily ice bath. though I could go colder without having negative effects, I feel my best when I stay in that range. This is what experience and listening to your body will do for you. Duration

Your first ice bath should be no longer than 90 seconds, just long enough to experience the adaptation. After you do 90 seconds once, try it again on another day. If, after both exposures, you feel that you would like to progress, add 30 seconds to your next ice bath. Never progress faster than 30 seconds at a time, and always do the same temp and time twice before deciding to progress on the next exposure. Refer to the training program covered earlier in this book. 43

 

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There will come a time when you cannot go any longer or any colder. Even the current record holder of the longest ice bath has a limit and will die if he stays in the ice too long. As with anything, progress in the beginning will be faster than after you have been training for a year or so. And you might even run into a time when you feel that you cannot do the same duration that you once could a month or so ago. This is okay.  Just listen to your your body, and if you feel that you need need to exit the cold eexposure, xposure, do not hold on to your goal time. Obey the body, not the clock. Before entering the ice bath, visualize the experience, the deliberate entry, the slowing down of your breath, the placing of your hands on your legs, and the smile that will come over your face. Visualize yourself adapting to the cold, victorious over it! Then visualize yourself exiting the ice and going to recovery time. How to Enter an Ice Bath

You should move with control and purpose. You want to be submerged up to your neck as quickly as possible without slipping or tripping or bumping your head. So, while you should submerge yourself quickly, don’t go so quickly that  you make a sudden wrong step and injure yourself. Try to slow down your breathing. Inhale slowly through the nose, and exhale slowly through the mouth. This may be difficult at first because the natural inclination is to gasp and to breathe deeply and uncontrollably fast. If this happens, don’t worry. Just focus on slowing your breathing down to a controlled pace and focus on relaxing with each new breath. In through the nose, and out through the mouth. Again, put your hands on your legs or hold them above the water to keep them from hurting. You aren’t losing any benefits of cold training. You’re not being weak. Aching in the hands will likely cause your experience to suffer and possibly be cut short. Just hold them next to your body or hold them out of the water. How to endure and Ice Bath

When you are in the ice bath, focus on slow inhales through the nose and calming exhales through the mouth. Focus on the feeling of cold all around your body. Don’t try to escape it or muscle it. Just feel it. I know many people might say that you should “think warm thoughts” or visualize yourself becoming becoming warmer and warmer, but the truth is that your mind and body are a re already built for this kind of stressor. You just need to get out of the way. How do we get out of the way? We clear c lear our minds of all thoughts, we focus on keeping our breathing slow and relaxed, and we focus on the feeling of the cold.

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Face the cold. Accept the cold. Don’t strain or try to “muscle” your way through the experience. Just accept the experience. Keep an understanding that you are doing this willingly, that you made the decision to get into the ice, and a nd it is your decision to endure the ice for the amount of time that you feel is appropriate. a ppropriate. Practice observing yourself being resilient, strong, and decisive.

While you are in the ice bath, observe how your body and mind react. In your first ice baths, this will likely be challenging. There is just so much new input coming to your central nervous system! That is fine. Just try to be present and try to observe yourself. Yes, you will feel intense cold. But, how does this affect a ffect your breathing? What areas of your body react the most strongly? What areas seem to not get as a s cold as you thought they would? This will vary for everyone. For me, I struggled with my arms. They would ache in the cold in my first hand-full of ice baths, but this went away in time. Others report feeling an aching or tensing up in the shoulders and neck area. It is normal to have a weak spot. Just focus on relaxing that area, and in time, it will adapt too. Recognize the changes that happen in each single ice bath, but also note changes in yourself over time too. You will see the power of hormesis, the incredible ability that we all have to grow stronger when we are introduced to the right about of stress. Remember the warnings from before about over-cooling. There will be an initial coldshock, but this will be followed by a calming feeling as long as you are focused on slowing your breath and focusing on the cold. Once you calm down, this is generally a safe time where you will stress the body in a healthy way to receive the immediate and long-term benefits of cold training. You should get out while you are still feeling calm and adapted. Don’t wait to feel like you just can’t take any more. Don’t wait until you are shivering in the water or chattering your teeth. If you wait that long, you will likely suffer some after-drop, as discussed previously in this book. This is where experience will guide you. Listen to your body whisper the need to get out while you are still in the safety zone. Don’t wait for your body to be in agony. How to Exit an Ice Bath

When your desired time has been reached or when you feel that you should exit the t he ice bath, slowly brace yourself and exit the water. You Y ou should not make any sudden moves, and you should be prepared to feel a little stiff. People usually do not suffer much stiffness, but it is possible, so just be aware.

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Post-Exposure Warming After you have gotten out of the ice bath, remember that your skin is still holding on to lots of super-cooled blood. Do not towel off right away. Do not get into a hot bath or a hot shower right away. The Importance of the Post-Ice Bath Meditation

The post-ice bath recovery time is generally twice the amount of time that you were in the ice bath, but it might be more. You have to listen to your inner voice. If you took a 90 second ice bath, you should plan to clear your mind of thoughts and focus on your breathing for at least 3 minutes. We want to focus on the body, not other worries of your life during this time. Think of the post-ice bath recovery time as a meditation. It is crucial that you avoid going straight from the ice to doing other activities. This is because we want to focus ourselves on the task of recovery. If we allow our minds to go back into everyday problem-solving mode, we will not be able to take full advantage of our brain-stem’s uncanny ability to thermoreg thermoregulate ulate our bodies. Stay out of your problem-solving brain for at least twice the time that you were in the ice bath for best results and to avoid possible after-drop. Instructions for Post-Ice Bath Rewarming Meditation

Find a safe place where you will not slip, and while still dripping wet, slowly move your arms and legs. This doesn’t have to be a specific movement. Anything will work. Move your arms through their ranges ra nges of motion. Do slow squatting motions with your legs. Just keep the movement slow and purposeful. This is not a time to do strenuous exercise. There is a heightened risk for injury if you do anything strenuous, so just keep your movements to a minimum. You don’t even have to move around. I usually don’t. I usually u sually stand up straight with my eyes closed closed and smile as I observe my body recovering from the cold (learning to hear my inner voice). You don’t have to move around at all. You may sit in a meditative pose or stand straight up. Don’t do anything that requires a high degree of coordination. The most important part of this time is to keep a clear mind, to aavoid void thinking about anything but the present moment. Think about how your skin feels. Focus on keeping your breathing slow and controlled; in through the nose and out through the mouth. Close your eyes if that helps you keep a calm undistracted mind.

Observe yourself reheat. When the meditation time has passed ( at least 2x your ice bathing time), towel off and put on warm clothes if you like. At this point, you can go about the rest of your day. Do what you need to do to feel comfortable. Therm Thermal al 46

 

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clothing is just fine now because you have allowed your body to bring itself back into homeostasis.

Section 9. Cold Weather Exposures

Cold weather exposures are fun and very challenging. They put us back into nature. They are also the most dangerous out of the cold exposures you may try. Why? Because unlike any of the previously discussed cold exposures, we are now talking about being in contact with an uncontrolled environment. Wait- I hope you say- I thought we were never supposed to train in an uncontrolled environment! Yes, it is true. An uncontrolled environ environment ment is generally to be avoided, but there are ways we can bring control to the outdoor environme environment nt too -at least enough that we can confidently look to nature as a reasonable place to train. Outdoor walks and swims are subject to windchill and precipitation. These things can drastically change the temperatures that you experience, so remember that. Moving 47

 

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water will always produce a more challenging cold experience than still water. Moving air is the same way.

Outdoor Cold Air Exposures One of the most thrilling things to do in the wintertime is to walk outside in nothing but your shorts when temperatures are low. The neighbors might think you are crazy, but you will have so much fun that you won’t care. Now that you are ready to get out into nature, there are four big rules for cold walks to follow. Incorporate this wisdom into your practice and get ready for an a n unforgettable cold exposure out in nature! 1. Always Pack a Safety Bag!

This is a rule that many people don’t think about early on. We are excited and confident in our ability to endure the cold, so we just assume that we won’t need any warm clothes. After all, isn’t that the point of a winter walk?   Why would we bring clothes along?  

At first, you might not need a Safety Bag. Perhaps you are simply going to walk outside in your driveway for a little while. Well, in that case, if you feel the need to escape the cold, it will be very easy to walk indoors and warm up. No big deal. This is a great way to test yourself, and it is as controlled of an outdoor exposure as you can get. 48

 

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However, when you begin to get more confident and more adventuresom adv enturesome, e, you will likely want to wander further away from the safety of the indoors than a simple driveway walk. As for me, I generally like going to parks and nature preserves. I love the quietness and the serenity that I feel when I am all alone in nature. In many cases, I wait for the cover of night to take a winter walk simply because I don’t want to have to hassle with onlookers. This means that I may be more than a 5 or 10 minute walk away from the safety of the indoors, and that means that if I don’t plan for an a n unexpected need for warmth, I could find myself in a dangerous situation. Suddenly, Suddenly, the very act that was meant to make me stronger and happier could lead to extreme after-drop, hypothermia, frostbite, or death. That is why we always pack a safety bag. A safety bag is your portable warm place. It is the insurance policy that t hat you want to have so you can focus on the experience, knowing that you are in no real danger. In my safety bag, I always pack warm-up pants, pa nts, a hoodie or sweatshirt, a coat, and possibly even a yoga mat. Why a yoga mat? Well, in some cases, it is nice to have an insulated floor to stand on if you need to change into thermal clothing quickly. I don’t always take a yoga mat, but if I have any plans to take off my shoes or get into water, my yoga mat is coming with me! 2. Cover Your Extremities!

You should always have gloves and a hat on a winter walk, and you should always wear shoes in your winter walks unless you are very well trained and want to do extreme extremities training. training. Wim Hof ran a marathon barefoot above the arctic circle, but he was very well trained! Even with all of his training and mind/body control, he suffered frostbite on both of his feet. Frostbite is a real thing, and it is nothing to play around with. Wear shoes if you are going on any walk of any real distance, especially if you are walking in the snow. It is okay to take off your shoes for a little while, but don’t make “barefoot” your clothing choice on any significant cold walk.  

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Notice in this picture that I am wearing shoes, hat, gloves, and even a scarf? Do you think I am missing out on the benefits or the challenges of the cold? Of course not! I am maximizing the amount of time I can safely spend in the cold because I am not taking risks with my extremities! Again, being prepared for the off chance that you begin to feel miserable or cold in your core is the difference between someone who is serious about training for a healthy life and someone who is asking for problems.

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3. Be Mindful of the Experience. Be present.

Winter walks can be a lot of fun. They can challenge us in ways we have not been challenged before. Things like windchill, precipitation, and barriers in the road can make a winter walk unlike any other cold experience you have ever enjoyed. This is why it can be easy to t o lose concentration and forget to listen to your inner voice. Again, the inner voice doesn’t use words. It is the subtle way that your body communicates with you. It will let you know the difference between the cold that you feel on your skin and the cold that could actually hurt you if it has infiltrated into your core. Especially early on, it is important to try to do cold walks that allow you to focus on your cold experience. This is one more way that we learn to listen to the inner voice. Focus on the way your body feels. Focus on how you respond to changes in the temperature or in the wind. Focus on the cold itself. This is why it is usually not a good idea to have a lot of conversation during your first winter walks. It keeps us from listening to aour innerHaving voice. Don’t get meat wrong. Anyor one who has trained with me knows that I am talker! your friends your side being with others who are interested in cold training is very good! It adds an element of safety, and it provides for great insights in discussions afterward. The thing to remember is that the goal of the exercise that you are performing is to learn to listen to your body and to increase your self-control. Try to focus on the task at hand. Appreciate what is happening in the now, and when the experience is done, take some time to reflect. 4. Don’t wait until you feel miserable to get warm.

People often ask me, how long should I stay in the cold? The answer that I always give them is, “it depends!” Not very satisfying is it?   Please understand that I don’t mean to be cryptic. It’s just that the answer to the question is not going to be the same for everyone. It depends on a lot of things.

The two most important factors to consider are the level of cold training that you have accumulated and the state of mind that you are in. If you have done a lot of cold training and you are very focused, your abilities in the cold will vastly outweigh a novice to cold training or someone who is not focused. Even with that said, how much cold training have done recently? Did you train hard yesterday? Well, you might be recovering from that today. You may need to take it a little easier today in your training. Did you train really hard for weeks and then stop

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altogether for a month? Well, you have probably lost a small amount of your cold resistance. Even with that said, focus is a factor that is impossible to fully measure. You might really be focused one day and climb a mountain in your shorts with no problems whatsoever. It is really impossible to tell another person an exact time. The only one who can answer that question is your inner voice, the little whisper that will let you know that you are about to reach your limit for the day. In the beginning, it is hard for us to hear that voice, so that is why you never start at this level. At this point you should have learned to hear your inner voice by cold c old showering, cold bathing, and ice bathing.

 When you hear the inner voice telling tell ing you to go inside or to put p ut on clothes, you better do it. 

Trust it more than the clock or the thermomete thermometer. r. Sometimes it will surprise you. Sometimes, I will have a goal to walk an hour in the snow, and twenty minutes in, the inner voice tells me that it is time for me to get warm. And it doesn’t joke. The inner voice has no sense of humor at all. It’s all business. No one likes to listen to the inner voice when other people are around or when we are trying to impress other people. This is why the ego is your enemy when it comes to cold training. Yes, it is okay to be proud of your accomplishments, but don’t get c ocky! When your inner voice says “get warm,” you had b etter listen! Preparing for your First Cold Walk

Before you begin your cold exposure, have a plan. Plan your route. Never just set out without knowing where youyou willknow go andyour howway youvery will very be able to return. rAvoid eturn.walking Avoid doing a cold walk in the dark unless well. in poor visibility; you don’t want your joyful experience to turn into tragedy.   It’s best if you have a good idea of how long it will take t ake you to complete your r oute too. The fewer things you leave to chance, the more controlled you have made your cold exposure. This is what we want to do. We want to make our experience as controlled as possible so we can continue in the days and years to come. Temperature

The ideal time to begin outdoor training is when the seasons are changing and getting colder. You don’t have to start on a snowy day. Start when there is a slight chill in the air, and get accustomed to the way cool air feels to your body. It might sound strange, but I have met lots of people who ice bathe regularly but have trouble with air at 10C 52

 

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(50F). Be patient with yourself. When it comes to outdoor training be gradual and regular as you adapt to the cold weather. Be mindful of the temperature, but be aware that in nature, temperatures vary. When you look at your weather app, you are looking at an approximate temperature. It’s a good indicator, but it is not going to tell you exactly what your air temperature will be, and it will not completely tell you what your wind chill will be like. However, it is as good as we have for these things in most cases, so always be mindful of the temperature. Understand that air temperature will not feel as cold as water temperature. Air at 0 C (32F) will be much easier to endure than water at the same temperature, and that is why we can stay in the cold air for longer. Duration

Remember the rules I laid out above. The most important thing to remember with regards to duration is that you must get out of the cold while you are still in the safety zone, when your inner voice whispers to you. So, don’t force any times, and be prepared to be able to stay out one day for a long time while you have to retreat much earlier the next. Listen to your inner voice, not your ego. With that said, a typical outdoor exposure will last between 10 to 30 minutes. Apply the progression table to this and you will find that you will eventually be able to t o spend hours outside. This is very possible, but you need to remember that everyone is different, and this is not a race. Don’t expect to magically be able to endure Olympian cold exposures over the course of one week. It took me years to develop my cold resistance, and I still have to train regularly to avoid losing it. How to Begin your Cold Air Exposure

Before you leave your warm space, be fully prepared mentally. Remember that you are doing a kind meditation, so before removing your warm outside, beginoftomoving focus on your breathing. Slow inhales through the clothes/walking nose, and slow exhales through the mouth is what you are looking for. Controlled inhales, and slow relaxed exhales. Focus only on your task, and leave your worldly cares behind you. It is time to focus only on the cold and on your breath. How to endure a cold air exposure

By the time you graduate to this level, you should have a good handle on how to endure the cold. Apply what you have learned from your own personal experience. Be in the present. Stay in the safety zone.

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Again, the two most important things to do in the cold are to focus on your breathing and to focus on the cold itself. Be aware of yourself, and be in the moment. Don’t allow your thoughts to wander. Just be present in the moment. Ending an Outdoor Cold Exposure and Post-Exposure Warming

Once your inner voice tells you to get out of the cold, or once you have completed your planned exposure, put on your warm clothes and go to a heated place. When you are out of the cold, find a comfortable place to sit or stand and close your eyes and observe your body. You may make slow movements to move the blood around your body, but refrain from intense activity. Spend at least 5 to 10 minutes in this state. You may leave on your warm clothes or take them off when you are in the heated place. Do whatever feels comfortable. You will not undo any of the good you have done in the cold. The primary concern that you should have upon returning to the warm environment is to avoid after-drop by keeping a clear mind and a relaxed body.

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Section 10. Snow Walking (Barefoot in the Snow) There will come a time when you may want to try walking barefoot in the snow. It is an exhilarating feeling, but it should only be done with extreme caution. Again, frostbite is a very real thing. It can happen to anyone, so don’t push your limits here. If you follow these directions, you will slowly and safely become able to walk barefoot in the snow. Training in the Shower First

Before setting bare feet on snow or ice, you should add ice training to your cold shower regimen. This can be done by filling a bucket with ice water into the cold shower with you to replicate the outdoor experience. By this time, you should be able to take ta ke a 10 minute cold shower in the t he coldest water that you can get in your climate. This replicates the effect of the cold on your body. The Shower-Bucket Exercise goes like this:

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Get a timer or use two 5-minute songs to help you keep time. You will need a bucket of ice. Put only enough water in the bucket to allow yourself to slip your foot fully into the ice. While in the cold shower, put one foot in the ice bucket. Leave it in the ice bucket for the first 5 minutes. Then switch feet carefully. Be prepared for your cold foot to be numb and awkward. At the end of the second 5 minutes, take the other foot out. Do this every day that you don’t take an ice bath in preparation for walking barefoot in the snow.

How to Practice Snow Walking

When it comes to snow-walking, the training is simple. Walk in the snow until it starts to hurt. This will likely be only a few steps, maybe a dozen steps. Once it starts to hurt, get out of the snow and towel off your feet. Wait at least 12 to 24 hours before doing it again. You might be saying, wait, that’s all? I wanted to hike up a mountain in bare feet! And now you are telling me to go in as soon as they start to hurt? Like just a few feet? Yes. That is exactly what I am saying. Trust me. You don’t want frostbite. And tr trust ust me; your feet will adapt and get stronger. This is how they do that.

Some people will tell you that you can stay out much longer in the snow despite the pain. They say that your feet will adapt and become warm. This is true only after extensive training, but for most people (and just assume you are like most people), the pain in the feet is followed by numbness and a massive cut-off of circulation to the feet. This is usually followed by frostbite, and you might lose a toe or have burning of the feet so bad that you y ou will not be able to walk for weeks. Don’t listen to your ego. Listen to your feet. If they hurt, your exposure is done. How to Make Feet Ready for Snow Walking

Walk barefoot outside every day, even when it is warm outside. This might be easier for some people and harder for others. For one, it may be the case that you live in an urban environment and cannot easily do this. But the truth is that, if you want to walk on the snow, you have to teach your feet that they don’t need the protection of shoes. Our modern feet have become incredibly tender because we never allow them to touch anything but carpet and tile. Introduce I ntroduce your feet to what it feels like to walk on the ground before there is snow on it. Snow is incredibly harsh; your feet need to be prepared for it in more ways than simply being prepared for the temperature.

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Ideally, you will be able to walk at least 100 meters barefoot on a grassy surface each day. I say at least because the more you can walk or run on grassy surfaces he better. One hundred meters is the bare minimum. If you need to walk in circles, that is fine.  Just try to give your your feet daily exposu exposure. re. This will improve improve the toughne toughness ss of your fee feet, t, hopefully help to form some thickening of your skin, and improve your circulation. As the seasons change, keep up your routine. Ideally, you will begin in a warm time of year and work your way colder gradually each day as the seasons change, but if this is not the case, don’t worry. Just remember to cut your y our walk short when your feet begin to hurt from the cold.

Multiple Barefoot Exposures Within One Day

Yes, you can also do multiple barefoot exposures in a day. I would advise you to space it out over the day rather than to do multiple exposures within the span of an hour. This means you might do a barefoot walk in the morning and one in the evening. Try to put around twelve hours between these exposures to allow your feet to recover. Remember that it is the recovery that makes your feet stronger. The cold exposure is just the stimulus. Too much of a stimulus is a very bad thing in this case.

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Section 11. Not only is it fun to walkSkin in the to coldIce/Snow air, you will Exposures likely want to play in the snow with your new found cold resilience. Have fun with it. Just be mindful of your inner voice, and follow the rules already stated in this book. First steps- rolling in the snow, snow angels, etc.

I recommend trying to make a snow angel or just rolling around in the snow to get your first snow-to-skin experience. experience. This is a fast exposure, and it will allow you to feel what it is like to have snow directly touching you yourr entire body. You will also notice what it feels like to have snow stuck to your skin when you get up. Just brush it off gently when you get up, and scan your body. Listen to your inner voice. Acknowledge that you have increased the outdoor cold experience, and be attentive to your mind and 58

 

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body so that you can learn how adding this kind of exposure affects the overall experience of the outdoor cold exposure. Flip flop challenge- Lying in the snow

Another way to challenge yourself in the snow is simply to lie in it. Simply lie down with your skin exposed and experience the enough, challengeyou thatcan snow your When you feel that you have challenged one side flip offers over and getbody. the other side too! I advise you to do this kind of training near a place where you y ou can escape from the cold. It is easy to overdo this kind of exposure, so be mindful of how your body is handling the cold. Don’t be afraid to go back inside earlier than you planned. If you choose to do this when you are walking away from a warm environment, be sure that you have your safety bag close by. Doing skin-to-snow exposures is generally a way to find out where our limits are, so it isn’t a good idea to do this far from a warm building. I always do this just outside of my home. In the winter, there are dozens of outlines of my body all around the front yard. Post-Exposure Warming If you are attempting skin-to-ice exposure, you should should be very familiar with how to recover from a cold exposure. This is not for novice trainers. t rainers. When you get into a warm place, spend some time meditating or moving slowly to move your blood around, but be sure that you dry your feet and fingers quickly beforehand. beforehand. Move your toes and fingers slowly to ensure that their circulation opens back up and that there are no problems. Check your ears too. Just be sure to warm them up.

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Section 12. Outdoor Ice Bathing I RECOMMEND YOU NEVER DO THIS ALONE

If you do choose to try ice bathing in an outdoor setting, please use extreme caution and never go alone. Remember all of the rules covered in the ice bathing section of this book, and also use all of the advice I lay out in this portion that covers outdoor air exposures. I highly recommend that you avoid doing outdoor ice bathing unless you are with an experienced teacher. Issues such as water depth and physical aspects such as rocks and currents make outdoor ice bathing something that should only be done with experienced outdoor ice bathers. This kind of cold exposure is especially challenging because you will need to endure cold water, but then you will endure cold air upon leaving the water, which adds another dimension to the challenge.

Before You Do Your First Outdoor Ice Dip…  Dip…  60

 

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Before you even take the trip to the lake, pond, or seaside where you intend to take your first dip, please remember to prepare.

Plan Your Every Step Going back to the rules of all cold training, we want to be sure to apply the rule of always training in a controlled environment. The problem with outdoor cold-water exposures is that there are many variables that you simply have no control over. The goal of a cold trainer is to eliminate as many variables that can be controlled before ever getting into the water. I will cover the most common things that people should plan around, but always try to visualize vi sualize every step of your cold exposure before it happens. Things can still go wrong, but at least you will minimize the number of things that could cause you to have a less than ideal experience. Here are variables that you should be aware of: Clothes to and from the dip

On the topic of clothes, it is important to wear clothing to and from the cold dip unless you have a heated indoor location within just a few meters. If you live right next to a cold body of water, you can just walk out your door, get in the water, warm up, and then go inside when you are finished. However, I’m going to assume a ssume that you are like most cold trainers and do not live right next to a cold body of water. In this case, you will need to have a clothing plan.

1. Choosing Your Outer Garments When choosing your thermal clothing, the most important thing to t o consider is the ease with which you will be able to take them off and put them on again. Avoid tight fitting clothing, things with lots of buttons, belts, etc. Choose baggy sweatpants, hoodies, and easy-to-put-on shoes. The reason why you should pre-plan your thermal clothing so methodically is because when you do outdoor ice bathing you are not simply doing a cold-water exposure; you will also be doing a cold air exposure. This means that when you get out of the water, your hands and feet will be completely useless or very near useless. Hats- “But I’m a cold trainer! I don’t need a hat!”

I hear this all the time. Do I really need to wear a hat? My answer is, yes. Invest in a thermal hat that you like, something you would like to be wearing when people take your picture. Or maybe something really ugly! It doesn’t matter ! What does matter is that you insulate your head when you do outdoor cold-water exposures. This does not 61

 

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mean that you have to wear your hat in the water. It does mean that you will wear your hat after you get out. Your hat will be the first thing you put on after getting out of the water. We will discuss the details of this later in this chapter. We have all heard that our heads leak the most of our body heat. This is true. After an outdoor cold dip, you might be surprised at how much something as small as a thermal hat will do for you! This is especially important if you dipped your head in the water. Remember that your hat will also protect your ears from the cold air that you are probably not even thinking about because you are so focused on recovering from the water exposure. I can’t say it enough, a thermal hat is important, and it improves your cold training. It does do es not hinder it. Shirts- “Cotton kills!”

When it comes to cold training, try to avoid cotton or wool clothes. When wet, they lose all of their thermal value, and they can even cause a person to lose heat faster than if one wasn’t clothed. So, when you plan your clothing out, this is when it is a good idea to wear polyester and artificial fabrics. I wish this was not the case. I would prefer recommending a natural fiber, but as it happens, natural fibers tend to hold more moister and can cause heat leaching. So, if you have a shirt made of polyester, this is a good time to wear it. A long sleeve shirt is best, but a short sleeve shirt will work. You’ll be taking t aking a coat anyway. Coats- The portable indoors.

Always bring a heavy coat. It might not be a very cold day outside, but you will need the thermal support when you are done with your dip. Your goal with your coat is to provide yourself with a relaxed environment for your walk/drive/bus ride home. Pants- Stretchy and easy to put on.

Sweatpants are your friend here. They are easy to take off and put on, and they don’t require much dexterity. Gym warm-up pants are also a great idea. Shoes- Your best friend or your worst enemy.

I will never forget the first time I went ice bathing with Wim Hof. I remember having so much trouble putting my shoes on… because I couldn’t tie my laces! The dexterity in my fingers had been completely washed away by the combination of cold-water exposure and the subsequent cold air exposure. Ideally, you should use thermal slip-on shoes, but the thermal aspect is simply a nice bonus. The important part is the slip-on aspect of your footwear. Many people get 62

 

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hung-up on the thermal part because they think that if they put p ut warm shoes or boots on their feet, their shoes or boots will warm their feet up again. a gain. This is not reality. In reality, your feet will likely be ice cubes until you get into a warm dry indoor location and take off your shoes. Remember that shoes and boots are not great for foot circulation, so don’t expect them to war m your feet. Instead, choose a shoe that you can slip on. I know that Crocs have gone out of fashion (I’m not sure they were ever really IN -fashion), -fashion), but they are great for the time right after you get out of the cold water and have no finger dexterity. Flip-flops aren’t bad, but they require your feet to work enough so that your toes will keep them from falling off your feet. I found a pair of cheap slip on sneakers, and I use them all the time. Socks? Are they worth the effort?

After training hosts of cold enthusiasts and after training alongside countless more, I can say that there are ar e very few things more pitiful than watching a person try to put on socks after getting out of an outdoor cold exposure. This is for two reasons, your hands and your feet! Literally the two things that you will have very little control of as you try to redress yourself after an outdoor cold exposure are the two things that you are trying to work with! It would make a funny video montage if it wasn’t so sad! If the Rocky montages inspired people, a montage of people trying to put their socks on with freezing hands and feet would bring them to tears (and laughter!). While dry socks do feet great once you get them on, they are going to be a challenge. Don’t let it get you down! A s you try your best not to lose your mind putting your socks on, just know that countless other cold trainers have had the same struggle. You are not alone! This brings many to ask whether or not it is even worth putting socks on at all. For most people it doesn’t matter at all. It is simply a matter of comfort. I will tell you, however, that socks to offer some thermal value. When I do outdoor cold exposures, I usually put my socks on before slipping on my shoes. But there are also a lso many times when I don’t. It is important to understand that this is a comfort issue more than anything. The real question that you need to answer is whether you want to spend the time messing with them. Bag or Backpack

If you need to bring anything with you, bring a bag. Don’t r ely on your pockets.

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2. Plan for Changing Clothes After Your Dip Know the clothing culture in which you live. 

How does your culture handle public nudity? In the USA, we are bashful when compared to many European countries. I learned this first-hand when I trained tr ained groups with Wim Hof in Poland! People look at changing clothes in public in different ways depending on the culture where they live. This is neither a good nor a bad thing; it is simply something to be aware of when you prepare for a cold-water swim. This is because, after your swim (and after you have allowed yourself to recover), you will likely want to change into dry clothing. You need to feel comfortable when doing this. You should be able to stay focused on your breath and your movements, not whether or not someone is looking at you or if you will get ticketed or arrested for breaking a local law. While changing into dry clothes after a cold outdoor dip is not a requirement, believe me, the walk/drive/bus ride home after your swim will be much more comfortable if you arethes, in dry underwear andclothes clothes.allIfwet, you wear your wet bathing suit under dry clo you will get your and you won’t be able to fully takeyour advantage of the thermal qualities of your dry clothes. Remaining in wet clothes after your swim isn’t the “end of the world,” but it can make it harder to thermoregulate, and it can be a mental distraction that just simply is not good. I highly recommend recommend making a plan to change after getting out. Some easy options: Choose a Private Location

Obviously, if you have private access to an outdoor body of water, you can change your clothes as you please without worries. The problem with a private area is that if one does have a problem (injury, powerful after-drop, hypothermia, sever change in weather, etc.) you may be in a situation where you need help. So, don’t forget to bring a friend to spot you. Be sure it is a friend who will be kind enough to turn the other way if you are uncomfortable being seen naked. We will go into further detail about spotters later in this chapter. A Poncho

A poncho is a portable p ortable changing room that can also offer you some thermal protection while you are changing. While any poncho will work as long as it is large enough to cover your full body, there are some brands that public p ublic swimmers use most often. The nice thing about swimmers’ ponchos is that they are made of material that will dry easier and will not lose their thermal value when wet. 64

 

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Here are some popular options: Sun Cube Surf Poncho Changing Robe with Hood: Hood:  https://amzn.to/2TTg2id  https://amzn.to/2TTg2id  Ho Stevie! Thick Microfiber Surf Poncho:  Poncho: https://amzn.to/2Qhi61h https://amzn.to/2Qhi61h   The Buddy Tent

This is a very simple, yet effective technique where one person holds a towel for the other to create a private space for a friend. I see this mostly with partners who practice together. One holds the towel for the other, and then the other returns the favor. If you do this, remember that you will still need to keep your focus. What this means is that you will need to try to stay undistracted enough to help your partner so that you can remain calm and focused on your breath. We all have different kinds of relationships. For this to work, you will need to know yourself and your partner part ner in a way that will allow you to do this undistracted. And for young couples who are on their first date -I don’t recommend it. But that is just me. After getting g etting out of freezing water, is not always the most flattering time to see your new boyfriend! Changing in a Car, Truck, or Van

Walking to a car or a truck to use as a changing room is an option, but it probably isn’t the good idea that you might think it is when you set out. First of all, if you have to walk a significant distance to your parking place, you will need to factor that time in the cold air into your cold exposure. This is not a big deal if you park nearby, but if you have to walk ten to fifteen minutes, it is too long to be without the option to allow for the thermal effect that clothing will provide. The second reason why using your car or truck as a changing room is not a great idea is that they are awkward places to change clothes. This is true no matter what the situation. But what you will notice after getting out of a frozen over lake or pond is that your hands do not work like they normally do. Your will not have the dexterity that you normally have. And that will make changing in the car even more difficult. This makes it very difficult to stay focused, and it is just a bad time overall. If you have a van, v an, you have a great mobile changing room. Just be sure to have a nice clear spot to change when you get there. Remember that if you are with a group, you will likely have a situation where each of you will have to take turns. Let the most trained person be last and the least trained person go first. Remember that you will want to change clothes after your dip. Plan this out so your experience is controlled rather than a frenzy. Planning this step out can mean the th e difference between a beautiful experience that adds to your health and happiness or a disastrous ending to a great cold dip. 65

 

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3. Consider Windchill If you do an outdoor ice plunge, try to do it on a day when there is no wind. Windchill is awful. It is unpredictable, and it is the worst when you are fully wet from taking a cold plunge. Check the local weather. Most weather stations will provide both the t he temperature and the temperature with windchill factored in. Sometimes they say, “it feels like…degrees.” Use that temperature as your gauge. Sometimes the temperature will be above freezing, but the windchill will create an effect that is well below freezing. Remember, you will be experiencing windchill more than the average person because you will be covered in cold water after you get out. Windchill alone is not a reason to cancel your plans to go have a cold dip. It is, however, one of the factors that most people fail to acknowledge. Failing to acknowledge acknowledge windchill can lead a person to experiencing after-drop, hypothermia, hypothermia, or frostbite. Windchill is not usually a problem for experienced outdoor cold trainers, but if you are planning your first outdoor cold dip, I recommend waiting for a day da y with low wind. Once you have experienced a successful outdoor cold water immersion, you will have a much better understanding of how your body and mind will respond to that kind of experience and will be much more prepared for the windchill factor that you will one day be better suited to endure. Check the wind before your dip and remember that you can always go another day. You have your whole life to train in the cold. The goal is to become healthier and stronger because you practice cold training. Don’t sacrifice tomorrow’s training because you simply got to the beach and realized that it is colder and windier than you thought it was. Windchill will be part of you r life as an outdoor cold trainer. There is no way around that. Just remember to progress into this factor of outdoor cold training with caution and you should have no problem.

Follow the same directions that you would follow for regular ice bathing, but get out of the water much earlier than you normally would because you will need your strength to “warm up” in the cold air. Yes, upon exiting the cold water, you should still allow for double the time you were in the water for your body to rewarm -while you are still soaking wet. I recommend walking up and down the shore to help you circulate blood, but do not run or do 66

 

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 jumping jacks, etc. etc. Simply focus on k keeping eeping your breath slow and controlled, inhales through the nose, exhales through the mouth. After you have spent twice the time outside of the water than you were in it, you may towel off. Just dab your skin; don’t rub r ub it hard with the towel. Put on warm dry  clothes, and go to a warm place to relax for a while. Keep your thoughts on your breath and on the present moment. Avoid thinking about the worries of the day. Just observe your body and mind. Get inside as soon as possible, and feel free to drink hot tea and throw on a cover or a hoodie. Dress warmly if you need to. Avoid taking a hot shower or getting into a hot bath, however. It is okay to help catch the heat that your body has produced on its own;  just avoid adding extreme extreme heat from an outsi outside de source. As with all post-cold exposure exposure rewarming practices, we want to allow the cold blood to circulate slowly rather than rushing back to your core.  Warnings about frost bite and hypothermia hypo thermia

Again, because outdoor cold exposures are in nature, they are generally the exposures that come with the most risk. This can be because of changing weather conditions and the problems novice trainers might have with gauging their limits, but it can also be that you start having so much fun that you lose track of time or you d on’t notice that you are over-cooling. For this reason, be very careful with your extremities. Frostbite most commonly hits you where blood circulation is its weakest. Wear a hat, avoid iceto-skin exposure as much as possible, and don’t try to set records.

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Pictured above: Catherine Pendleton, the first person ever to swim an ice mile above the arctic circle.

Section 13. Ice Swimming There is ice bathing, and there is ice swimming. If you have made it this far, you should already be very familiar with listening to your inner voice. Swimming in cold water can be deadly. Unlike an ice bath or simply having a dip in cold water where you sit still, swimming in cold water does not allow for your body to heat up the small layer of water around your body. The moving water will consistently remain the same cold temperature, which means that your body will have to continue working hard to maintain body 68

 

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temperature. At the same time, you will be actively producing body heat in the act of swimming, utilizing your skeletal muscles and causing heat through motion, which also plays a role. These two factors happening at the same time mean that your experience will be dynamic. This is where cold trainers tra iners who have lived by their clocks alone and have not learned to listen to their inner voices will become very confused. The daily ice bather who can in 1C 1with C forthe 10 same minutes might assum assumee that she can take for the same amount ofsit time overall experience (endurance to thea swim cold, recovery time, etc.), but this is not necessarily the case. While it is important that one be somewhat cold adapted to begin ice swimming, many ice swimmers are simply people who love to swim who decided to give ice swimming a try. This is a category of cold exposures with many different entry points. This is because cold water swimming in some parts of the world is as much of the culture as soccer (yes, I know it should be called football, but I’m American, and this is my book. So. Please forgive me!). When it comes to most of the world, ice swimming is not somethin something g that is very common. Even taking cold showers has probably made you an outlier in your local community! So, this guide will cover what I have learned in my own experience, and where my personal experience ends, I will be relaying to you what the world-famous ice swimmer, Catherine Pendleton has shared with me. As for myself, I live in the middle of the USA, and my experience with cold water swimming is limited to streams, lakes, and ponds. So, to ensure that this book b ook provides the best overall coverage for this topic I conferred with Catherine Pendleton, the first person ever to swim an ice mile above the Arctic circle. Pendleton got into ice swimming after suffering a back injury. She and some friends decided it would be fun to try ice swimming, and before long, she was hooked. While the main rules of cold training already described in this t his book apply to ice swimming, there are many things that one should consider before getting into this sport. Before I begin, I want to say that, to my great pleasure, Pendleton’s advice was perfectly in line with what I had learned through my own practice. Where her advice will really comes in handy is for those who want to do cold ocean swimming and cold-water swims of longer durations or intensity than what I have done. d one. Disclaimer: While the advice that I will give you in this section is solid advice, the reality is that the vast majority of ice swimmers that live today will tell you that they did not start ice swimming in the manner that I am going to suggest. Ice swimmers are a special group of people, and I mean that in the best way possible. Many of them begin by just jumping into the water and swimming for a little bit. And over time, they build a tolerance to the intense stress of swimming in ice water. Again, this is likely due to the cultures from where most ice swimmers live. They usually come from very cold 69

 

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climates where this sort of thing is not so unusual. The advice that I give you in the following section is how most cold water swimmers and I suggest that a person begin, even if it isn’t the way that they began themselves! Before You Try This… This…  

Before trying ice water swimming, should tried allaofcomfortable the other cold-water exposures already described in thisyou guide. You have should have relationship with your inner voice, and you should be cold adapted. All of the Cold Training Rules Still Apply

Remember that all of the same rules that govern safety will still apply to this kind of training. If you have not read the section on Outdoor Ice Bathing, please do. Everything that I covered in that section applies to ice water swimming. I will cover some additional points that you will want to be aware of, but again, by the time you get to this level of cold exposure, it is assumed a ssumed that you have learned to be safe in the cold and you have done outdoor ice bathing. Don’t Assume that Time in an Ice Bath = Time Swimming in Ice Water

Pendleton hates the chest freezer that she and her partner use at home. He loves it. She hates it. She would much prefer swimming. One thing that she stressed to me was that  just because you can sit in ice water for a certain amount amount of time, you should expect to be able to swim for that amount of time. She said it is pretty hard to equate the two experiences. While they share a lot in common, when it comes to what to expect as far as your duration in the cold water while swimming versus sitting, it is nearly impossible to say. So to train for ice swimming, one needs to do more than simply cold training.  When to Begin Your Training

It is generally agreed that if you want to learn to ice swim, you should start in the warmest time of the year and get into a regular swimming routine. routine. As the seasons change, continue to swim at the same time of day and for the same duration. Allow nature to be your coach. As the seasons change, you need to stay consistent. “The recovery is always harder than the swim.” -Catherine Pendleton

Simply put, you need to prepare for after-drop when you do ice swimming. While it isn’t a guarantee, and there are many people out there who report not having it, most people will get some degree of after-drop. So, take every precaution for safety, and never go alone. “What happens is, you’re on a high when you get out,” says Pendleton, “and then you start talking, and that’s when people get cold.” Just remember what you have learned in 70

 

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this guide already. Stay calm. Stay focused. Remember that you will be dealing with the effects of the cold well after your cold exposure. Here are some important tips that one should keep in mind when getting into ice water swimming swimming.. Plot a Course

Since you will swimming in will an outdoors you will need to take extrathat precautions to be ensure that you be able toenvironment, complete your training safely. Be sure you are familiar with the area before getting into your swim gear and getting in the water. Therefore, it is so important to begin your training in the warmer months. You will know your swimming routes, places to avoid, and places where you know you will be safe.

Know Your Point of Entry and Possible Points of Exit

For the sake of safety, you need to be able a ble to exit the water at will. Of course, this may not always be possible because of the environment. This means that you should plan to swim in areas where there are multiple exit points. Ideally, you will be able to get out at the same place where you got in since that is where you left your clothes, but if you feel weak or unable to continue the swim, get out of the water and make your way back to your entry point by foot. This means that you should ideally be able to walk in bare feet if you need to. Use a Tow Float / Swimmer’s Buoy  Buoy 

This is a common item used by swimmers. It isn’t designed to be used as a flotation device. It simply makes you more visible in the water. This is especially important for ice swimmers. we are trying to minimize weever train withrescue. the cold, and this isAgain, one great wayalways to make yourself visible ifrisks you when were to need 71

 

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Here is a link to two commonly used brands, but there are all kinds of varieties of these that you may want to use. 20L Waterproof Dry Bag, Ultralight Swim Buoy and Safety Float for Open Water Triathletes, Kayak, Snorkeling,Surfers, Beach, Swimming, Boating with Adjustable Waist Belt (Orange)  (Orange) 

Below is Catherine’s favorite brand (you can get whatever color you like though!    ):  Pink  Swim Secure Tow-Float - Pink 

Caps, goggles, etc.

You will notice that Catherine Pendleton wears a swimmers cap and goggles. This is up to you, but these items can be a big help in avoiding after-drop or reducing the degree of after-drop that you might experience. For one, the cap will keep your hair dry. This makes a huge difference when you get out of the water. With dry hair, you can simply remove your swimming cap and put on your thermal hat immediately when you get out. This cuts down on a major source of thermal loss. The goggles are not going to do much for thermal value, but they may be just what you need to keep you more comfortable and focused when you are swimming. Consider using these and other practical items to improve your ice swimming experience. Be Your Future Self’s Best Friend (or Just (or  Just Bring a Best Friend!)

One common problem for ice water swimmers is forgetting where they left their dry clothes or leaving their dry clothes in a way that they will not be able to t o easily put them on. This breaks one’s concentration c oncentration and can cause one to suffer needlessly. Remember the rules of rewarming and plan for this process before you go for your swim. Your future self will thank you!! Prepare for Success

1.  If you can bring a friend to coach you before the swim and help you after the swim, you will be putting yourself in a very good spot for a safe and productive experience. While you should certainly always do this in the beginning of your training, it never hurts to do this all the time. 2.  Organize your clothes and towel neatly so that you don’t have to break your focus when you need them.

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3.  Pendleton stresses that you should avoid standing around in your swimmers very long before getting into the water. Just get in as soon as you know that you have prepped your towel and clothes for your exit. Endure

f everything else in the world. Don’t focus on Be prepared challenge let go otalks anything butfor thethe task at hand. and Pendleton about how the swim is like a switch to shut off her mind and get into the zone. Clear your mind and enjoy the swim.

Recover

1.  Put on a wooly hat as soon as possible. Before anything else, cover your head. 2.  Remember to allow your body to slowly rewarm your blood upon exiting the water. This means slow purposeful movements, nothing extreme. You should allow yourself to stay in this state until your inner voice tells you it is time to put on clothes. While in most cold exposures we wait for longer periods of time for this rewarming to happen, Pendleton advises to towel off upon getting out of the water and to put clothes on. Do this slowly and with purpose. 3.  Dress yourself slowly slowly and with purpose. No need to rush. No need to get frustrated. Just slowly put on your clothes as you focus on slow relaxed breathing. In through the nose and out through the mouth. 4.  Give yourself some time before talking or socializing. Remember that this time is valuable for your recovery. 5.  After a few minutes have passed and you are fully clothed, reassess your state. Remain focused on slow nasal breathing. When your inner voice tells you it is okay, go give your friends a high-five or feel free to chat. 6.  Drink hot tea or some other hot beverage to aid in the rewarming process. 7.  Get some sugar if you are still feeling chilly. I recommend dark chocolate. Don’t eat a lot of sugar. Just enough to kick your metabolism into gear. It will taste so good! 8.  No hot showers or extreme heat afterwards. Just let your body naturally rewarm itself.

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Section 14. Hands and Feet I have already discussed issues with extremities, and I have already addressed the hands and feet in previous chapters. However, I want to briefly cover hands and feet specifically because these are generally the most problematic for people. While you and I understand that you will need your hands and feet to go on living the rest of your life, your body doesn’t look so far ahead. It will react with regards to immediate survival. What this means is that your body will shunt blood flow from extremities to the most vital organs in order to preserve their functions. This is a good thing; after all, if your body had no such mechanism, thermoregulation would would be far more problematic and extreme temperatures would be far more dangerous. When your body shunts blood from the extremities it can be painful, especially at first. This is normal, and it is something that you will likely never completely outgrow. outgrow. Some people do, but for most of us, hands and feet are things that we need to manage in order to be able to train in the cold for any significant amount of time. 74

 

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Pain will distract you, and while many people like to believe that they will somehow develop a Zen-like immunity to pain, I want to just say that you should not expect it unless you train with it often. The problem is that constantly doing something that causes you pain is a good way to teach yourself to dislike or fear i t. Don’t let your e go fool you. It is okay to wear gloves in the cold. It is okay if you never train barefoot in the snow. You will not miss out on any of the health benefits of cold training. For those who want to try to develop cold-resistant hands and feet, you will need to be patient. Feet- I already discussed how to train your feet in a previous chapter. When it comes to feet, the most common problem that people have is that they have tender feet in general. They never walk outside without shoes, and they somehow expect to do the hardest barefoot experience with ease? Don’t kid yourself. If you want to walk on the snow, you should be able to walk on asphalt, grass, and even some gravel in warm temperatures first. Remember Remember that these are the things that will be under the snow when you try to walk in it. The snow doesn’t make walking barefoot easier. It makes it

way harder. Respect your feet. Train them all year around. See the chapter on Snow Walking for more. Hands- This is my biggest weakness. For this reason, I usually wear gloves when I go out for snow walks, and I normally hold my hands against my legs to keep them from aching in ice baths. But if you want to train your hands for the cold, there is a simple training program that you can follow. Please note that it will take a lot of patience, and some people will have more success than others. The training schedule goes like this:

Daily Routine (If you miss a day, it’s not a big deal, but in my experience, gains made will disappear quickly if you don’t stay consistent.) 

1.  Fill a bowl or bucket with ice. 2.  Add just enough water to make it possible to slip you hands into the bowl. You can do one hand at a time, or you can do both hands at the same time. Just be sure there is enough room. 3.  Fill a second bowl or bucket with room temperature water. Not hot. Lukewarm. 4.  Place your hands in the cold water for 1 to 2 minutes. 5.  Then place your hands in the lukewarm water for 1 minute. 6.  Repeat steps 4 and 5 up to four times per session. 7.  End with cold or lukewarm. It do esn’t make much difference.   8.  Allow your hands to recover before using them for anything strenuous. 75

 

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When determining how long you leave your hands in the cold, please know that your fingers will likely hurt at first, then they will adapt. This is your body re-opening blood vessels to the fingers in order to prevent losing them. You will not get frostbite doing this. I just want to ease any possible fears you might have. If you have Raynaud’s Syndrome, however, do this at your own risk. Raynaud’s Syndrome is a condition where the blood vessels constrict and do not reopen for long periods of time. This can put you at a greater risk for frostbite. Therefor, if you have this condition, you should always be very careful in the cold. I recommend never going without gloves, but this is up to you.

Bottom line: Be careful with your extremities extremities.. Yes, you can train them to be incredibly resilient, but they will always fail before anything else will, and they are the most common reason why people have to get out of the cold early. Have a strategy before

getting into the cold. And again, the benefits of cold exposure are not lost if you need to wear gloves, shoes, hats (to cover your ears), scarves (for your neck).

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Section 15. Cold Meditations Many people see pictures of people meditating in the snow and believe that somehow meditation makes cold exposure easier. This is partially true, but not in the way people generally think. If you are a mediator, you know that it is easiest to meditate in a quiet space in a comfortable seated position where there are no distractions. As practitioners progress in meditation, they are able to tolerate noise, discomfort, etc and still be able to reach a

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meditative state. This ability to focus is a testament to the practitioner’s skill in meditation, not a magical ability that one gains by simply closing one’s eyes while sitting in a meditative position. Therefore, sitting in the snow while meditating is not something a novice meditator should try. It is also something a novice cold trainer should not try.

However, if one becomes a practiced cold trainer, one is generally learning the ability to focus while being distracted. To be able to take control of your breathing and keep your composure while enduring a cold stressor is actually a testament to the cold’s power to provide a “forced meditative experience.”  What I mean is that it is very difficult to experience extreme cold and think about much else than the extreme cold. The cold literally forces you to concentrate. It is such a dominant force, that it is very hard to think about anything else. This is why many cold trainers find meditating to be easier after they have trained with the cold for some time, and many meditators choose to train in the cold. There is a common thread between them, and that is the pursuit of learning to control the mind, to silence the chatter, and to find peace. If you intend to try meditating in the cold, here are some tips to help you have a good experience.

1.  Remember Remember that you don’t have to meditate i n the snow in order to meditate in the cold. The snow looks better in pictures, but your goal is not just to take a picture. Anyone can run out into the snow, strike a pose, then run right back inside if the goal is simply to have a great social media picture. Therefore, before you meditate in the snow, meditate in the cold. 2.  Avoid long periods of time with skin-to-ice exposure. The best way to meditate in the cold or in the snow is to put down a blanket to protect your legs from frostbite. 3.  The extremities will still be your greatest challenges, so wear shoes and gloves. Yes, you may eventually go without shoes or gloves, but don’t start that way. Build a cold meditation practice with bare body first, then try the whole body later. You have nothing to prove to anyone. a nyone. 4.  Remember that you should adhere to all the same rules as you would with outdoor exposures. Prepare for the mediation and select a place where you will not be distracted. Endure the meditation by focusing on your breathing and on the cold itself. Relax. And when you are ready to come inside, put on warm clothing allow yourself to slowly r ewarm rewarm in the warm indoors. I usually meditateand again when I go indoors to warm myself.

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Remember that you should not just wait for snow to meditate in the cold outdoors. Build an outdoor meditation practice well before it gets cold and a nd learn to meditate as the temperatures slowly change.

Optimal Outdoor Meditation Doesn’t Require Skin-toSkin-toSnow

  Notice in this picture, I am sitting on a yoga mat. Do you think it was cold? Oh, yeah! It was very cold! This was a picture taken from a video of a long cold air meditation. The mat allowed me to be able to get a longer cold aair ir meditation than if I would have simply sat in the snow. If your intent is to meditate in the cold, skin-to-ice is not ideal.

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Yes, you might do it eventually, but give yourself a chance to get practiced up at coldair meditation first.

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Section 16. Cold Exposure and Colds and Flus Does the cold make us get sick?

Children all over the world have heard their mothers insist that they wear a coat or  jacket to avoid catching a cold or a flu, but but the cold doesn’t cause cause us to get sick. Catching a cold or a flu is cause by a virus or a bacteria entering the body and the innate immune response response taking place as a result. However, the cold is a stressor on the Central Nervous System, System, and this means that it is possible that too much cold exposure can weaken our immune systems. In the right amount, the cold can improve and strengthe strengthen n our immune systems, but in excess, it can cause us problems. So, that is why it is important to train with caution and patience p atience rather than to try to push ourselves too hard. We want the benefits, not the detriments. So, what should a cold trainer do when s/he catches a cold?

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If you catch a cold, you need to relax and allow the body to recover. Don’t take cold showers or do any cold exposure. I know it will feel strange, but take warm showers!!  Just focus on resting resting up and recovering. Th Thee cold can wait. Taking breaks won’ won’tt hurt your long-term progress, so don’t be worried.   When to Return to the Cold After you are completely symptom free, you may return to the cold; however, your first two days back to the cold should be very mild exposures. Don’t try to pick up exactly where you left off. I generally advise clients to do cold showers on the first two days back, even if they were used to long ice baths and cold weather walks. This allows your body to get back into the groove slowly and without any problems. After that, just slowly work your way back to where you left off. There is no rush. I usually take about a week or two to fully be back to where I left off.

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Section 17. Cold Training and Strength & Conditioning Training   Before Strength and Conditioning Training:

As a rule, always wait an hour after cold training to do strength training. When one engages in cold training, it is important to allow the body to warm up and to return to a normal state. This helps prevent injuries that might result from being stiff after extreme cold. It also allows for enough time to pass that the vasoconstriction that naturally occurs in the cold to return r eturn to a normal state. After Strength and Conditioning Training:

There has not been enough research done on the possible effect that cold training too quickly after a strength training session might have on the recovery stimulus, but one theory goes like this: 1.  When strength training, we break down the muscle in order for it to be repaired and made stronger and larger than before.   2. The inflammation signal from the muscle tissue signals the body to repair the tissue.

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3.  Since cold exposure reduces inflammation, to engage in cold training right after strength training would likely reduce the signal for repair and possibly slow or reduce gains in strength or muscle size. This is not a ridiculous theory. However, it does not mean that you cannot cold train after doing strength training. Sadly, there is not a lot of reliable research on this topic. I will give you my own theory that I have developed after years of doing both cold training and strength training. As a rule, I try to put as much time as I can between my weight training sessions sessions and my cold training sessions. I usually wait at least two or three hours after strength training to get into an ice bath ba th or some other cold challenge. In the years that I have been doing this, I do not believe that I have hampered my muscle growth at all. First of all, if you work out really hard, wait three hours, take an ice bath, then get a good night’s sleep; you are still likely to wake up sore. What this demonstrates is that, while cold exposure does offer great benefits when it comes to inflammation, it does not completely eliminate all inflammation in your body. There will still be plenty! Trust me! Secondly, in my own experience, I have continued to see muscle gains that have been consistent with what is generally expected for a man of my age who is not using steroids. While I can’t know for sure whether or not I would have made more progress without daily cold training, I can say that I have not seen any reduction in my strength and size gains over the five years that I have been cold training, and I have continued to gain at a normal pace. Again, I wait at least three hours because I do believe that the body does need a little time to register the workout, but I don’t think that any longer is needed. However, full disclosure, on days when I work out first thing in the morning, I still tend to wait until evening to jump into my ice bath.

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Section 18. Saving Money on Regular Ice Baths |Converting a Deep Freezer Many people ask me how I can c an afford to take a regular ice bath, especially when it costs up to $25 per ice bath. In the wintertime, it isn’t so hard, but for a consistent ice bath, one solution that many have found is to convert a deep freeze into a year-round cold plunge. My rig is pretty ugly. I just lined my chest freezer with a pond liner and filled it with water. But about a year ago, I became acquainted with John Richter who wrote a complete e-book guide to creating your dream cold-plunge out of a chest freezer. I highly recommend his e-book. The link to buy his book is below. Use discount code: MMT15 FOR 15% OFF!! : https://chestfreezercoldplunge.com/product/the-ultimate-che https://chestfreezercoldplunge.com/ product/the-ultimate-chest-freezer-cold-pl st-freezer-cold-plungeungediy-guide/

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How far can I Take My Cold Training? There is no way for me to tell you where your limits will be, but I can tell you that you will have a limit as to how cold you can tolerate and how long you can tolerate the cold. The hard truth is that if you sit in an ice bath long enough, you will die. That is a fact. However, with time and regular exposure, you might find yourself swimming in freezing cold water for 20 minutes, maybe even an hour! Or you might never do anything longer than a 10 minute cold shower. That is fine too! You are the only one who is capable of finding this out. I would like to remind you, if you are asking yourself this question, question, that it is important to think about your motivations. Are you doing this for your health? Are you doing it as a way to find out who you are in some way? Ar Aree you just trying to realize your full self? Perhaps you are a competitive person and you want to break a record or compete against friends in some way. I don’t think there is a wrong answer a nswer to this question, but your answer will determine how much you push yourself to increase your cold endurance.

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If you are looking to use cold exposures to improve your health, simply doing regular cold exposures over time will accomplish this. Yes, you may graduate from cold showers to ice baths or even snow walking. But if you are looking for the health benefits of cold exposure, you never need to push beyond this. If you are looking to break a record or simply find out how far you can take this, let me give you some advice. You will probably want to push too far too fast, and overcoming this tendency is going to be as big of a challenge to overcome as the cold itself. The process of adaptation is always slower than you wish it was, wa s, and competitive people are usually very impatient. You can’t be this way with cold ada ptation. It will take as long as it will take. The best way to speed the process is to be consistent over time.

Conclusion Regardless of your goals, always remember to be safe and to have fun with your training. There are too many variations of training to put into this book, but I hope this has given you a strong foundation to build from. Try new things over time, and never be afraid to take breaks. Go slow and controlled and enjoy the cold. For more tips and advice on cold training and other health related matters, check out my YouTube Channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDweMKKDq9cfA64eAVqjyOg?view_as=subscriber  

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