
Cold therapy may not be as popular as heat therapy, but it certainly has its own benefits! Today I’m diving into a thorough summary of my experience with cold therapy and what the science has to say about it. Also known as cold exposure, cryotherapy, ice baths, and cold plunges they all involve getting cold.
You might have seen elite athletes hit an ice bath after the game, but there are several ways to do this practice. There’s plenty of research to back up the benefits too. Cold therapy can help with better circulation and heart health, improved mood and focus, decreased depression and anxiety, weight loss, immune function, inflammation, and more.
While options like cryotherapy tanks are expensive, there are plenty of easy (and free!) ways to benefit from cold therapy. I’ll cover different ways to do cold therapy, the minimum effective dose, and how long to do it. We’ll also go into using cold therapy on its own or along with a sauna for combined benefits. I’ll share some of my tips and how I use it.
Even if you’re not a fan of cold water, I’m sure you’ll learn a lot in today’s episode (and see it’s not as scary as it looks!)
Episode Highlights on Cold Exposure
- What is cold therapy and what are the different types
- The known benefits of cold therapy (improved recovery, reduce inflammation, increased energy, better mood, etc)
- What the research and studies show on the health impacts of cold exposure
- The anti-aging benefits of cold therapy and ways to do it
- How regular cold showers are associated with increased longevity and a lower risk of chronic disease
- Cold exposure and dopamine connection
- Important guidelines on how to begin with cold therapy (i.e. how to start, how many minutes, etc)
- How I personally started and worked my way up to longer exposure
- Why sauna plus cold therapy together can be an effective tool for inflammation, recovery and performance
- Cold exposure and how to use with workouts and the one caveat with this
Resources Mentioned
- Cold Plunge – Use code wellnessmama for a discount
- Huberman Lab Podcast on cold exposure
- Sauna
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