Does the idea of sitting outside in 35-45 degree water in the middle of winter in Minnesota sound like a crazy idea to you? It did to me too at first, but now I can’t imagine a week where I don’t use heat therapy and cold therapy to promote recovery and overall wellness.
Last spring and summer, I had tried a few cryotherapy sessions while I attempted to recover from a hip injury and really liked it. It was a quick in and out and it relieved soreness and I felt rejuvenated throughout the day, so naturally cold plunging caught my eye when I saw a friend doing it on Instagram.
I found a place here in Minneapolis where you can sign up for a monthly membership and go as often as as you’d like to take advantage of their cold tubs and wood burning saunas.
I thought to myself, it’ll feel just like Lake Superior. I’m hearty. I’m a Duluth girl through and through. I brag about my ability to endure chilling temperatures and cold water more than your average non-Duluthian. I brag about taking cold showers when I was little while waiting for our new house to get a hot water heater installed. I spent years running through cold sprinklers in the summer.
The first time I went, I was downright shocked at how cold the water felt. I could barely stay in for 60 seconds before rushing back to the sauna. I couldn’t even fully sit down and get my upper body wet. I couldn’t figure out how to breathe.
I thought, maybe I had gotten soft in my years away from the Big Lake that I grew up loving. Why can’t I do this? Why is this so awful? So hard?
The answer was simple, I needed to not be afraid to breathe.
Now, over two months later, as it’s even colder outside, I find the cold plunge the most satisfying part of the process. If I do it in the morning before going on with the rest of my day, I don’t even need coffee. I am naturally energized and ready to take on my day!
I typically spend an hour alternating between the sauna and the cold tub and can now stay in the cold tub for five minutes at once. It’s downright euphoric, but the documented health benefits that I’ve read about also are what matter to me.
Any article you read online about cold plunging will tell you that it reduces inflammation and can lessen muscle aches, which as athletes, we all need after putting our body to the test on a long run or a lifting session at the gym.
Remember as a kid your parents told you exposure to cold makes you sick? That’s not true either. It actually boosts your immune system.
Plus, I absolutely love how it helps me shut my brain off and focus on myself. For those minutes, I am not able to think about anything else and it’s no pun intended, refreshing to do so. If I do it at night, I find myself sleeping better than on a night I don’t do a cold plunge.
The sauna part of the experience is more of a struggle for me. I despise being hot and think I always will. But I know that the benefits of a sauna session outweigh the struggle for me. The recovery of muscles, the lessening of aches and pains, the detoxification and they even say it can lower your blood pressure while reducing stress and improving your sleep.
Everyone’s body and how they would react to a cold plunge or a sauna is different so I do encourage you to check in with your doctor and to know yourself and then if the opportunity presents itself, find a place near you and try it out. Or start with a cold shower at home and before you know it, you’ll grow to love it.
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