Cold Thermogenesis Guidelines/Results page 59

[otzi]

Does no one else understand why this statement should make sane people concerned?

Hey, it concerns me, too and I'm not even sane! You really need to try it. Do this: Fill a big cooler with a couple bags of ice and water. Stir it around. Stand in it. A normal, non-cold adapted person would take a deep gasping breath, your heartrate will slow, you will feel intense pain in your ankles. After a few minutes, the pain will ease and your feet will become numb as blood circulation is restricted. Also during this time, your growth hormone levels will drop, your blood pressure will increase, and your norephinephrine level will rise. A person who has done this a few times will have none of these reactions.

Stay in for 10-15 minutes, when you get out your feet will be stiff and partly numb. In a few minutes the circulation returns and your feet feel great.

After you do that, it will be very hard for you not to wonder what a whole body submersion in this ice water would feel like.

[cori93437]

Hey, it concerns me, too and I'm not even sane! You really need to try it. Do this: Fill a big cooler with a couple bags of ice and water. Stir it around. Stand in it. A normal, non-cold adapted person would take a deep gasping breath, your heartrate will slow, you will feel intense pain in your ankles. After a few minutes, the pain will ease and your feet will become numb as blood circulation is restricted. Also during this time, your growth hormone levels will drop, your blood pressure will increase, and your norephinephrine level will rise. A person who has done this a few times will have none of these reactions.

Stay in for 10-15 minutes, when you get out your feet will be stiff and partly numb. In a few minutes the circulation returns and your feet feel great.

After you do that, it will be very hard for you not to wonder what a whole body submersion in this ice water would feel like.

Umm... ok. BULLSHIT>

I used to have to do cold therapy for an injury.
Leg submerged to above knee.
It was just as cold, gasp inducing, numbing, and freaking PAINFUL the 100th* time as it was the first.
*estimate... it was 5 times a week for several months. I don't know the exact number of exposures.

The warming up after ward did not feel "great". It was freaking miserable.

Good lord.

[Nivanthe]

I grew up in NH where going to the beach was a freezing water event in the summertime.

People dealt with the water in 2 ways: 1, in the way otzi (sort of) describes above, standing in it and letting it numb your feet/ankles, then slowly wading in; or 2, completely submerging yourself in one go so you can get used to it faster.

I preferred 2, since you got the shock of it over quickly and then the water became bearable and even warm after a while! Which now I understand the reason for that.

---

I've been doing cold showers lately, which is actually more of a pleasant experience since I live in south Florida and our bathroom has no AC vent, and a window that doesn't close fully, so it's usually quite humid in there. I haven't noticed any fat loss that I can attribute to the showers, however my skin is noticeably softer! I love it.

[MamaGrok]

What I found in 33 degree water: You don't shiver at all until 20-30 minutes after you are out and dry off. This is because your body shuts off all peripheral blood flow to protect the core organs from hypothermia. When you get out and warm up, the cold blood from your limbs and skin get into your core and induce a shivering response. With 70 degree water, you don't experience vaso-constriction and the cooled blood flows freely to your core causing instant shivering.

Thanks for the great explanation of what is happening. You're describing exactly my experience with 50F water when I was used to 65. I shivered a LOT in 62-70F water, but get warm right away in 50F, but literally feel the cold creeping up my arms to my core after I get out and I shiver a bit for about 20m.

Leg submerged to above knee.
It was just as cold, gasp inducing, numbing, and freaking PAINFUL the 100th* time as it was the first.
*estimate... it was 5 times a week for several months. I don't know the exact number of exposures.

The warming up after ward did not feel "great". It was freaking miserable.

Interesting,, b/c my experience first with 62F water, then with 50F, was how wonderful my body, and especially my legs (which were submerged longer than anything else just by default), felt after cold immersion.

The colder, the better it feels afterward.

I'm going to take a stab at a possible explanation - at the time you had to do the rehab, your omega 6:3 ratios were probably pretty high?

[otzi]

Umm... ok. BULLSHIT>

That's cool. I know it's a hard sell. Quelson will probably chime in, too. The body actually changes in response to chronic cold. We are accustomed to fear cold water because..it..can...kill..you. Many, many studies prove that this response can be habituated and acclimated to. I know most people don't click links, but here is a good study they did to monitor people's response to a repeated cold stimulus, read if you like: Habituation of thermal sensations, skin temperatures, and norepinephrine in men exposed to cold air

The gist is this: "We studied habituation processes by exposing healthy men to cold air (2 h in a 10°C room) daily for 11 days. During the repeated cold exposures, the general cold sensations and those of hand and foot became habituated so that they were already significantly less intense after the first exposure and remained habituated to the end of the experiment. The decreases in skin temperatures and increases in systolic blood pressure became habituated after four to six exposures. The increase in norepinephrine response became reduced on days 5 and 10 and that of proteins on day 10, suggesting that the sympathetic nervous system became habituated and hemoconcentration became attenuated. Thus repeated cold-air exposures lead to habituations of cold sensation and norepinephrine response and to attenuation of hemoconcentration, which provide certain benefits to those humans who have to stay and work in cold environments."

This study didn't take diet into consideration and was N=6, but a pretty good study nonetheless IMO.

[otzi]

Watch this guy get into the ice cold water. He doesn't look panic-ed. Wim Hof Iceman takes icy bath as statue in Tricht/Netherlands 2-2-1012 - YouTube

[BestBetter]

Since I don't have a tub, I've been thinking about trying to fill up a rubbermaid storage bin with ice water and fitting as much of me inside as will fit. But i remember that earlier in this thread (at least, I think it was here), someone mentioned that using a plastic container generated a gross chemical smell and that probably somehow the plastic was leaching. Does anyone know which brands/types of containers are okay to do this with? I think I have a Rubbermaid Roughneck one hanging out somewhere that I planned to use, then I remembered that comment about the weird smell.

[JudyCr]

Great video, otzi, wow!!!
My pool water temp is 78 and it's cold, can't imagine that.

[KA24]

I'm currently building a new house. I plan on having a pull-up bar and treadmill in the garage and will continue this stuff once it gets cold this winter. I wasn't onto CT this past winter, but have done some cold training outside before. Of course, I'm excited to see what the cold adaption may bring to future training in near-freezing weather.

[otzi]

Northern Warfare Training Center - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This place is right down the road from where I live--they turn out some bad-ass soldiers! The instructors are even more impressive, these guys make my attempts at cold-weather training look pitiful!