Cold Plunge
Cold Plunge treatments at Longevity Training Club! Experience the invigorating power of our cutting-edge Cold Plunge therapy into your personalized plan.
This can enhance your performance, promote longevity, and unlock your true potential.
Deliberate Cold Exposure can positively affect brain and body health.
Some research suggests that sitting in a tub of ice water may help reduce inflammation, boost blood flow, improve immunity, and manage pain (1). It also can help lower cortisol levels (2), your body’s stress-inducing hormone. Another study found that when combined with sauna, cold water immersion decreased levels of the stress hormone cortisol (2).
Join us and defy time – book an appointment now and live long and strong.
Strong research-based evidence, Benefits of cold immersion therapy:
- Enhanced mood & focus.
- Reduced inflammation & muscle soreness.
- Improved recovery & physical performance.
- Improved immune system.
- Improved resilience & stress management.
- Accelerated metabolism & improved cold tolerance
Enhance Performance
Cold water therapy can boost athletic performance by promoting recovery and enhancing sport-specific abilities after exercise (3).
Reduce Muscle Soreness
Cold water immersion alone may reduce muscle soreness post-exercise and increase perceived recovery. In one study, the perception of muscle soreness was significantly lower 24 hours later in the subjects that were immersed in a cold bath (4,5).
Recovery Benefits
One study published in 2020 found cold plunges had long-term recovery benefits on fatigue, soreness, and wellness in highly-trained volleyball players. The subjects had 10-minute sessions once each for 12 days in 50-degree Fahrenheit water (6).
Improve Mood
Research also shows that cold water immersion improved participants’ moods once they got over the initial shock of the cold (7).
Improve Sleep
One study published in the journal Frontiers in Sports and Active Living (8) found that subjects who submerged their whole bodies—including their heads—in cold water after high-intensity, intermittent running exercise reduced limb movement and increased slow-wave sleep—thought to be the most restorative stage of sleep, the form of deep sleep where your body recovers.
This stage may also help boost your immune system, and there is some evidence that deep sleep may contribute to memory, creativity, and insightful thinking.
Activates Brown Fat
One review of current literature published in 2019 found cold exposure activated brown adipose tissue—brown fat—making it work harder to help your body burn more calories (9). The frigid temperature may also improve insulin sensitivity, blood glucose regulation, and fat metabolism (9).
Reduce Body Fat
A more recent meta-analysis of 104 studies found cold water swimming seemed to reduce or transform body fat, which can protect against diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cardiac arrest (10).
Improve Immune System
Cold exposure increased white blood cell count and the number of natural killer (NK) cells, which fight infection and protect against disease, in a review of articles published in the North American Journal of Medicine and Science (1). One study from the Netherlands found people who ended a warm water shower with up to 90 seconds of cold water for 30 days called in sick from work less than people who took showers at their regular temperature (11).
Reduce Arthritic Joint Pain
One study published in 2022 found people with autoinflammatory arthritis had less joint pain and a better quality of life after immersing themselves in cold water immersion for 20 minutes a day for four weeks (12).
Reduce Pain
Other research has suggested that whole-body cold therapy or ice swimming may reduce pain perception, possibly because the cold temperatures cause the body to release norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter involved with your fight or flight response (13).
Reduce Stress
One study published in 2018 found that when cold stimulation was applied to participants’ neck area it increased their heart rate variability and lowered heart rate more than in the control group (14)—they can be signs of being less stressed and happier.
Increase Insulin Sensitivity
Studies have found cold exposure increased insulin sensitivity in people with type 2 diabetes (15,16). Why this matters: the more insulin sensitive someone with Type 2 diabetes is, the less medication they’ll need to reach optimal blood sugar levels.
Reduce Depression
A small study from 2000 looked at neurotransmitter response of ten young men who participated in one hour of head-out-of-water cold water immersion at 57 degrees Fahrenheit (17). Researchers then tracked their plasma norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that controls your body’s fight or flight response, levels. They found that participants’ norepinephrine levels increased more than 500 percent during the cold exposure. “This neurotransmitter response is one of the reasons we think cold therapy might be a viable tool for depression,” States Peter Attia Author of Outlive.
Soeberg Principle
At the Longevity Training Club we use The Soeberg Principle: Finish on the cold! When using deliberate cold exposure to increase your metabolism. If you are using contrast exposure then heat comes first (sauna) and finish with cold exposure. Forcing your body to re-warm on its own after the cold exposure is a major component of the metabolism & brown fat (healthy, thermogenic fat) stimulation.
The catecholamine response (dopamine, epinephrine, etc.) increasing effects of deliberate cold exposure are significant & long lasting (hours after) & can be achieved with: Brief (1-3min) exposure at very cold temperatures (35-45F) or, Long (30-60min) exposure at more moderate (60F) temps.
Research Articles:
1. Mooventhan, A. and Nivethitha, L. (2014). Scientific Evidence-Based Effects of Hydrotherapy on Various Systems of the Body.
2. Podstawski, R.; et al. (2021). Endocrine Effects of Repeated Hot Thermal Stress and Cold Water Immersion in Young Adult Men.
3. Lee, Y.; et al. (2021). Effects of Cool-Down Exercise and Cold-Water Immersion Therapy on Basic Fitness and Sport-Specific Skills among Korean College Soccer Players.
4. Yeung, S.; et al. (2016). Effects of Cold Water Immersion on Muscle Oxygenation During Repeated Bouts of Fatiguing Exercise: A Randomized Controlled Study.
5. Fonseca, L.; et al. (2016). Use of Cold-Water Immersion to Reduce Muscle Damage and Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness and Preserve Muscle Power in Jiu-Jitsu Athletes.
6. Tavares, F.; et al. (2020). The Acute and Longer-Term Effects of Cold Water Immersion in Highly-Trained Volleyball Athletes During an Intense Training Block.
7. Kelly, J.; et al. (2021). Improved mood following a single immersion in cold water.
8. Chauvineau, M.; et al. (2021). Effect of the Depth of Cold Water Immersion on Sleep Architecture and Recovery Among Well-Trained Male Endurance Runners.
9. Silva, C.; et al. (2019). Cold and Exercise: Therapeutic Tools to Activate Brown Adipose Tissue and Combat Obesity.
10. Espeland, D.; et al. (2022). Health effects of voluntary exposure to cold water – a continuing subject of debate.
11.Buijze, G.; et al. (2016). The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
12.Kurniasari, M.; et al. (2022). Cold Water Immersion Directly and Mediated by Alleviated Pain to Promote Quality of Life in Indonesian with Gout Arthritis: A Community-based Randomized Controlled Trial.
13. Knechtle, B.; et al. (2020). Cold Water Swimming—Benefits and Risks: A Narrative Review.
14. Jungmann, M.; et al. (2018). Effects of Cold Stimulation on Cardiac-Vagal Activation in Healthy Participants: Randomized Controlled Trial.
15. Ivanova, Y. and Blondin, D. (2021). Examining the benefits of cold exposure as a therapeutic strategy for obesity and type 2 diabetes.
16. Hanssen, M.; et al. (2015). Short-term cold acclimation improves insulin sensitivity in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
17. Sramek; et al (2000). Human physiological responses to immersion into water of different temperatures.