Can plunging into ice cold water improve mood? Editor Ellie Smith investigates.
Ice therapy
I like to ease into my mornings like slipping into a hot bath. I stretch, lather on skincare and head to the kitchen for an icy encounter I can fully get behind – an iced coffee. I’m then out early with the dog before settling at my desk for focused writing time before the first wave of emails come in and the day begins to pick up pace. That’s my ideal morning – gentle, quiet, calm. You can imagine my horror, then, when I fully understood the hot (or rather, very cold) water I’d gotten myself into by volunteering to test the Lumi Recovery Pod Ice Bath (£125, lumitherapy.co.uk). No more leisurely mornings. I’d be starting my day shivering and swearing on my balcony in the name of wellbeing.
Cold curious
I blame this lapse in judgement on Wim Hof’s BBC documentary Freeze the Fear, which first got me curious about the benefits of cold-water exposure. I also blame Liz: a walking-talking poster child for the energising and age-defying benefits of plunging into icy water regularly. You may have seen her on Instagram, quite literally hacking her way through ice for her morning fix. In fact, it was while staying at Liz’s place last year that I first tried the practice for myself. On a frosty October morning, she marched me and a few other members of the magazine team down to the mini lake at the bottom of her garden, before striding in without hesitation. Submerged up to her neck in the icy water, she looked back at us expectantly. We teetered around the edge, squealing and gasping as our feet touched the water, before eventually buckling under the weight of peer pressure. I held my breath, balled my hands into fists and shuffled in as quickly as I could manage. Holding your breath is a rookie error, I quickly discovered. As soon as the cold water hits your chest you can’t help but gasp for air, only to discover your lungs are already full. It took a few seconds for me to realise I wasn’t in fact dying, I just needed to breathe out before I could breathe in again.
After a few slow, painful seconds in the water, I acclimatised to the cold and found I could happily stay put for a number of minutes. Like a well-insulated seal, I suspect it was the remnants of body fat I gained in lockdown that helped me out here. I’ve heard it said that if you’re very lean or your circulation is a little on the slower side, you can struggle with extremities such as hands and feet becoming painfully cold. This isn’t something I’ve experienced. Once in, I’m happy. It’s the gettin
