Safety Protocols for Deliberate Cold Exposure
Never do deliberate hyperventilation before or during your cold plunge. Start slow (warmer than colder)—as cold shock is possible. Just as with lifting weights or other forms of exercise, you’ll need to find the right temperature for you. Always prioritize safety.
You should consult with your medical doctor before considering cold water immersion, especially if you have any known medical problems. Some contraindications to cold water immersion therapy would include a history of heart disease; Raynaud’s phenomenon, which is caused by over-sensitive blood vessels in the body’s extremities; peripheral vascular disease, as can be seen in diabetes; impaired sensation; cold allergy or hypersensitivity; severe cold-induced urticaria, a skin reaction to cold that appears within minutes after cold exposure; and other more complex medical conditions including cryoglobulinemia and paroxysmal cold hemoglobinuria.
Consider doing cold plunges for 11 minutes per week, lasting approximately 1-5 minutes per session. The water temperature should be uncomfortably cold yet safe to stay in for a few minutes.
How should you breathe during your Cold Plunge?
Breathwork is an extremely powerful practice that uses many different ratios of inhale to exhale counts, holds, and breathing into different areas of the body (belly, ribs, chest). It can help energize and upregulate your system, or calm, soothe and downregulate your system.
- Focus on deep inhalations through the nose then slow exhalations through pursed lips (like blowing air through a small straw).
2. Breath into the belly, not the chest. If you find that you’re breathing into your chest, consciously try breathing into your belly. Chest breathing is often a sign of stress.
3. A general ratio for normal daily breathing is a 4 second inhale, and a 4 second exhale. Using the first two guidelines — breath in through the nose and out through the mouth, and into the belly.