Revitalise your body and mind with our Ice Bath Therapy.
An ice bath isn’t just a plunge into cold water – it’s an extraordinary wellness experience that has captivated athletes, health enthusiasts, and seekers of optimal well-being worldwide. Recent research is beginning to unveil the incredible benefits of cold water immersion and the results are multi faceted. Immersion in cold water narrows the bodies blood vessels and drives blood towards the vital organs, here the body is able to enrich the blood with oxygen and nutrients. On exiting the ice bath, the nutrient rich, oxygenated blood is fired into the bodies extremities increasing the capacity for healing and reduction of inflammation.
You cannot have disease without pain or inflammation, this is something that is incontrovertible. Cold water therapy holds the potential key to not only reducing disease but increasing longevity. Add to this a huge increase in dopamine delivery to the body that feeds the ‘feel-good’ factor throughout the rest of the day and you have an affordable, incredibly powerful therapy that is the perfect way to holistically improve health
Benefits of Ice Bath Therapy
Do you know that immersing yourself in cold water can have many health benefits? Here is a list of 9 ways in which cold water immersion can improve your well-being:
1. Faster muscle recovery: After a tough workout, a cold plunge can help you recover faster by improving sprint speed and reducing muscle damage markers like creatine kinase.
2. Better mental health: Cold exposure has been linked to a potential anti-depressive effect, helping reduce symptoms of depression. Winter swimmers have reported improved mood, reduced tension and fatigue, enhanced memory, and more energy.
3. Less risk of injuries: Cold plunge can help prevent injuries and keep athletes performing at their best during periods of physical stress by supporting faster recovery and reducing muscle damage.
4. Reduced inflammation: Ice cold water activates adaptive responses that help decrease inflammation levels, enhance immune system responses, and provide cardio-protective effects.
5. Pain relief: If you’re struggling with conditions like rheumatism, fibromyalgia, or asthma, winter swimming might help you feel better and provide pain relief.
6. Protect your brain: Ice-cold water submersion can promote synapse regeneration and protection, which might help protect against neurodegenerative diseases.
7. Hormonal balance and metabolic effects: Cold plunge can burn fat, increase insulin sensitivity, and decrease insulin concentrations. It can also regulate hormones involved in your body’s thermogenesis, lipid metabolism, and browning of adipose tissue (brown fat).
8. Improved blood circulation: Exposure to cold plunges can lead to thermoregulatory adaptations in your body, such as improved blood flow, increased cold-induced thermogenesis, and temporary habituation of thermal sensation and comfort.
9. Cardiovascular health: Cold plunges can help decrease cardiovascular risk factors, increase cardiovascular health markers, and contribute to an adaptive process that normalizes blood pressure responses.
Infrared sauna health benefits can help with detoxification and weight loss, as well as provide stress and pain relief, improve muscle recovery, boost cardiovascular health, reduce inflammation, promote relaxation, and even help with diabetes support. You may also notice an improvement in the health and appearance of your skin due to increased elastin and collagen production.
These are just some of the many benefits that infrared saunas provide, making them a popular self-care option for boosting immunity and promoting overall well-being. But how do they stack up against the benefits of an ice bath?
The benefits of contrast therapy.
Combining a sauna with an ice bath is an effective way to improve circulation, reduce inflammation, speed up muscle recovery and elevate your mood. The heat from the sauna causes blood vessels to dilate, which improves blood flow and reduces inflammation.
The cold from the ice bath causes blood vessels to constrict, which improves circulation and reduces muscle soreness. This contrast between hot and cold temperatures helps to improve overall recovery and reduce the risk of injury.
Hot or cold first?
Using a sauna is encouraged as both hot and cold work on similar pathways and Nordic cultures have done this for millennia. However, the evidence for maximising the metabolic benefits suggests starting in the hot and ending in the cold and then reheating naturally.
This matters for people wanting to increase metabolism and activates brown fat, warming in saunas or hot rooms will stop this benefit. The process of reheating naturally encourages the body to adapt, ending in saunas that discourage this adaptation of our metabolism.
Sauna and ice baths are both great tools for recovery and overall health. Saunas have been shown to improve cardiovascular health, while ice baths have been shown to reduce muscle soreness and inflammation. Using them together as contrast therapy can have a powerful impact on the body’s circulation and recovery.