Why do I voluntarily go into cold water?
I’ll explain. We are all under stress. Our modern world creates it. It’s a product of the way we live.
Over time this stress causes adaptations in our bodies…most of them aren’t what we are looking for in life:
In fact chronic stress can be the culprit behind most of the diseases of modern day living.
Our bodies evolved to deal with short term, stress in high levels. The type of stress that causes a flood of adrenaline and other hormones when hunting or being hunted. This stress was mental but also had a physical component to it.
By contrast think about the stress that is caused by sitting in traffic knowing you are going to be late for an appointment.
It’s all mental, there is no physical outlet to it. The hormones run through our body with no physical outlet and cause problems…
However, there are ways to change how our body responds to this type of stress. For example meditation will help lower our stress hormones and decrease our reaction to chronic stress. Doing it is another matter…and it can take years of dedicated practice to see results.
But cold water exposure can help recalibrate your nervous system quickly. The way it does this is actually quite counterintuitive.
It provides 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 stress.
But when you think about it that’s the way the body works. To get stronger you don’t do lots of light weights…you lift more heavy weights. To run faster you don’t run slowly, you run faster!
Over 1000’s of years of evolution your body knows that staying in cold water will eventually lead to hypothermia and probable death. Therefore the stress survival response is hardwired into our DNA.
When you go into the water there is a flood of stress hormones that actually help your body to ‘re-calibrate’ its response to the chronic stress we have in our lives. This plus the breath work that goes with it carry over into everyday life to help control the flood of hormones that accompany other stressful situations, things that routinely happen in our everyday lives.
Regular cold exposure can help your body decrease the response to the low level chronic stress that exists in your life and, in doing so, reduce chronic pain, combat anxiety, lower blood pressure and help reverse all the damage that is done by stress.
If you want to go further into this top I recommend checking the research that has been done on the Wim Hof method here: https://www.wimhofmethod.com/science
Over the last 10 years Ed has been building a YouTube library to help people manage their own pain or movement limitations and increase performance through exercise. He regularly adds videos so be sure to subscribe and visit regularly
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