When I posted that I was swimming in cold water on Social Media, I immediately started getting questions about why I would do this. Was it for longevity? To defeat chronic inflammation? To lose weight? To boost my immune system? And you know what, people seemed upset when I replied: “I just like it.”
One of the things I love most about where I live is that I can walk to the beach (it’s 120 steps, I counted). Granted, I live in Canada… on Vancouver Island… so much of the year the water is 8 degrees celsius (or colder). But when we moved here in November of 2020, I decided that I would go to the beach as many mornings per week as I could muster. And after a few weeks of walking along the shore and staring out at the water, I started joining some friendly folks who going in the water for a plunge.
I immediately was hooked.
Yes, I grew up playing outside in Edmonton winters (often -40c), I also used to take ice baths when I was training hard for races, and I have always preferred cool showers to hot ones (you will very rarely find me in a hot tub) but this is a whole new level of cold exposure.
In this episode, I get into the science behind cold water swimming, along with some help from Dr. Andrew Huberman (you can see the full lecture he gave about this on his instagram page).
You can also read the full article I wrote about my plunges.