Please accept no pretensions of an article, let alone an essay here. These are just some miscellaneous thoughts on cold water therapy inspired by this Marie Claire article. As the article points out, the idea of there being therepeutic benefits to immersing one's exposed body in low temperatures has a very long history going back to antiquity. However, as the comedian Billy Connolly quipped in his scathing of aromatherapy, so does slavery but we don't see many people wanting to publically support that tradition!
I've read reports on cold showers and ice baths since reading my first book on physical training. It was a bodybuilding book my grandfather gave me from the '50s.Then there were the Ian Flemming James Bond novels where our heavy drinking and heavy smoking secret agent often had a cold shower along with a warm one. As my study of martial arts began, I was introduced to photographs of gi-clad students assuming various poses under waterfalls. There is definitely a pseudoscientific mysticism attributed to ice and cold water treatment in addition to some possible genuine benefits.
Let's address today's biggest promoter of ice bath treatment is the endurance athlete Win Hof. The concept couldn't have a better poster boy. He has set records for swimming under ice, prolonged contact with ice and was once the barefoot marathon champion on ice and snow. Hof doesn't just promote exposure to extremely low temperatures, but has an entire method centred on his breathing techniques. As martial artists, the importance of disciplined breathing is nothing new. However, Hof has also been the subject of a lot of controversy. Whereas some scientific studies seem to uphold his claims that his training methods are beneficial, four practitioners of his method drowned and their relatives suspected the cause being attributed to using Hof's breathing method. Perhaps most significantly, a 2014 test involving Hof's identical twin brother a client of mine alerted me to, appeared to debunk his breathing methods. The report concluded that "No significant differences were found between the two subjects, indicating that a lifestyle with frequent exposures to extreme cold does not seem to affect BAT activity and CIT (cold-induced thermogenesis).
All is not lost according to the Marie Claire article. The same year that the above experiment was carried out A Mooventhan and L Nivethitha included hydrotherapy amongst their studies into natural and alternative forms of therapy. They concluded that “The explosion of these two neurotransmitters make your happiness and focus soar, relieves pain and depression, and make you feel on top of the world.” I haven't looked at the paper in anything that resembles great detail and I am not an academic. If any of my readers would be willing to give it a critique I would be very grateful to hear their thoughts. My bias is to want to hear about the good this type of treatment can do. There is no denying momentary relief of aches not to mention that muscular pump you get when your blood vessels are constricted. However, as a martial arts critical thinker I cannot afford that privilege. Looking at the two authors other works I see nothing but positive conclusions to just about every alternative medicine practice they have tested. These include acupuncture and a lot of claims about yoga. To say such conclusions are debated would be as severe understatement.
The Marie Claire article, although clearly showing my bias towards ice water therapy, provides a balanced and pragmatic approach even if it relies heavily on the above paper. They also offer the University of Cambridge's rather exciting sounding statement: “So far, it shows that cold water therapy may be protective against neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, which is just incredible.”
Let's be straight about this, the application of water and ice are proven and common treatments for certain injuries. Any First Aid course worth the price of its certificate will advise you to put the burned affected area of your or a patient's skin under cold running water. RICE, that is Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation, is still the first go-to response to acute injuries within 48 hours and as soon as possible. Ice reduces swelling in injuries like sprains. Ice packs should be applied from 20-30 minutes to the affected area and should not be applied to the neck or to the left shoulder if you or the patient has a hear condition. During a period where I suffered a muscle belly tear to my right hamstring whilst deadlifting and applied an ice pack on for 20 minutes, rested for 20 minutes and then reapplied it. I kept this up for over two days whenever possible. It perhaps was a little overkill, but within three days of receiving the injury I was back to performing high sets of an extremely low deadlift. Every day after that I slightly put the weight on the bar up. Before the month was out I was both over the injury and back to lifting heavy with a renewed appreciation of preparation and technique. Now, I appreciate what I have offered in this paragraph is an aside removed from what we mean by ice hydrotherapy and an unscientific anecdote but perhaps it might offer some thoughts on why so many of us might lean towards taking ice showers. By comparison, we might fast to get over certain specific illnesses and this probably is part of what inspires many of us to take up intermittant fasting.
As the debates continue and new evidence is produced, it seems safest to say that the one benefit taking a cold shower offers is that it provides us with another mental challenge. Perhaps it can help us focus and concentrate on our breathing - whichever method we choose - that will help us manage stress in all its many artificial forms. We are martial artists, which makes us fighters in some shape or form. Perhaps our battles are more abstract and we use martial arts as a form of expression. Perhaps we train to be more effecient in handling modern interpersonal violence. Regardless of our reasonining, the prospect of dealing with an extreme sensation like cold water hitting our skin can be a good exercise in mental preparation. As the article advises, this does not need to be a prolonged activity. Indeed, much like certain balancing, flexion and extension poses, there is a safe limit that should be gradually attained through successive sessions and should not be exceeded. It would appear that, provided you don't have any underlying health concerns that you would be best consulting with your GP over, 20 seconds to three minutes is a fair enough range. I will leave you with the thoughts of another martial arts teacher,
Andrew Mierzwa. He
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