‘So how’s the ice bath thing going?’
‘Yeh, not too bad!!’
This response, of course, is actually a shorthand for….challenging, torturous, uncomfortable, exhilarating and…strangely addictive!
After three consecutive days of cold water immersion using the Lumi recovery pod, at 30 seconds a time (and minus one accidentally skipped day) I am more convinced than ever, that the benefits of this approach lie as much in the mental strength it cultivates, as they do in the supposed metabolic and circulatory advantages.
Of course, the physical effects are still pretty noteworthy, even in the early days before any cumulative gains have begun to manifest.
For starters, there’s the almost caffeine-like ‘high’, which even from my limited experience, is compensation enough for the fact that most of the real physical gains, are slower in the making (a product of consistency and commitment.)
For me, what’s even more satisfying than this quick-fix ‘hit’ of vitality, and the promise of peak immune health in the months and years to come, is the silent epiphany that is brewing behind the scenes.
What this relates to, is the victory of ‘mind over matter’ that each immersion represents.
It’s a shot in the arm for one’s sense of ‘can do,’ and I’m finding the afterglow of this effect, is best enabling me to quantify cold water therapy, as a useful ‘health tool.’
In all honesty, getting into the water each time does still feel like a wrench, but I can foresee that with persistence, this will inevitably (hopefully) become easier.
The key - I’ve deduced - is more haste. A bit like the ‘bandaid’ theory, cold water immersion is one situation where easy-does-it… just doesn’t cut it.
I know this, because I learned the hard way!
On day one, I dithered and procrastinated for no less than ten minutes, and this was a decision which I can now appreciate - with the benefit of hindsight - merely prolonged the agony!
What I’m therefore trying to practice instead, going forward, is a more ‘just GO!!’ approach.
It’s a mindset which bulldozes the instinctive ‘f*c* that’s freezing’ response, and in so doing, extricates emotion and conscious thought, from the ‘doing’ equation.
Off the back of the two occasions I’ve actually managed to put this into practice, the ‘force of mind’ theory has been brought into sharper focus.
In other words, the science of how being a master (and not a slave) to one’s thoughts, can assist in overcoming so many and varied obstacles to self-improvement - with ice cold water, among the least of them!