There are many ways to experience the benefits of cold water – from jumping into a frozen lake to high-end spa experiences.
Multiple factors will influence your experience with each of these modalities, such as the water temperature, duration of your cold exposure and the position you’re in when you’re in the ice bath.
Cold therapy techniques and body positions
There are three basic body postures you might be in when you experience cold water:
- Standing
- Crouched or seated
- Lying or lounging
What position you’re in is probably going to depend on where and how you’re experiencing cold therapy. In a cold shower, for example, you’re probably standing up. If you’re taking ice baths in a horse trough or bathtub, you’re likely to be lying back or in a lounging position.
Before we created the Ice Barrel, we wanted to learn more about how our bodies respond to cold water. One of the things we did was take groups of people to a cold lake and observe how they responded to the experience when they weren’t confined to a certain position.
What we found was that our body tends to take on a natural crouched position when exposed to cold water.
This makes sense when we think about what’s happening in our bodies during cold exposure. When you get in cold water, you’re activating your body’s natural fight-or flight response. This makes your chest, shoulders and core muscles tighten.
It’s not natural for us to lean back into a relaxed position. Instead, our body’s instinct is to lean in and engage, and an upright posture allows us to fully experience that response.
Cold showers vs. ice baths
When you compare a cold shower to an ice bath, there are two main differences to consider: temperature and water type (trickling water vs. submerging in water).
While cold showers do offer some benefits, you won’t be able to get your water nearly as cold out of a shower as you would in a bath where you could use ice or a chiller to lower the temperature to therapeutic levels.
When you submerge in water, you can expect to feel the cold temperature more consistently throughout your body.
You’ll also experience a certain amount of hydrostatic pressure — the force exerted by water due to gravity. It’s the same force that causes your ears to pop when you dive to the bottom of the pool or that scuba divers experience when they go to extreme depths.
Granted, the amount of pressure you experience in an ice bath that’s only a few feet deep will be much less than either of those examples.
Benefits of hydrostatic pressure
Hydrostatic pressure can provide a few benefits to improve your ice bath. The gentle pressure of the water around your body can:
- Reduce swelling: The pressure gently pushes excess fluid from your tissues so they can be circulated and eliminated. This can be especially helpful for swelling after an injury, for example.
- Promote blood circulation: Immersion in water creates enough pressure to compress the blood vessels (vasoconstriction), which can enhance circulation.
- Support joints and muscles: Water provides buoyancy, which reduces the gravitational pull on the body. This buoyancy can alleviate stress on joints and decrease weight-bearing load on your muscles and bones. Again, this can be particularly helpful for those with injuries who want gentle, effective relief.
- Enhance lung function: When hydrostatic pressure is applied to your chest wall, it can force us to exhale more deeply than we would normally. It also applies resistance when we inhale, making the muscles that control our breathing stronger. It’s important to note that cold water has other effects on our breathing. Cold water immersion can trigger involuntary gasping, rapid breathing or even hyperventilating, which is why it’s so important to control your breath during an ice bath.
Benefits of full body ice baths
Another question to consider when you decide what method of cold therapy is best for you is how much of your body you want to be in cold water.
An option like a bathtub or similarly shaped cold tub might work well for submerging your lower body in cold water, but depending on your height and the size of your tub, it might be difficult to fully submerge yourself.
Partial body submersion can offer localized effects. For example, submerging only the lower body (such as in cold water leg baths) can be beneficial for targeting specific muscle groups, tendons, or joints.
A full body ice bath generally provides more comprehensive physiological effects. Some benefits of a full body ice bath:
- Reducing depression, anxiety and stress
- Improving blood circulation
- Sleeping better by activating the parasympathetic nervous system
- Increasing energy and boosting mood for hours after exposure
- Building mental resilience, discipline and grit
- Boosting the immune system and increasing white blood cell count
- Reducing muscle fatigue and soreness
How deep should an ice bath be?
If you want to fully submerge in your ice bath, the water should be deep and/or wide enough to allow you to go all the way under. The Ice Barrel is 42 inches high and 31 inches wide, which can comfortably fit bodies up to 6 foot 6 inches and 300 pounds.
It’s worth noting that hydrostatic pressure increased with water depth, so an upright ice bath will provide slightly more than a shallow, reclined design.
Both the experience and benefits of an upright ice bath were carefully considered when designing the Ice Barrel.