I’m sure you’ve seen the recent cold plunge trend on social media. Or maybe you’ve read Wim Hof’s book. Maybe you even have friends who have recently gotten into ice baths and you might be wondering if it’s as beneficial as everyone seems to say.

And it’s not just ice baths! Saunas, HIIT training, breath work, fasting, and Keto have all gained traction recently, even though most of these are anything but new! In fact, humans have been using ice baths and saunas for health purposes for thousands of years! Our ancestors found health benefits from these “trends. But how do they benefit our bodies? And how can we take the plunge responsibly?

Are trends like ice baths beneficial?

The short answer is, yes. Ice baths, sauna, HIIT training, and intermittent fasting are good for you because they make your cells more resilient. It’s called hormetic stress. All of those things place acute, or short-lived, stress on your body. And that is a good thing. They help you get rid of dead cells, they improve your body’s uptake of glucose, help your mental clarity, and boost fat loss.

However, just like everything else in the health and wellness world, too much is not a good thing. 

Think about a HIIT training session. You put an acute stress on your body which breaks down your muscles. Then you stop and your muscles are able to recover and become stronger. But if you do intense training for hours and hours and hours, you’ll get injured. Your body will start to break down. The same is true with any stressor. 

Hormetic stressors aren’t always beneficial

If you’re under a lot of emotional stress – whether it’s work, kids, spouse, etc – your body will go into a fight or flight response. That means increased blood pressure, sending glucose into the blood, slowed digestion, and a shutdown prefrontal cortex (where the logical thinking happens). This also means increased cortisol which tells your body to store fat, release insulin, and burn muscle.

When your body is already under a lot of long-term stress, you shouldn’t add more and expect it to help. If you’re in fight or flight mode, an ice bath will do more harm than good. You need to reduce the emotional stress before you add any acute stressors. 

So if you’re like me and you are going 1000 miles an hour in 15 different directions and you're about to lose your mind, now is not the time to start cold plunging. Now is the time to start going for walks, doing some deep breathing and meditation, and introducing some easy exercise with some weightlifting. Then, as you start to reduce your emotional stress, you can start adding these other stressors.

When you give your body short bouts of acute, hormetic stress, it learns how to be more resilient. It learns how to come back better and stronger. Don’t do it all at once! And please get some expert advice before you introduce a new trend into your life! Even if you don’t talk to me, talk to someone. Make sure that your integrating it in a way that will truly benefit your health!