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This article is part of a series:
→ Part 1 — Hypothermia
→ Part 2 — Risk management
→ Part 3 — Cold acclimation
Also check out my related series on:
Training & racing in the heat.
→ Part 1 — Hypothermia
→ Part 2 — Risk management
→ Part 3 — Cold acclimation
Also check out my related series on:
Training & racing in the heat.
Training & racing in the cold. Part 3 of 3:
Cold acclimation — can you acclimate to brace the cold?
Thomas Solomon PhD.
First released: 28th Feb 2020.Updated & re-released: 16th Oct 2021.
In Part 1 of this series I discussed the risks of winter training and in Part 2 I described the approaches you might take to help mitigate the risks of hypothermia. To conclude this series on training in the cold, I will help you learn from Wim Hof, Korean sea-diving women, and marine mammals. Stay with me to find out whether you can acclimate to the cold.
Reading time ~17-mins (3400-words).
Or listen to the Podcast version.
Or listen to the Podcast version.
Exposing your skin to cold air decreases your sweat rate, heart rate, and breathing rate to prevent body heat loss and conserve energy. Inhalation of cold air constricts the bronchioles in your lungs, which reduces the volume of air you can inhale per minute (tidal volume) and your oxygen consumption rate (VO2). Immersion in cold water causes similar responses but with the added danger of a greater transfer of heat away from your body. As explained in Part 1 of this series, these are the reasons that exercise in the cold generally reduces exercise performance.
Most runners will be exposed to cold conditions at some point. Athletes competing in obstacle course races (OCR) are additionally exposed to multiple and/or prolonged water immersions and full-submersions, either through dunking, wading, or swimming in cold water and/or ice. Today, I would like to help you learn how to acclimate to such conditions.
There are plenty of anecdotes about individuals who can endure the cold for prolonged periods. Wim Hof has gained recent notoriety for his “cold endurance” feats of standing in ice while wearing just underpants. He has built a mass-following around his “Wim Hof Method” to promote well-being using cyclic hyperventilation followed by breath-holding, cold exposure and meditation. While the original “Hoff” from the 1980s was more at home on a beach, he could withstand the cold of the ocean in just his underpants (well, speedos). Our modern-day Hof, known as “the Iceman”, shares 80s Hoff’s speedo-clad cold resilience and a number of case studies using state-of-the-art methodology to probe his biology have been published. Using hyperventilation to increase sympathetic activation is not unique to the Hof; elevated heart rate is a typical response to it. What is special is the ability to sit in ice for up to around 2-hours, a feat that only a few humans on this planet have achieved.
What explains that?
Firstly, not many people feel the need to purposefully sit in ice for 2 hours, but the Hof has a large vasoconstriction response to cold in his skin, which retains heat, indicative of habituation to frequent cold exposure. It has also been demonstrated that when the Hof uses cyclic hyperventilation prior to cold exposure, it activates primary control centres for detecting pain/cold stimuli promoting a painkilling-like response. Furthermore, his breathing method activates cortical areas of his brain that are associated with focus during adverse stimuli, like the cold. During cold exposure experiments, the Hof uses forceful respiration (hyperventilation), which imaging studies have shown to increase sympathetic activation and glucose oxidation in vigorously-contracting respiratory muscles, generating heat that dissipates to the lungs and warms circulating blood. During cold “max tests”, the Hof also uses a g-Tummo like breathing practice, which involves isometric muscle contraction combined with meditative visualization of flames, that similarly increases heat production when people are exposed to cold.
Hyperventilating prior to an underwater breath-hold, a practice that has long been employed by free-divers, is dangerous. Yes, it makes it easier to resist the urge to breathe for longer but lowering the safety net of the blood CO2 level can prolong the need to resurface beyond the time at which blood oxygen has dropped below a level that will cause a loss of consciousness. Drowning is not a prudent goal. So, please do not use hyperventilation prior to full body water immersion, and hence, breath-hold, in a race!
Like anyone who does out-of-the-ordinary things, Wim Hof is indeed fun to read about. But, is he some kind of wizard? Nope, just a chap who has acclimated to cold conditions over the years and uses methods to generate heat and feelings of warmth. Will g-Tummo like breathing help you during a race? No. Holding isometric contractions while trying to run is insane. Will visualising flames during running in the cold help warm you up? Who knows; but, unlike real flames, it won’t hurt, so long as you can fully concentrate on the terrain. (Note: I went deep on breath holding in a separate article here.)
While Wim Hof, who has cold-acclimated over many years, does not have off-the-chart levels of brown adipose tissue, there is some evidence that repeated cold exposure, for example 2-hours/day, 5-days/week for 4 weeks, may increase the levels of brown adipose tissue in your body and that this may decrease muscular shivering intensity in response to acute cold exposure, but that this does not increase whole-body thermogenesis. This would indicate that, despite the presence of brown adipose tissue in adult humans, cold-induced spontaneous muscle contractions aka shivering is our preferred source of heat production when exposed to cold conditions.
Observational studies of divers wearing protective gear in Antarctic conditions also support a role for cold acclimation following frequent cold water scuba diving, showing increased insulative adaptation and reduced skin heat loss with delayed onset of shivering. Encouragingly, there is evidence supporting the role of daily cold water exposure for facilitating cold acclimation. In one study, six men underwent ten daily cold water baths in 15°C for 30-60 min — this reduced cold-induced muscle pain and enhanced the vascular response to cold reducing heat loss. Habituation can also occur, specifically in the hands, leading to warmer skin temperatures and less discomfort when exposed to cold. Evidence for this can be found in subjects who “trained” by immersing their index fingers in ice-water for 20-minutes four times daily for a month.
With racing in mind, it is important to think about manual dexterity. Runners often need to tie laces, open food packets, and remove lids from drinks bottles. OCR athletes additionally need to climb ropes, hang on rigs, and complete tasks requiring high levels of manual dexterity. Cold-induced pain in hands and/or loss of dexterity can be race-ending. Comparisons of finger temperature and finger pain during up to 30-minutes of finger immersion in cold water showed no differences between cold-acclimated Antarctic scuba divers and regular folk. Furthermore, during cold exposure at 5°C, cold-weather athletes do not perform better than regular folk on the Purdue Pegboard test, which measures visually-guided large movements of the arm and hands and fine motor skills of the fingers. However, with much more relevance to race-like scenarios, cold acclimation has been examined during hand-grip exercise. In these studies, cold acclimation in the hand was related to warmer skin temperatures and increased peripheral blood flow, and although ATP use during hand-grip exercise was unchanged, the recovery of phosphocreatine following hand-grip exercise was increased. Such findings indicate that while “cold training” may not improve the dexterity of your (cold) hands, importantly, it may reduce the time it takes you to recover from a cold exposure. So, cold training may be useful, but the need for appropriate clothing should never be forgotten, especially the layering of gloves possibly with neoprene in order to maintain manual dexterity during training or racing in cold conditions.
The evidence suggesting that you can acclimate to the cold is compelling yet the physiological adjustments to chronic cold exposure are small, slow to develop, and variable between individuals (this is in great contrast to the rapid adaptations to heat acclimation; see my article here). Athletes exposing themselves to cold weather may acclimate but my experience is that they find the adaptations to be meagre unless the exposure is rather severe and over many months. However, since some data shows that cold weather athletes have greater exercise economy during cycling at submaximal intensities when riding in cold conditions at 5oC when compared to non-cold acclimated subjects, cold weather training may be prudent if your event will be in the cold - “leave no stone unturned”.
Marine mammals, like dolphins, have a very strong dive response and are able to adapt to cold water dives very rapidly and continue to allow oxygen to reach the heart and brain for long durations while being active. Our dive response is comparatively weak and cold water immersion causes a whole bunch of physiological responses that prevent efficient muscular activity in order to keep our “think centre” running smoothly. As Bill Murray once said, “Son of a bitch, I'm sick of these dolphins.”. But, just like our flippered-friends, we see a surge in blood lactate levels and hyperventilation upon rising back to the surface after cold water immersion (yes, there is a lot of cool exercise physiology data collected from Dolphins). In many people, the dive response elicits a form of panic. It is important to know that the full dive response only occurs if your face is immersed, so aiming to keep your head out of the water during a race is very sensible.
In 2010, I went diving in Silfra, a glacial melt pool in the heart of Þingvellir National Park in Iceland. On arrival, I donned my drysuit and was given the option of climbing down into the water or cliff diving into it. The latter option sounded cool and all I had read was that the water would be cold; I opted for the jump. When I hit the water, I entered panic mode. The water at Silfra tends to be just around 2 to 3°C, close to freezing. I will never know how much my spleen contracted but other parts of me definitely did!
Just like my experience in Silfra, cold water immersion during an obstacle race can come as a shock. Full submersion will force a dive response and, when you resurface, you will hyperventilate, finding it hard to catch your breath and possibly even see stars. Knowing when it is coming and staying calm is critical. With the exception of Kevin Costner, we humans have not evolved to be aquatic and are generally not well adapted to cold water. So, the key question is, “Can you train to become cold resilient?”.
Diving into Silfra, a glacial melt pool in Iceland.
Image Copyright © Thomas Solomon. All rights reserved.
As I have done when teaching physiology to medical students and exercise science undergrads, there are some simple things you can do to simulate the dive response in the comfort and safety of your own home. To exploit them and help yourself “train” for the cold, developing the following methods using progressive training approaches where the duration and frequency of immersions are gradually increased over several weeks:
IMPORTANT: If you have cardiovascular disease or asthma, do not proceed, you should consult your doctor first — there is an increased risk of complications following cold water immersion and breath-holding, which can trigger cardiac muscle spasm or exercise-induced bronchoconstriction.
This is not to be ignored!
Cold water hand immersion.
Repeated, short, daily bouts. Experimental and empirical evidence suggests that this may help you fumble through a cold race day and better recovery from an immersion.
Cold-water face-spray.
Experience the dive response. Empirical evidence suggests this will help you learn to control your breathing upon water immersion. Buy a water spray bottle from a garden centre, fill it with cold water. Sit down and maintain a steady breathing rhythm. Spray water directly onto your face (5-10 sprays) and try to maintain steady breathing (you will hyperventilate and feel uncomfortable). Dry your face, rest for 1-2-minutes, repeat.
Cold water face-submersion snorkel breathing.
Train safe — never do alone. Learn to manage your reaction to the dive response. Empirical evidence suggests this will help you learn to control your breathing upon water immersion. Buy a well-fitting snorkel, adjust it so no water may inlet into the facemask. Fill a sink or a bucket with cold water. Sit down in front of the bucket/sink and practise breathing until you are breathing normally through your mouth into the snorkel. Submerge your face into the water and try to maintain a steady breathing rhythm through the snorkel (you will hyperventilate - if you feel uncomfortable, remove your head from the water). Once you feel comfortable with the face submersion, build yourself up to doing repeated and longer bouts.
Cold water shower breathing practice.
Train safe — never do alone. Master your reaction to cold water immersion and practice controlling your breathing. Empirical evidence suggests this will help you learn to control your breathing upon water immersion.
Cold water bathing.
Train safe — never do alone. Jedi-level cold water immersion (no lightsabers needed). Practice your breathing. Empirical evidence suggests this will help you learn to control your breathing upon water immersion. Experimental evidence indicates that this may help you cold acclimate BUT, as I discussed in my recovery magic tool, using cold baths as a “recovery” tool has variable effects on exercise performance, so proceed with caution.
All of these approaches can be done in the comfort and safety of your own home. As I stress for some of the exercises above, never do them alone — always have someone with you.
Thanks for joining me on this chilly series in the cold. I am passionate about equality in access to free education. If you find value in my content, please help keep it alive by sharing it on social media and buying me a beer at buymeacoffee.com/thomas.solomon. For more knowledge, join me @thomaspjsolomon on Twitter, follow @veohtu on Facebook and Instagram, subscribe to my free email updates at veothu.com/subscribe, and visit veohtu.com to check out my other Articles, Nerd Alerts, Free Training Tools, and my Train Smart Framework. To learn while you train, you can even listen to my articles by subscribing to the Veohtu podcast.
Most runners will be exposed to cold conditions at some point. Athletes competing in obstacle course races (OCR) are additionally exposed to multiple and/or prolonged water immersions and full-submersions, either through dunking, wading, or swimming in cold water and/or ice. Today, I would like to help you learn how to acclimate to such conditions.
What is cold acclimation?
Cold acclimation means increasing your ability to maintain thermal balance, i.e. keeping normal core temperature, upon exposure to cold conditions. You may either habituate, so your normal physiological responses to cold become reduced, i.e. you might experience warmer skin temperatures and decreased discomfort when exposed to cold; or, you might undergo metabolic changes where your thermogenic response to cold becomes altered, i.e. like an exaggerated shivering response so you are able to produce more heat; or, you might develop insulative changes where you become more able to conserve body heat via changed vasoconstriction in the skin.There are plenty of anecdotes about individuals who can endure the cold for prolonged periods. Wim Hof has gained recent notoriety for his “cold endurance” feats of standing in ice while wearing just underpants. He has built a mass-following around his “Wim Hof Method” to promote well-being using cyclic hyperventilation followed by breath-holding, cold exposure and meditation. While the original “Hoff” from the 1980s was more at home on a beach, he could withstand the cold of the ocean in just his underpants (well, speedos). Our modern-day Hof, known as “the Iceman”, shares 80s Hoff’s speedo-clad cold resilience and a number of case studies using state-of-the-art methodology to probe his biology have been published. Using hyperventilation to increase sympathetic activation is not unique to the Hof; elevated heart rate is a typical response to it. What is special is the ability to sit in ice for up to around 2-hours, a feat that only a few humans on this planet have achieved.
What explains that?
Firstly, not many people feel the need to purposefully sit in ice for 2 hours, but the Hof has a large vasoconstriction response to cold in his skin, which retains heat, indicative of habituation to frequent cold exposure. It has also been demonstrated that when the Hof uses cyclic hyperventilation prior to cold exposure, it activates primary control centres for detecting pain/cold stimuli promoting a painkilling-like response. Furthermore, his breathing method activates cortical areas of his brain that are associated with focus during adverse stimuli, like the cold. During cold exposure experiments, the Hof uses forceful respiration (hyperventilation), which imaging studies have shown to increase sympathetic activation and glucose oxidation in vigorously-contracting respiratory muscles, generating heat that dissipates to the lungs and warms circulating blood. During cold “max tests”, the Hof also uses a g-Tummo like breathing practice, which involves isometric muscle contraction combined with meditative visualization of flames, that similarly increases heat production when people are exposed to cold.
Will hyperventilating and breath-holding help you “resist” the cold?
There is no magic behind using prior hyperventilation to prolong your ability to hold your breath. The cells in your body use fuel and oxygen to produce ATP. This process yields carbon dioxide (CO2). When we hold our breath, our cells continue to use oxygen and our brain senses the accumulating CO2 level in our blood as an increase in acidity (lower pH), which eventually acts as a trigger for you to breathe. Oxygen saturation of blood leaving our lungs is around 99% so hyperventilation prior to a breath-hold does not increase blood oxygen levels. Instead, hyperventilation lowers the level of CO2, reducing acidity, and thereby allowing you to resist the urge to breath for longer. Essentially, hyperventilation gives you the impression that you do not need to breathe by delaying the signal to your brain that tells you to do so. Of course, the longer you hold your breath, the lower oxygen levels in your blood will drop which, if you do not resume breathing, will starve the brain and cause unconsciousness.Hyperventilating prior to an underwater breath-hold, a practice that has long been employed by free-divers, is dangerous. Yes, it makes it easier to resist the urge to breathe for longer but lowering the safety net of the blood CO2 level can prolong the need to resurface beyond the time at which blood oxygen has dropped below a level that will cause a loss of consciousness. Drowning is not a prudent goal. So, please do not use hyperventilation prior to full body water immersion, and hence, breath-hold, in a race!
Like anyone who does out-of-the-ordinary things, Wim Hof is indeed fun to read about. But, is he some kind of wizard? Nope, just a chap who has acclimated to cold conditions over the years and uses methods to generate heat and feelings of warmth. Will g-Tummo like breathing help you during a race? No. Holding isometric contractions while trying to run is insane. Will visualising flames during running in the cold help warm you up? Who knows; but, unlike real flames, it won’t hurt, so long as you can fully concentrate on the terrain. (Note: I went deep on breath holding in a separate article here.)
What about your brown fat - will that keep you warm?
The fat tissue that sits under your skin and around your visceral organs is called white adipose tissue. It has several functions, including insulative properties that keep you warm at rest and during exercise, but its starring role in your body is to store lipid (fat droplets) that can be released into the blood to be used as fuel. There is also another type of fat called brown adipose tissue, which is a thermogenic type of fat that metabolises fuel to increase body heat. Hibernating animals have plenty of it; small rodents and newborn baby humans are endowed with it, and, more recently, it was discovered that adult humans also have some of it albeit, in small amounts situated mostly in the neck and around the kidneys. Brown adipose tissue is activated by adrenergic stimuli, the two of relevance here being exercise and cold exposure, which both increase adrenaline (epinephrine) levels, activating brown adipose tissue to produce heat. For more info, my good friend, former colleague, and rock star in this field, Dr Camilla Scheele, has written a nice review.While Wim Hof, who has cold-acclimated over many years, does not have off-the-chart levels of brown adipose tissue, there is some evidence that repeated cold exposure, for example 2-hours/day, 5-days/week for 4 weeks, may increase the levels of brown adipose tissue in your body and that this may decrease muscular shivering intensity in response to acute cold exposure, but that this does not increase whole-body thermogenesis. This would indicate that, despite the presence of brown adipose tissue in adult humans, cold-induced spontaneous muscle contractions aka shivering is our preferred source of heat production when exposed to cold conditions.
Can you acclimate to the cold?
It is difficult to study long-term cold acclimation in humans. Wim Hof’s resilience to cold through his many years of repeated cold exposure has not been followed; instead, a “snapshot” has been taken after years of practice. This would be like measuring a random athlete’s VO2max today and saying, “it is large” but not being able to say how or why it is large because you lack a detailed training log or any informative data to see whether their VO2max has changed over the years. Fortunately, evidence for cold acclimation can be found by studying Korean breath-hold women divers, called haenyeo. Studies show that their body insulation (measured as the rate of skin heat loss relative to the difference between core temperature and skin temperature) was superior to non-divers, even when body fat levels were matched, and that their circulatory countercurrent heat exchange was enhanced, reducing their heat loss. These women are also able to withstand colder water immersion without shivering. Until the late 1970s, the haenyeo had dived for around 2000-years wearing cotton suits. Within 5-years of switching to neoprene wetsuits, which prevent cold stress by reducing body heat loss, the haenyeo had lost their thermoregulatory superiority, indicating that these traditional divers had indeed developed insulative cold acclimation to their daily exposure to cold while diving. So, yes, theoretically you, like the haenyeo are able to acclimate to the cold.Observational studies of divers wearing protective gear in Antarctic conditions also support a role for cold acclimation following frequent cold water scuba diving, showing increased insulative adaptation and reduced skin heat loss with delayed onset of shivering. Encouragingly, there is evidence supporting the role of daily cold water exposure for facilitating cold acclimation. In one study, six men underwent ten daily cold water baths in 15°C for 30-60 min — this reduced cold-induced muscle pain and enhanced the vascular response to cold reducing heat loss. Habituation can also occur, specifically in the hands, leading to warmer skin temperatures and less discomfort when exposed to cold. Evidence for this can be found in subjects who “trained” by immersing their index fingers in ice-water for 20-minutes four times daily for a month.
With racing in mind, it is important to think about manual dexterity. Runners often need to tie laces, open food packets, and remove lids from drinks bottles. OCR athletes additionally need to climb ropes, hang on rigs, and complete tasks requiring high levels of manual dexterity. Cold-induced pain in hands and/or loss of dexterity can be race-ending. Comparisons of finger temperature and finger pain during up to 30-minutes of finger immersion in cold water showed no differences between cold-acclimated Antarctic scuba divers and regular folk. Furthermore, during cold exposure at 5°C, cold-weather athletes do not perform better than regular folk on the Purdue Pegboard test, which measures visually-guided large movements of the arm and hands and fine motor skills of the fingers. However, with much more relevance to race-like scenarios, cold acclimation has been examined during hand-grip exercise. In these studies, cold acclimation in the hand was related to warmer skin temperatures and increased peripheral blood flow, and although ATP use during hand-grip exercise was unchanged, the recovery of phosphocreatine following hand-grip exercise was increased. Such findings indicate that while “cold training” may not improve the dexterity of your (cold) hands, importantly, it may reduce the time it takes you to recover from a cold exposure. So, cold training may be useful, but the need for appropriate clothing should never be forgotten, especially the layering of gloves possibly with neoprene in order to maintain manual dexterity during training or racing in cold conditions.
The evidence suggesting that you can acclimate to the cold is compelling yet the physiological adjustments to chronic cold exposure are small, slow to develop, and variable between individuals (this is in great contrast to the rapid adaptations to heat acclimation; see my article here). Athletes exposing themselves to cold weather may acclimate but my experience is that they find the adaptations to be meagre unless the exposure is rather severe and over many months. However, since some data shows that cold weather athletes have greater exercise economy during cycling at submaximal intensities when riding in cold conditions at 5oC when compared to non-cold acclimated subjects, cold weather training may be prudent if your event will be in the cold - “leave no stone unturned”.
But, beware of daily cold water immersion.
From a recovery and training adaptation perspective, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING to know about cold water immersion is the difference between its acute vs. chronic effect… While systematic reviews and meta-analyses show that cold water immersion may help improve feelings of soreness (see here, here, here, and here) and rapidly recover sprint performance muscular power (see here and here) if you need to be ready to go again within hours (read all about that in my Recovery magic tool and how to recover article), the caveat is that cold water immersion also reduces training adaptations by blunting molecular signalling in muscle and suppressing muscle protein synthesis while blunting strength gains following resistance training. The inhibitory effect of cold therapy on endurance training adaptations is less pronounced, but regular cold therapy does not improve endurance performance. So, using cold water immersion daily is not advisable if you want to optimally recover and appropriately adapt to your sessions.Enter cold water. Enter panic mode.
If you compete in obstacle course races, you must not only be resilient to cold water but you must also learn to deal with the immediate response to cold water immersion. Breath-holding combined with face immersion in cold water decreases arterial oxygen levels causing the spleen to contract, which rapidly elevates blood levels of haemoglobin and erythropoietin (EPO). This is the classic “dive response”, which occurs in all mammals of the air-breathing world and shows the same effects throughout: peripheral vasoconstriction, slowed heart rate (bradycardia), reduced cardiac output, and redistribution of blood flow to the brain to provide oxygen. The dive response is essentially a life-preserving safety mechanism.Marine mammals, like dolphins, have a very strong dive response and are able to adapt to cold water dives very rapidly and continue to allow oxygen to reach the heart and brain for long durations while being active. Our dive response is comparatively weak and cold water immersion causes a whole bunch of physiological responses that prevent efficient muscular activity in order to keep our “think centre” running smoothly. As Bill Murray once said, “Son of a bitch, I'm sick of these dolphins.”. But, just like our flippered-friends, we see a surge in blood lactate levels and hyperventilation upon rising back to the surface after cold water immersion (yes, there is a lot of cool exercise physiology data collected from Dolphins). In many people, the dive response elicits a form of panic. It is important to know that the full dive response only occurs if your face is immersed, so aiming to keep your head out of the water during a race is very sensible.
In 2010, I went diving in Silfra, a glacial melt pool in the heart of Þingvellir National Park in Iceland. On arrival, I donned my drysuit and was given the option of climbing down into the water or cliff diving into it. The latter option sounded cool and all I had read was that the water would be cold; I opted for the jump. When I hit the water, I entered panic mode. The water at Silfra tends to be just around 2 to 3°C, close to freezing. I will never know how much my spleen contracted but other parts of me definitely did!
Just like my experience in Silfra, cold water immersion during an obstacle race can come as a shock. Full submersion will force a dive response and, when you resurface, you will hyperventilate, finding it hard to catch your breath and possibly even see stars. Knowing when it is coming and staying calm is critical. With the exception of Kevin Costner, we humans have not evolved to be aquatic and are generally not well adapted to cold water. So, the key question is, “Can you train to become cold resilient?”.
Image Copyright © Thomas Solomon. All rights reserved.
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What can you do to acclimate to race-day cold water immersion?
The dive reflex is an autonomic process. Overriding it is essentially impossible. But being aware of the physiological signs will help prepare you for it and anticipating when the cold immersion is coming will help you reduce panic, stay calm and in control, thus minimising wasteful energy expenditure on flapping around. Besides being well-prepared with your physical condition and your nutrition and clothing (Part 2), resilience to the cold is something both trail runners and obstacle course racers must possess. At the Spartan World Championships in 2018, a swim at the top of the first mountain summit caused chaos. The air temperature was close to zero Celcius and the wind speed was high. It felt cold, really cold. Upon entering the lake, I immediately knew the swim would be an ordeal. Sure enough, it was tough. The constant freezing of one’s skin and musculature could be felt. It was carnage - many were pulled from the race at that point, suffering from hypothermia. During the swim, I remember meeting a certain Spartan Nomad who was in similar shape to me: just about resisting the dark side. We swam together, encouraged each other, and after a few minutes of wishing I was a Dolphin, we had endured and were back into our running. After the race, I remember thinking about how useful cold water preparation had been on my OCR journey.As I have done when teaching physiology to medical students and exercise science undergrads, there are some simple things you can do to simulate the dive response in the comfort and safety of your own home. To exploit them and help yourself “train” for the cold, developing the following methods using progressive training approaches where the duration and frequency of immersions are gradually increased over several weeks:
IMPORTANT: If you have cardiovascular disease or asthma, do not proceed, you should consult your doctor first — there is an increased risk of complications following cold water immersion and breath-holding, which can trigger cardiac muscle spasm or exercise-induced bronchoconstriction.
This is not to be ignored!
Cold water hand immersion.
Repeated, short, daily bouts. Experimental and empirical evidence suggests that this may help you fumble through a cold race day and better recovery from an immersion.
Cold-water face-spray.
Experience the dive response. Empirical evidence suggests this will help you learn to control your breathing upon water immersion. Buy a water spray bottle from a garden centre, fill it with cold water. Sit down and maintain a steady breathing rhythm. Spray water directly onto your face (5-10 sprays) and try to maintain steady breathing (you will hyperventilate and feel uncomfortable). Dry your face, rest for 1-2-minutes, repeat.
Cold water face-submersion snorkel breathing.
Train safe — never do alone. Learn to manage your reaction to the dive response. Empirical evidence suggests this will help you learn to control your breathing upon water immersion. Buy a well-fitting snorkel, adjust it so no water may inlet into the facemask. Fill a sink or a bucket with cold water. Sit down in front of the bucket/sink and practise breathing until you are breathing normally through your mouth into the snorkel. Submerge your face into the water and try to maintain a steady breathing rhythm through the snorkel (you will hyperventilate - if you feel uncomfortable, remove your head from the water). Once you feel comfortable with the face submersion, build yourself up to doing repeated and longer bouts.
Cold water shower breathing practice.
Train safe — never do alone. Master your reaction to cold water immersion and practice controlling your breathing. Empirical evidence suggests this will help you learn to control your breathing upon water immersion.
Cold water bathing.
Train safe — never do alone. Jedi-level cold water immersion (no lightsabers needed). Practice your breathing. Empirical evidence suggests this will help you learn to control your breathing upon water immersion. Experimental evidence indicates that this may help you cold acclimate BUT, as I discussed in my recovery magic tool, using cold baths as a “recovery” tool has variable effects on exercise performance, so proceed with caution.
What can you add to your icy training toolbox?
No study has examined the effect of cold tolerance training on running performance. Therefore, there is no experimental evidence to support that dedicating large amounts of time to adapting to the cold will win you your race. Furthermore, daily cold water immersion will blunt the very training adaptations you are trying to achieve. Yes, investing some time on cold habituating your hands and learning how to deal with your dive response is sensible. This will prepare you for the shock of entering unexpectedly cold water during a race. But, as you continue on your quest to train smart, always focus on the areas where you will definitely make performance gains — training well, eating well, and sleeping well, and, when exposed to the cold, to use appropriate clothing and feeding approaches (as discussed in Part 2). In other words, always ripen the low-hanging fruit before reaching for the unknown. Until next time, keep training smart!Thanks for joining me on this chilly series in the cold. I am passionate about equality in access to free education. If you find value in my content, please help keep it alive by sharing it on social media and buying me a beer at buymeacoffee.com/thomas.solomon. For more knowledge, join me @thomaspjsolomon on Twitter, follow @veohtu on Facebook and Instagram, subscribe to my free email updates at veothu.com/subscribe, and visit veohtu.com to check out my other Articles, Nerd Alerts, Free Training Tools, and my Train Smart Framework. To learn while you train, you can even listen to my articles by subscribing to the Veohtu podcast.
Disclaimer: I occasionally mention brands and products but it is important to know that I am not affiliated with, sponsored by, an ambassador for, or receiving advertisement royalties from any brands. I have conducted biomedical research for which I have received research money from publicly-funded national research councils and medical charities, and also from private companies, including Novo Nordisk Foundation, AstraZeneca, Amylin, A.P. Møller Foundation, and Augustinus Foundation. I’ve also consulted for Boost Treadmills and Gu Energy on their research and innovation grant applications and I’ve provided research and science writing services for Examine — some of my articles contain links to information provided by Examine but I do not receive any royalties or bonuses from those links. These companies had no control over the research design, data analysis, or publication outcomes of my work. Any recommendations I make are, and always will be, based on my own views and opinions shaped by the evidence available. My recommendations have never and will never be influenced by affiliations, sponsorships, advertisement royalties, etc. The information I provide is not medical advice. Before making any changes to your habits of daily living based on any information I provide, always ensure it is safe for you to do so and consult your doctor if you are unsure.
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I am Thomas Solomon and I'm passionate about relaying accurate and clear scientific information to the masses to help folks meet their fitness and performance goals. I hold a BSc in Biochemistry and a PhD in Exercise Science and am an ACSM-certified Exercise Physiologist and Personal Trainer, a VDOT-certified Distance running coach, and a Registered Nutritionist. Since 2002, I have conducted biomedical research in exercise and nutrition and have taught and led university courses in exercise physiology, nutrition, biochemistry, and molecular medicine. My work is published in over 80 peer-reviewed medical journal publications and I have delivered more than 50 conference presentations & invited talks at universities and medical societies. I have coached and provided training plans for truck-loads of athletes, have competed at a high level in running, cycling, and obstacle course racing, and continue to run, ride, ski, hike, lift, and climb as much as my ageing body will allow. To stay on top of scientific developments, I consult for scientists, participate in journal clubs, peer-review papers for medical journals, and I invest every Friday in reading what new delights have spawned onto PubMed. In my spare time, I hunt for phenomenal mountain views to capture through the lens, boulder problems to solve, and for new craft beers to drink with the goal of sending my gustatory system into a hullabaloo.
Copyright © Thomas Solomon. All rights reserved.
I am Thomas Solomon and I'm passionate about relaying accurate and clear scientific information to the masses to help folks meet their fitness and performance goals. I hold a BSc in Biochemistry and a PhD in Exercise Science and am an ACSM-certified Exercise Physiologist and Personal Trainer, a VDOT-certified Distance running coach, and a Registered Nutritionist. Since 2002, I have conducted biomedical research in exercise and nutrition and have taught and led university courses in exercise physiology, nutrition, biochemistry, and molecular medicine. My work is published in over 80 peer-reviewed medical journal publications and I have delivered more than 50 conference presentations & invited talks at universities and medical societies. I have coached and provided training plans for truck-loads of athletes, have competed at a high level in running, cycling, and obstacle course racing, and continue to run, ride, ski, hike, lift, and climb as much as my ageing body will allow. To stay on top of scientific developments, I consult for scientists, participate in journal clubs, peer-review papers for medical journals, and I invest every Friday in reading what new delights have spawned onto PubMed. In my spare time, I hunt for phenomenal mountain views to capture through the lens, boulder problems to solve, and for new craft beers to drink with the goal of sending my gustatory system into a hullabaloo.
Copyright © Thomas Solomon. All rights reserved.