Calm in the Chaos

Calm in the Chaos.
Choosing my Discomfort.
Voluntary Adversity.
Mindset Resilience.
The cold is my warm friend.
Feeling like a Superhero.
Makes me Happy AF.

All of these reasons point to why I regularly get in an old chest freezer filled with water and ice, sitting at around 1°C.

There are a number of argued health benefits and post workout benefits for jumping in an ice bath and I’m most certainly not qualified to give advice or an opinion on those nor am I qualified to recommend you jump in an ice bath without medical clearance. If you are keen on pursuing it, do as much of your own research as possible, see a doc, and decide if it’s right for you.
Now, I started seeing a lot of information regarding ice baths the same way most people these days do, through the work of Wim Hof. It intrigued me so I started with some of his breathing techniques and had a crack at the cold showers. Fair to say that the cold showers were shit and I had no interest in them. Cold really isn’t my strong suit.

Then through one of the online training programs I followed (EO3 Fitness) I had a little re introduction to them in Jerred’s mental toughness portion of the program. It started with 10-20secs of cold showers at the end of your normal shower, slowly building up until you can have a full cold shower. I got a few done but a lot fewer than I would have liked and honesty gave up quickly with the same excuses; I don’t like the cold, this is crap, I don’t need it to get better.

To give a deeper insight into my fear of the cold, one of the obstacle races that we participated in a few years ago (Stampede) had an ice tub about halfway through the race. I didn’t know the particulars of the obstacle but I spent the whole first half of the race as a complete anxious mess. I remember that I kept mentioning it and I just couldn’t get it off my mind. This damn ice tub was coming and I was bloody scared.

We came over one the little hills and I could see the line up of people jumping in, great, it’s time. As I got closer I realized that they had a wall in the tub that made sure that you had to go completely under to get through and resurface on the other side. Panic stations. Sweaty palms. Mind Racing.

Ughhhh it was my time.

“Should I fake an injury and pull out of the race?”

I tried to go through reasons in my head that I could skip out of this obstacle but there really wasn’t one. I jumped in, went underwater and resurfaced on the other side. It was cold, and I was slightly disoriented for a second when I first resurfaced but I jumped out and felt great.

Was that it?

All that worry, and I mean like an hour of hardly even paying attention to the race or the people around me type worrying, and that was it.

This wasn’t one of those shining moments where I all of sudden loved the cold and it was easy. As I said earlier, it didn’t get much better for a long time. But, I had the knowledge now that I could do it so that was a nice feeling to know.

Back to my beginning of regular cold exposure.

It’s been a subject that has been gaining a lot more popularity in the last couple of years and I started seeing it everywhere.

I was intrigued but still not enough to try it. Damn the cold.

Then…. one of my biggest mentors, Scott McGee, built himself a chest freezer ice bath.
When someone that you respect so much does something, it’s probably not long until you try it.

Scott converted a chest freezer into a fulltime ice bath at his house and I was hooked. Honestly it just looked so fricking cool that I wanted to build one. The DIY side of me is always yearning for something new to build.

I started talking about it with friends and discussing ideas on it all the while promising myself that I would have to start with the cold showers again to prepare myself for the ice. I didn’t do any. I avoided them and kind of just let the time roll on. I wanted to build one but second hand freezers aren’t cheap and honestly I still didn’t know if I wanted to get in it.

Then, 2 hours after discussing the idea of one with another friend, I get a message from him saying that there was a perfectly working chest freezer for sale down the road. Bargain.

I jumped on it, picked it up, and went to work on building it.
After a lot of messages with Scott and countless YouTube videos, we had ourselves our very own chest freezer ice bath dubbed “The Fortress of Solitude” perfect name for a superman fan!

Now I have a fancy home ice bath but still so much fear of getting in. We filled it up, turned it on for a night or two and after checking the temp with a thermometer, decided the time had finally come. The water was at 18°C and I was shitting. It’s funny to write that now that I only get in at temps of between 0-3°C but that’s part of the progression.
I can still clearly remember that first night. All the excuses. The fear. The hesitation and procrastination. I had been talking to Scott that week and he had loaded me up with some words of wisdom. He talked to me about the language we use and the thoughts we have about it and how that creates the fear that we attach to it. He talked about stress and adaption, about questioning myself on whether I take challenges or the easy way out. Then he hit with me some magic one liners that I still use to this day:

“Is it cold? Yeah. So what. Is it uncomfortable? Yeah. So what.”

“Cold water isn’t something to fear. It’s something to use for strength.”

“Find your calm.”

Time for 18°C.

It took my breath away, like expected, but I got under control relatively quickly and I maybe stayed in for 1min.

Cool, attempt 1 done.

Over the next few weeks I worked my way down from 18 to 0°C. Each time fighting the same hesitations and internal voices telling me to quit. Each time having to overcome them to achieve my goal.

All of a sudden, my ice bath become one of my favorite things in the world. I wanted to share it with everyone so I started inviting friends and family around for ice sessions.
It was great to share the experience and see how everyone took on the challenge and got through it. I think it’s fair to say that I’ve seen nearly every reaction imaginable by now.
Fast forward a year and a bit and it is still a huge part of my life.
I still get in regularly at 0°C and I still have to fight the little voice in my mind telling me that’s its was easier to skip this session. I fight it a lot easier than I did a year ago but it’s still there.

Every time I nearly don’t get in or if I lower my legs in and quickly stand up, I can now understand why this kind of training is so important.
Sure, it would be a lot easier to turn it off, clean it out, and sell it. I’ll never have to freeze again. But it’s such an easy way to get immediate feedback on our grit and resilience, and immediate, honest feedback isn’t easy to come about these days.

It’s an easy way to add a good stress to my life that challenges me, improves my resiliency, and it forces me to adapt.

I bloody love it and I thought that I should share that love.

Like I said earlier, best to get checked by a doctor if you’ve never tried anything like this before and to stay safe but once you do there is plenty of great resources online for getting started. I’m happy to point you in the right direction so feel free to swing me a message if you’re looking to have a dip!

Stay Inspired!
Dice