Good Morning ☀️

It’s been exceptionally cold over the past week so I thought what better stack to bring to you today than a cold therapy stack.

This stack primarily contains science-backed advice from Susanna Soeberg, a cold and heat exposure expert, however, there are a few extra notes that are taken from other biohackers.

The Stack

The cold therapy stack is divided into two sections; cold therapy via a shower or full body submersion. Showers are the cheapest way to go about this, (unless you live next to a wild body of water, in which case this is your best route) or you can use ice baths to submerge your body to achieve the benefits.

Cold Shower

1. Start your cold therapy with 30 seconds of exposure - this is the optimum time to gain the benefits (more research is needed to understand the impact of longer cold showers). If you are not a cold shower regular it will take time to build up your tolerance but after a few days, you will be able to hit the 30 second mark.

2. When in the shower, concentrate the water on your face and chest as that is where most of your cold receptors live. This is a hack to trigger the cascade of biological movements that happens in cold therapy, quicker.

3. Finally, to solidify these amazing benefits, once you have finished your shower, let your body heat itself naturally - don’t go back into warm water.

Full Body Submersion

1. The optimal weekly threshold of cold exposure needed for its benefits is 11 minutes, divided into 2-3 sessions.

2. In this stack, full body submersion means up to the neck.

3. Same as with the cold shower, once you come out of your submersion, let your body heat up naturally.

Profile

Cold therapy dates back to 300 B.C.E. when some of the great stoic philosophers used to participate in cold plunges - described by them as voluntary discomfort practice. Today, the evidence behind cold therapy is pretty bulletproof and expands across all of the key systems within our biology.

My favourite benefit of cold therapy is that it improves your resilience and stress tolerance, both of which are needed in today’s world.