6 Ways To Level Up Your Ice Bath Routine. Challenge Yourself To Maintain Intensity.

Like most new things we start, they tend to fade in importance. Remember that new stair climber you’ve always wanted for your 2024 New Year’s Resolution? The one that was well used for a week, then it was one step closer to a TradeMe listing. Yes, that one! Well, we’ve listed a few options to ensure your Freeze Tub Ice Bath doesn’t end up on TradeMe…by the way, no one wants to dunk in your old skin oils anyway so we recommend to keep plunging.

But, either or, we’ve got some great ways to level up your ice bath routine and challenge yourself to keep up the good intentions.

It’ll be well worth it.

They say it takes 21 days to form a habit. In anything we do.

When you think about it, 21 days is not that long so we’ll let you in on a few different ways to add a little spice to your ice bath routine.

6 Ways To Level Up Your Ice Baths.

1. Be Consistent.

Try and make yourself a goal. You might now take 3 to 4 ice baths a week but you there may not be any consistency so try and lengthen your goal.

Either 10, 20 or even one a day for 30 days straight of taking ice baths. If you want to really level it up, commit via social media. Set your phone up, announce the goal and jump in. Even better, start a trend and get on Freeze Tubs Facebook Page and post your goal.

Give yourself an end date, and a reward. Try and make your reward something worthwhile, something you’re looking forward to. Might be a massage, manicure, or buying something you’ve been wanting for sometime.

2. Control Your Breathing

Managing your breathing in certain situations can really help. When you’re plunging in freezing cold ice baths, having controlled breathing can really help you control the situation and help your body cope with the change in temperature.

The Wim Hof Breathing Method has become one of the used techniques for controlled breathing. Wim Hof’s approach teaches you deep breathing, retention phases and the recovery phase. He teaches you to focus on the belly, to push it out and really use the diaphram.

Controling your breath is one way to really level up your game and become a professional cold plunger.

3. Get Moving

When you initially plunge into your Ice Bath you will notice after a minute, it might not seem so bad. This is particially because of the ‘thermo barrier’ that has formed around your body. This thin barrier has been warmed up by body temperature to keep your body temperature warm. Pretty nifty trick huh!

You will notice if you move ever so slightly, that you will break up the barrier and instantly feel the surrounding cold water again.

To maintain the cold water benefits try and move slight movements to break up the thin thermal layer that is fighting hard to keep your body warm – we love nature!!

If you want to level up a little more, splash your face with the ice cold water for an extra burst of energy – of completly dunk it under the water for 10 seconds or so – that’ll wake you up and make you have a little internal scream.

4. Plunge with a Party

It’s fun to personally challenge yourself and ice bath by yourself, lets face it your routine might be plunging at 6am. It’s unlikely that you can get a group of friends together then.

But if you get a few buckets of ice together and give people the heads up before hand (so they bring their swimwear) you can have a bit of a plunge party and make some fun of it.

Set up challenges. 2-3-4 minute plunges. Try and get the temperature as low as you can go and get others hooked on the benefits. It’s less about the challenge and more about adding in some fun ways to get others in to loving ice baths.

5. Warm Up Naturally

Your body is one amazing ‘thing’ it just wants to survive and does everything in it’s power to achieve this result. My Doctor once told me, that our hearts have about 4 or 5 back up options during heart attacks, it naturually tries these different things to keep your heart beating.

When your body temperature gets low, it’s metabolic response is to warm it back up again. If you use towels, or jump straight into a warm shower the warm up process increases significantly.

If you warm up naturally, you maximise the metabolic state and receive an increased benefit of what you set out to do. Shivering helps burn fat also, an additional benefit of warming up naturally. So ditch the towel and own it. New Year…New You, right!

6. Try Somewhere Different

We all love to travel and explore new places. When you go somewhere different, try and find a natural mountain glacier, a lake or a body of water that will likely be cold. Go out of your way to plunge in these natural environments.

Aside from the ice bath benefits you’ll get, you will also experience a nice sense of euphoria of plunging in nature. It’s a different type of feeling jumping in a natural spring, or somewhere unique. The locals may think you’re a little strange, but who cares!

Safety first though. Make sure you can touch the ground or have a strong surface area to hold on to and be able to get out of easily. If you’re unsure, it’s not worth trying.

In Conclusion

There are many ways you can level up your ice bath routine, you just need to get a little creative. Join Freeze Tubs FB page, or Instagram and start to post some of your ideas or check out what others are doing to spice up their plunging.

Let us know what you think, take some photos and tag us. We often give out free accessories for the most innovative, or hilarious ice bath photo.