After

You are standing in front of your Tub. Do you dry off right away? Do you shower? Do you get clothed? Do you just go about your day? None of the above!

First off you will notice how great you feel. Tremendous feelings of accomplishment and the chemical stress response rush are what you will experience as you exit the ice bath.

All the blood vessels closest to your skin contract as you get into an ice bath to protect your warm blood from getting cold. When you get out those blood vessels open up again and your warm blood starts coursing through very cold veins and brings some of that cold back inside you so you actually feel colder getting out of the Tub for the first few moments until this effect settles.

If possible its good to stand there for a minute wet and continue experiencing the cold. If you need to grab a towel thats also OK.

Either way you’re now relatively dry, now what?

If you manage your ice bath well then theres no need to shower after. You can just wipe the edges of any water and put the lid back on.

What you cannot ignore is that you are now very cold. It’s time to warm up. There are a lot of ways to do this, you could do a quick stretch routine, you could do 50 push ups and 50 sit ups, you could do 50 body weigh squats, 5 min on an exercise bike, its entirely up to you. But you need to get the blood pumping hot again and it’s best to kickstart that process right after you get out.

Wim Hof does something called the Horse Stance which you can google. I personally started with the Horse and added to it over time.

Considerations

It takes some time to warm up even after you get the blood pumping again. Obviously the colder the water and the longer you are in it the longer you remain cold thereafter.

How long it takes to fully warm up back to normal depends on a few things, like what you plan to do immediately after an ice bath, if you remain indoors or outdoors, and the climate where you live.

For example if its cold outside where you live, you Submerge in the morning and your home is also on the cooler side you’re going to want to bundle up after. Its a great feeling to sit and carry the cold all bundled after you Submerge while you work or do any activity as you will be sharp and focused carrying forward the experience of being in the ice bath into your next activity.

If you get on an exercise bike for an hour after Submerging for 5 minutes you may not break a sweat until at least 20-30 minutes into the workout.

I live in a hot climate year round so I actually use the cold intentionally. When I Submerge in the morning I don’t do a warm up instead I take my dogs for a 45min walk outside where its hot and humid and Its a very nice walk for me where I’m very comfortable as the cold will last for the first 30+ minutes into the walk as just being outdoors heats me up. I’ll often take a quick dip if I know I have to do some walking and want to carry some climate with me into the first hour of that activity.