Key Takeaways
· Breathing techniques like box breathing and diaphragmatic breathing can reduce anxiety and help control your body’s stress response during cold plunge therapy sessions.
· Stimulating the vagus nerve and releasing endorphins through regulated breathing enhances relaxation and makes the cold plunge tub for home more comfortable.
· The Wim Hof Method before immersion boosts oxygen saturation and internal warmth, preparing your body for intense cold exposure.
· During and after cold immersion, focus on slow exhales and combining rapid with slow breathing to stabilize your heart rate and warm up efficiently.
· Practicing how to use a cold plunge safely at home by incorporating these breathing exercises builds resilience, optimizes performance, and speeds recovery.
Proper breathing is crucial and can transform your cold plunging experience from torment to enjoyment. While immersing yourself in even the best cold plunge tub for home can sound easy, it triggers complex physiological responses.
In this article, we'll discuss how to perform breathing procedures before, during, and after cold plunging. But first, which responses do cold plunge-related breathing procedures induce? Let's find out.
Vagus Nerve Stimulation
Immersing yourself in a cold plunge tub can stimulate the vagus nerve, which may reduce the heart rate and generate a state of relaxation. Regulated breathing can promote stimulation of the vagus nerve, intensifying this calming effect.
Release of Endorphins and Pain Perception
The first shock you feel after entering your cold plunge tub can be painful. However, regulated breathing can help you cope. When practicing deliberate breathing procedures, your body could release endorphins, also known as natural painkillers. These endorphins help minimize the discomfort you feel during cold plunging.
Tip: The cold plunge therapy health benefits include accelerated recovery, improved mental resilience, and enhanced pain management, especially when combined with proper breathing techniques for each stage of immersion.
Thermal Homeostasis
Usually, the body strives to maintain a steady internal temperature, and cold plunging can disrupt this balance, prompting the body to generate heat. Mastering the art of breathing can facilitate this process. For example, taking rapid, deep breaths as explained in the Wim Hof method can increase metabolic rate, generating a feeling of internal warmth and countering some of the effects of the cold water.
Oxygen Saturation
Taking deep breaths during cold plunging helps your lungs absorb more oxygen and transfer it into the bloodstream. Oxygen plays a vital role in cellular function. The higher the oxygen levels are, the more your tissues and muscles can endure the cold water shock better. Oxygen-rich blood can handle stressors better and accelerate recovery after exposure to cold water.
Stress Response Modulation
When exposed to cold water, the body's initial response is to commence the flight or fight response, a survival process. This response accelerates breathing, increases heart rate, and prompts a rise in stress hormones such as cortisol.
Regulating your breathing consciously helps prevent some of these responses. Taking deliberate yet slow breaths can soothe the sympathetic nervous system, reduce anxiety, and stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system.
It is worth mentioning that the connection between cold plunging and breathwork doesn't revolve around managing the initial cold water shock. It also involves optimizing the body's response to maximize your benefits from the experience.
Regulated breathing is beneficial for a successful cold plunging session. Here are steps to help you master the art of performing breathing procedures when ice bathing in the best cold plunge tub for home.
How to Perform Box Breathing Inside the Best Cold Plunge
Also known as square breathing, this breathing procedure is powerful but simple. It's ideal for soothing the mind while regulating the breathing pattern of your body. To perform it:
· Identify a comfortable position and lie or sit down
· Breathe in through your nose slowly for 4 seconds, striving to fill your lungs gently but completely
· Hold your breath for 4 seconds while ensuring your body is relaxed as you pause
· Exhale slowly through your mouth for four seconds to expel the air from your lungs
· Hold your breath again for four seconds
· Repeat these steps until you feel more centered and relaxed
How to Conduct Diaphragmatic Breathing
Also known as belly breathing, this procedure aims to engage the diaphragm during breathing to reinforce deeper and more efficient breaths. It's ideal for lowering blood pressure, reducing anxiety, and enhancing the stability of the core muscle. To conduct it:
· Lie on a flat, comfortable surface with your head supported and knees bent.
· Position one hand below your rib cage and the other on your upper chest
· Inhale slowly through your nose and ensure your stomach moves up against your hand, while the hand on your chest remains still
· Slowly exhale through pursed lips as you tighten your muscles. Ensure the hand on your belly moves as you exhale, while the other remains still
· Repeat for five to ten minutes, maintaining a steady breath rhythm
Tip: For safer and more effective cold immersion, read Cold Plunge Breathing Techniques for Beginners for additional preparation strategies.
How to Perform the Wim Hof Method Before Entering the Best Cold Plunge
1. To execute this breathing procedure, lie or sit down in a comfortable disturbance-free area. Make sure your body is fully relaxed.
2. Embark on a breath cycle, starting with 30-40 deep breaths. Fully inhale through the nose or mouth and exhale freely but not entirely. Allow air to flow out naturally. You may experience tingling sensations or light-headedness, which is normal
3. After your final exhale, try and hold your breath for as long as you can. You'll manage to hold your breath longer than usual due to oxygenation from deep breaths.
4. Once you get the longing to breathe again, inhale deeply and hold for between 10 to 15 seconds before exhaling
5. Repeat these steps for 3 to 4 rounds and listen to your body to ensure you don't force the exercise beyond comfort
6. Practice the Wim Hof breathing procedure cautiously as it's quite powerful.
Best Cold Plunge: Incorporating Breathing During the Cold Plunging Session
Once you immerse yourself inside your cold plunge tub, it's important to inhale fully and then pause to control your heart rate and promote circulation. One of the terms used to define this phase is the Valsalva Maneuver—which generates intrathoracic pressure by holding your breath or pushing against a closed airway.
The Valsalva Maneuver creates space in your chest for your heart to beat more easily. Besides relaxing the cerebral blood flow, it pushes blood to the body's extremities. Avoid heavy breath holds while inside the water; use diaphragmatic engagement to generate intrathoracic pressure.
Tip: Also try contrast therapy which is a combination of home sauna wellness routines and cold plunge therapy sessions for combined health and wellness benefits. For more about this, read: The Science Behind Sauna and Cold Plunge Therapy: Benefits for Athletes and Fitness Enthusiasts
Exhale Deeply for Longer to Reduce Your Heart Rate
A long exhale lowers your heart rate while calming you down during your cold water exposure session inside the best cold plunge tub. While breathing in raises your heart rate, breathing out slows it down.
Avoid breathing in slowly when hungry for air. Exhale by seizing air inside your mouth and releasing it slowly through your teeth. A little mouth tension will enable you to deflate without using too much energy.
Combine Rapid Breaths and Slow Breaths to Warm Up
If you shiver after leaving your cold plunge tub, take a few rapid breaths followed by slow breaths to warm up. Tummo practitioners who endure very low temperatures for longer use fast and slow breathing simultaneously. Fast breathing speeds up your heart rate, warming your intercostal muscles.
Combining breath with physical movement produces better results. When carbon dioxide becomes too low due to fast breathing, vascular constriction can occur. Slow breaths will help build carbon dioxide, facilitating vascular dilation and ensuring warm blood circulates efficiently.
Tip: For group recovery, the commercial cold plunge tub wellness centre products leverage biofeedback and breathwork guidance for enhanced results in facility settings.
Finally
Immersing yourself in the best cold plunge tub for home can be a refreshing journey that tests resilience and adaptation. Combining cold water immersion with deliberate breathwork procedures helps improve mental, physical, and emotional well-being.
Intense, cooling, and calming breathing procedures prepare you for physical and mental challenges. Further, mastering these procedures helps your nervous system before, during, and after plunging.
Sun home Saunas sells some of world best Infrared Saunas, the popular infrared sauna blanket and home cold plunge tub setups so improve your heath by using our Infrared Saunas.
Reach out today and connect with our sauna experts to bring the full benefits of sauna therapy into your daily life.
FAQs
1. What’s the best breathing procedure before entering a cold plunge tub for home?
The Wim Hof Method, with deep, rhythmic breaths and safe breath holds, oxygenates your body and readies you for the cold plunge’s initial shock.
2. How does controlled breathing enhance cold plunge therapy health benefits?
Techniques such as diaphragmatic and box breathing reduce stress, regulate heart rate, and improve your tolerance to cold exposure for greater recovery.
3. Why is slow exhaling important during cold immersion?
Exhaling slowly helps lower heart rate and anxiety, making your cold plunge session calmer, safer, and more beneficial to your nervous system.
4. Are there risks to combining breath holds and cold plunging?
Yes. Excessive or unsafe breath holds can pose risks; always prioritize steady, safe breathing and never hyperventilate before submerging.
5. How can I best warm up after a session in my cold plunge tub for home?
Use a blend of rapid and slow breaths with movement to stimulate circulation and raise body temperature, ensuring a safe and effective recovery.
