Cold water swimming is something I’ve written about before, particularly with regards to its health benefits, but here are a few tips for acclimatising to cold water, adapting to the icy water and improving tolerance for those winter swims:
- Get regular swimming exposure in cool or cold water. The more you do it, even if only briefly, the more you’ll improve your tolerance.
- Wear a swimming cap or two, and/or a neoprene hat, as your head will suffer the most in the cold water.
- Gain some weight. Fatter people stay warmer for longer and have better tolerance as a result.
- Use a wetsuit if you want to do a longer winter swim (and don’t consider it “cheating”).
- Wetsuit gloves and socks are excellent additions, with or without the main suit, as hands and feet can get painfully cold.
- Use a bigger swimming mask rather than little goggles as they’ll cover more of your face when it goes under water.
- Try cold showers and baths at home to help with your body’s cold water adaptation.
- Build up your brown fat supplies. Not very practical but an interesting area of research (see Wiki and this article).
- Train to be a stronger swimmer. Muscles create heat so if you’re able to work hard in the water, you’ll stay warmer.
- Enter slowly and/or splash yourself a bit first. It’s argued that this gives your body a chance to react more than if you jump straight in (which Lewis Gordon Pugh advocates).
Got any tips of your own? Add them in the comments section below.
For more swimming articles and advice, see my Swimming Resources page.
(Photo courtesy of Dan Martin)
5 Comments
Marylyn
I have been having cold showers for almost 2 months now and have noticed weight loss and also a real increase in my mood in the morning. Don’t get me wrong, it requires great motivation to stand under the cold shower first thing in the morning, but it is worth it. After the initial 30 second shock it just feels refreshing and makes you feel alive. Try it!
tadalafil
Michael Cosgriff
I swim at the beach first thing every morning of the year. At the moment it is around 15 degrees and because I get so cold, the ends of my fingers are white and it takes ages to get dressed, ai was curious as to whether it was good for me and now I know
Joseph R. Lemmens
Hello Michael,
I has been a regular Polar Bear Swimmer at New Year and in Autumn for many years,
Recently ,as regular exercise I started swimming in November water in N.C. about 55 degrees 2-3 times a Week; by this time it drop to 46-50 degrees and I still swim 10-20 minutes without any real problems.
You are right , that it is very hard to button even a heavy shirt after the swim is done, however the trick is to bring your towels and clothes and heavy socks right out of your DRYER so they are still warm when you ready to use them.
I am 72 years young and just find out 2 weeks ago that this regimen is good to increase your T Cells and NK Cells who fight CANCER CELLS, . This is my new way to slow down my CLL stage 2 that I have now for 5 1/2 years.Not much Research has been done on the subject, so I will need to be care full of not overdoing it.
Will know how it work in about 2 Months.
Fiona Brighton
I’ve been an on-off cold water swimmer for several years and have just started taking cold baths in the morning – on those days when I can’t make it down to the beach. It makes me feel so damn wonderful, and I just know that it’s helping me shake off a cold that’s attempting to establish itself inside my body!
When I sea swim, however, I do wear neoprene gloves and booties (together with a swimming hat). I found that the pain in my fingers in mid winter if I went gloveless was worse that that of childbirth and even that of mastitis.
Have you seen Wedding DJ Frisco
A little bit of extra weight helps considerably in insulating the core from the cold. Even a 5lbs increase in weight can make a difference. I’ll shoot for 10lbs for Kokoro.