Exercise in the Cold: Beneficial or Dangerous? by Jerry Brainum 1/25

 

 

Vic Boff loved the cold. If anyone could be called an "Iceman, it was Vic. Boff was a well-known bodybuilding personality in New York for many years, running health food stores alongside his chiropractic practice. But his one idiosyncrasy was his love for the cold. He always slept with wide-open windows, regardless of the ambient temperature. He refused to wear overcoats, even amid intense New York blizzards. Vic was a well-respected author who wrote a few books about bodybuilding and knew all the great bodybuilders of the 40s and 50s. During an extended stay in my native Brooklyn, New York, in the early 70s, I worked for Vic at his health food store near my home. I would get to the store in the morning, and Vic would arrive soon afterward. It wasn't unusual to see icicles in Vic's hair as he arrived at the store in the winter. That wasn't just the result of the extreme cold weather in New York but also because Vic had just completed his usual swim in the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean off Coney Island. Vic was a long-time member of a group of what some would consider masochists who called themselves the "Iceberg Club." The group would gather each morning at the beach and run into the icy waters. Vic had done this so long that the cold water not only didn't adversely affect him, but according to him, it invigorated him. Was this in his mind, or did exposure to cold somehow impart genuine health effects? 

Taking a shower at a regular or warm temperature followed by a brief cold shower is known to affect neurotransmitters in the brain, some of which, such as dopamine and serotonin, can beneficially affect mood and focus. Such exposure to cold showers must be brief, not only because of the discomfort it produces but because of the constriction of blood vessels that rapidly results from exposure to sudden cold. So cold showers shouldn't last more than 5 minutes or so, but that is enough to produce the benefits of exposure to cold. In Scandinavian countries, a common practice is to first go into a hot sauna and then follow it with cold exposure, such as jumping into cold water. The sauna promotes the release of unique proteins called Heat Shock Proteins, which are released in response to stress, especially higher temperatures, as would occur in a sauna. Studies show that regular sauna bathing can produce many of the same beneficial cardiovascular effects as aerobic exercise. Following the hot sauna with immediate exposure to cold seems to add to those benefits.

For years, one of the most popular exercise recovery techniques involved immersion in cold water right after a workout. This procedure was thought to provide . . .