Iced Out! - Alpha Male FTS

If you donʼt care about why or how using cold water therapy can help you lose fat,
increase testosterone and recover faster from workouts, just click here to go straight to
the how-to portion of this report.
The Back Story
Cold water therapy, ice baths, crypto-therapy, hydrotherapy, Scottish
shower, contrast showers.
These are all different names for the same thing…getting into water that is
WAYYYY colder than you would ever want to, all in the name of making
yourself better.
The most immediate benefits that come to mind are cooling yourself off
after a killer workout of 400m repeats in the hot August sun… or trying to
rid yourself of any carnal desires after finding yourself in particularly sexy
situation. I don't really understand why you would want to do the second
one, but hey, I'm not judging.
What many people don't know is that by enduring the cold water and the
shivering you can induce other, more desired, responses.
Want to lose fat faster?
Want to recover from the previously mentioned 400m repeat workout
faster? Or any other hardcore workout?
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Want to increase testosterone? Have a higher sex drive? Have better
performance when bumpinʼ uglies?
Want to be able to deal with all kinds of stress and uncertainty with
confidence and the comfort of knowing itʼs no big deal?
You wouldn't think that something as simple as turning the shower handle
from "H" to "C" would result in all of these incredible results, but let me tell
you, it does. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing.
A Quick History Lesson
If you take a second and think about it, hot showers are a fairly recent
comfort of our society. Just like agriculture, air conditioning, automobiles
and all the other every day comforts we take for granted. If you're a paleo,
or paleo-ish, diet follower, this approach is familiar to you. You don't eat
grains because, for the most part, our early ancestors did not eat grains
either. At least not in the mass amounts that some people think you need
to. You also, more than likely, fast every now and again because it's an
easy form of calorie restriction and because our early ancestors didn't have
the opportunity to eat at whim.
The hot water heater wasn't even invented until the late 1800s (1870
according to a quick google search). So what did everyone do before then?
They manned (and womanned) the f*ck up and cleaned themselves in
lukewarm or cold water. The only lucky ones who were able to take the
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lukewarm to warm baths were near the tropics. All of us other unlucky
bastards farther north and south had to deal with chilly to down right
freezing water most of the year.
Home Sweet Home
Some people, bless their hearts, adapted and WELCOMED this
experience. Most notably the Scandinavians who practiced "avantouinti"…
ice hole swimming. Most will probably look at this behavior as absolutely
100% bat sh*t crazy, but look at the observed benefits:
• Improves cold resistance
• Reduces aches and pains
• Relieves stress
• Creates alertness and focus
• Helps you relax, and sleep better
• Assists in fat loss
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How many of these things are you trying to accomplish on a daily basis?
Most of these things, if not all of them, are goals that everyone who is trying
to better themselves through fitness and/or nutrition is trying to accomplish.
So let's take a deeper look into each of these benefits…
Improves Cold Resistance
This one is obvious, but don't discount it just yet.
Becoming more resistant to cold is accomplished through a process called
"hormesis." Mostly this phrase is used to describe the bodyʼs ability to
create a resistance against a certain toxin by being repeatedly exposed to
low doses of the toxin (similar to a vaccination). By exposing your body to
low doses of certain stresses you build up a tolerance, or a resistance, to
those stresses. Strength training, endurance training, speed training,
calorie restriction, stretching…all of these are forms and approaches to
hormesis.
True, you may not have to worry about enduring the cold for too long, but
do you strength train because you might have to build a log cabin for your
only shelter someday? Do you fast because you have to ration your food to
ensure you survive for as long as possible?
No. You donʼt. You do these things to prepare yourself for life and to be the
one in control. If you havenʼt dealt with self-imposed stress, how do you
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expect to deal with it when you have no control over what is causing the
stress?
Being able to withstand the cold is easily one of the most accurate
indicators of mental toughness. If you can willingly subject yourself to a
cold shower or an ice bath when you know that a hot, steamy shower is
only a few seconds away, then you have an amount of mental toughness
that most people will never experience.
For athletes who play outdoors this mental toughness is mandatory to be
successful. Ever see the Packers play at home on a playoff run? Don't tell
me these guys aren't mentally tough and focused on their goal.
For the everyday person this amount of mental toughness may not be
necessary, but do you really think it would hurt to have it? Mental
toughness is a precursor to success in every aspect.
Reduces Aches and Pains
Any athlete knows the importance of reducing the aches and pains of daily
grueling practices. If you can't recover from the practice on Monday you're
more likely to perform well below your abilities on Tuesday and very
possibly could be sitting on the bench by Wednesday.
Nobody wants that. That's why ice baths are common among all
professional sports, 99% of college sports and a decent amount of elite
level high school sports.
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The reason behind the pain is simple: excess pressure. After an intense
training session or practice you feel pain and discomfort because of micro
trauma in the muscles you used throughout your training session. This
micro trauma has to be healed, so your body reacts just like it would if you
broke your arm or hit your head…it increases blood flow and the presence
of fluid around the injury. The increase in blood flow is to help flush any
waste products and to introduce nutrients and other elements to promote
healing. The swelling is meant to immobilize the injury to prevent further
injuries to occur. This extra fluid is what causes stiffness and soreness in
your muscles.
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Since micro trauma isn't nearly as serious as a broken femur, most people
are able to train through the discomfort. The stiffness caused by the extra
fluid means they are not able to train at or near 100% but are still able to
get by.
When using an ice bath for recovery you mitigate this extra fluid from being
present in the muscle and ease the amount of stiffness and soreness felt
after an intense workout. The cold water causes the blood vessels in the
submerged body part (usually the entire lower body) to constrict and limit
the amount of blood flow able to get to the body part. This keeps the extra
fluid out and immediately eases the pain felt from the micro trauma in the
muscles.
After you get out of the ice bath and your body begins to warm back up the
blood vessels will dilate and go back to their normal size. This change from
constricted to dilated will cause more blood to rush through the vessels.
This new “flush” of fresh blood will transport any nutrients, minerals and
building blocks to the damaged tissue so it can begin repairing itself, and at
the same time, more efficiently transports any waste away from the muscle
to be taken care of by the body.
This is just like putting an ice pack on a sore muscle to ease the pain.
Except now you're able to cover a much larger surface area and keep the
temperature consistent. When you use an ice pack it is generally accepted
that you shouldn't leave it on for more than 20 minutes. After the 20
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minutes is over and you remove the ice pack the temperature of the muscle
will almost instantaneously begin to rise.
This is because ice packs only effectively treat surface level pain. Only the
blood directly next to the surface of the skin, in the capillaries, will cool
down significantly. Think back to biology 101, how big are the capillaries
compared to veins and arteries? In case you don't remember or don't feel
like looking it up, they are incredibly small. The amount of blood you can
cool using an ice pack is miniscule. Just like in the ice bath, when your
body is exposed to cold, it automatically constricts the blood vessels where
the cold is being applied. This reduces the amount of blood that is actually
able to be cooled by the ice pack even more and essentially makes it only
useful to treat shallow pain.
Now think about sitting submerged in cold water up to your hips, or even
just your knees. This covers much, much more surface area than any ice
pack ever could. More surface area means more blood being cooled as it
passes through the capillaries and more cooled blood passing through your
sore muscles means better recovery and less pain.
Relieves Stress
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that sitting in a tub of ice water,
with your testicles in your throat, shivering uncontrollably is a pretty
stressful experience.
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Besides the initial shock of feeling the cold water on your skin, using any of
the methods mentioned later will actually cause a chain reaction in your
body that will ease most of the day-to-day stress you and I put up with.
When you're subjected to cold water your body responds hormonally by
releasing epinephrine, norepinephrine, serotonin, cortisone, betaendorphin, testosterone plus a few others. Let's take a look at how each of
these play their part in relieving stress:
Epinephrine - Aka adrenaline, is released into the blood stream in response
to stressful situations. This is called the fight or flight response and most
people are well aware of it and have experienced it at some point. When
you're exposed to a situation that causes you to go into the fight or flight
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response and then you come out of it 100% alive, intact and in good health,
you feel happy as hell. This happiness stems from the release of
endorphins in conjunction with the release of epinephrine. Bottom line, a
cold shower may be a stressful event at first but it is not something that will
kill or maim you. After it is over, you will have an extra amount of
epinephrine and endorphins circulating through your body and you will feel
damn happy.
Norepinephrine - This is also released in response to fight or flight
situations. Specifically it increases heart rate, triggers the release of
glucose from energy stores and increases blood flow to the muscles and
brain. This increase of blood flow to the brain also increases the amount of
oxygen in the brain. This is why after a session of cold water therapy you
will feel more alert, awake and focused.
Serotonin - This neurotransmitter is like the Swiss Army Knife of
neurotransmitters. It is directly related to feelings of well-being and
happiness. Not only that but it plays roles in mood, appetite, sleep, memory
and learning. The release of serotonin as a result of sitting in a cold bath
basically forces you to feel happier, regulate your hunger, sleep better and
be able to remember things with more accuracy.
Cortisone - This is a steroid hormone that is released in direct response to
stress. It might sound familiar because people often get shots of cortisone
near the site of a nagging injury to ease the pain and keep swelling to a
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minimum. The main effects of cortisone are the suppression of swelling and
pain. Why pop a handful of ibuprofen when you can just take use some
cold water and get the same effects?
Beta-endorphin - Beta-endorphin is a type of endorphin (obviously) that is
the “ON” switch of the opioid receptors in your body. It is the activation of
these receptors that cause the severe addiction to morphine. Now, the
good news is while cold water therapy is powerful it is not nearly as
powerful as morphine. You will still get the numbing effects from the
activation of these receptors but you wonʼt all of a sudden become addicted
to cold water therapy like an addict is to morphine.
Testosterone - This one should be fairly self explanatory. The more free
testosterone you have circulating in your body means the more alive and
invigorated you feel. Not to mention the sexual side effects like better
performance, quicker recovery “between rounds” and the natural attraction
that women have towards (non-douchey) men with higher testosterone.
Testosterone is also an anabolic hormone, meaning it helps build and
maintain lean mass in times of stress (i.e. strength training).
If you could find a way to package all of these substances into a pill or drink
you would be able to make millions in the matter of a few hours. The
individual side effects are enough to make most people go out of their way
to increase the amount of just one or two of these hormones circulating
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throughout their body. With as little as 10 minutes in an icy tub you can get
the same effect in less time and for free.
Creates Alertness and Focus
Basically every hormone that was just mentioned in the “Relives Stress”
section you just read plays some sort of role in making you more focused
on whatever task your doing and alert to whatever is going on around you.
If you constantly feel like youʼre just shuffling through the day without
noticing whatʼs going on around you, using cold water can help get you out
of that funk.
Some people rely on caffeine to do this for them. After some time, and Iʼm
talking from experience here, you build a tolerance to the effects of
caffeine. Anyone who has been a coffee drinker for sometime has most
likely felt the same thing. What used to be one cup in the morning
eventually turns into three cups, and youʼre still debating on taking a nap
under your desk when you get to work. The same thing happens no matter
what your caffeine drink of choice is. Red Bull, Monster, 5-Hour Energy,
Ramʼs Piss+Espresso. Itʼs all the same.
Cold water, from what Iʼve researched, doesnʼt have as much of a drop of
in effectiveness once you get used to it. Even if you find yourself not getting
the same “Holy hell Iʼm alert and focused” feeling after a ten minute cold
shower, you can always switch to a contrast shower. Make the temperature
difference between hot and cold as big as you need to re-create the shock
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you used to feel when you started using cold water therapy and youʼre
good to go.
Helps You Relax and, Sleep Better
Naturally, your body is better suited to sleep when cool as opposed to
warm. This is why it is such a pain to get a good nightʼs sleep in the
summer when you don't have air conditioning or in the winter when you
crank the heat up too far.
Your bodyʼs core temperature is believed to hit its lowest point roughly 3-4
hours after falling asleep. Body temperature and sleep habits are
intertwined and affected by each other. Some studies attribute insomnia to
a higher than normal core body temperature. By taking a warm shower
before going to bed you can "jump start" the process of falling asleep. This
is because of the rapid cooling of your body that begins when you get out
of the water.
That seems like a waste of time and is fairly inefficient compared to taking
a cold shower or an ice bath. More comfortable...yeah Iʼll agree to that. But
still, inefficient. Taking a warm shower to cool down is like leaving your
house and driving across town to get to your neighborʼs house.
Assists in Fat Loss
Imagine a magical type of fat cell that is, in a sense, cannibalistic. This type
of fat consumes and destroys other fat cells, leaving you leaner and less
squishier than you were before.
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That is a fairly accurate description of brown adipose tissue, or BAT for
short. BAT has been proven to be present in rodents and infants, but until a
few recent studies, nobody was really sure if adult humans kept any BAT
from when they were newborns. Those recent studies have proven that
adult humans do keep a small percentage of the BAT they had when they
were infants.
BAT is beneficial, in terms of fat loss, because of what makes it brown.
Mitochondria.
Mitochondria are the "power plants" of the cell and responsible for creating
adenosine triphosphate aka ATP aka the most basic source of energy in
the human body. This process of creating ATP also creates heat as a
byproduct. The theory behind why there are mitochondria present in BAT is
pieced together from looking at where else BAT is found. Take a gander at
this excerpt from the Wikipedia page about mitochondria…
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"Under certain conditions, protons can re-enter the mitochondrial matrix
without contributing to ATP synthesis. This process is known as proton leak
or mitochondrial uncoupling and is due to the facilitated diffusion of
protons into the matrix. The process results in the unharnessed potential
energy of the proton electrochemical gradient being released as heat.The
process is mediated by a proton channel called thermogenin, or UCP1.
Thermogenin is a 33kDa protein first discovered in 1973. Thermogenin is
primarily found in brown adipose tissue, or brown fat, and is responsible for
non-shivering thermogenesis. Brown adipose tissue is found in mammals,
and is at its highest levels in early life and in hibernating animals. In
humans, brown adipose tissue is present at birth and decreases with age.”
The second to last sentence gives us the clue. It's found at it's highest
levels in early life and in hibernating animals. When the threat of dying from
hypothermia is at it's greatest. If you think about where BAT is located on
the body (between the shoulder blades, around the spine and around your
organs) you get another solid clue. BAT is basically a survival mechanism
that decreases the odds that you will freeze to death. When activated, and
producing heat, the placement of BAT ensures that your heart and other
vital organs will be the last parts of your body to be affected by cold
temperatures.
BAT's entire justification for being present in mammals is to increase core
temperature. The mitochondria need a fuel source to create the ATP and
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the heat that results. It gets this fuel from white adipose tissue (WAT) in the
form of free fatty acids. This is where the whole cannibalism analogy
comes into play. When your core temperature drops below baseline by only
a fraction of a degree, the body does what it needs to do to survive, which
in this case, is getting the core temperature back to baseline. The activation
of BAT is just one of the many ways your body can do it, but only one of
two ways it can do it involuntarily. The other method is shivering, which is
effective at raising body temperature, but inefficient from an energy
perspective.
Bottom line, BAT uses free fatty acids that are released from WAT in order
to activate mitochondria within the BAT and in turn create heat to keep the
core temperature of the body stable.
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How-To Use Cold Water Therapy
Alright, now that we've gone over in some detail the benefits of cold water
therapy lets get into the how-to portion of this report.
Partners make everything better!
First, from a safety stand point, everything from driving to sex is better
when done with a partner. Even if you're just doing an ice bath in your
house it's better to have someone there and let them know what you're
doing. If you're going all out and jumping into an iced over pond you WILL
have a safe route out of the water and you WILL have someone there with
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you to make sure you don't die. Play it safe and be smart about this, use a
partner and don't risk your life to try and achieve any of the benefits.
Seriously - and this deserves repeating - if you think that jumping into an
iced over pond, by yourself without telling anyone is a good idea then you
deserve to be found floating face down in the pond when it thaws in the
spring. Do not do it.
Now that the safety brief is out of the way, you have a few options on how
you want to approach cold water therapy.
1 - Contrast Shower
2 - Cold Shower
3 - Cold Bath
4 - Ice Bath
Contrast shower is the easiest way to start using and experiencing cold
water therapy and ice baths the most extreme, but also most beneficial
approach. Not everyone has the mental strength or dedication to jump right
into ice baths. If that's you then start out with contrast showers and work
your way up to ice baths.
No matter which one of these four methods you choose to use, time and
temperature will remain mostly constant. As for time, 10 minutes is the
minimum needed to see any effects and nothing more than 20 minutes is
needed or directed. At that point, you will be shivering and that's not the
point of cold water therapy. When it comes to temperature, ideally you want
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to use water that is between 53F-59F (12C-15C). The first 3 methods
(contrast shower, cold shower and cold bath) should be closer the 59F and
the ice bath should be closer to 53F. Some of you might be able to reach
those temperatures by just running your bathtub on cold depending on
where you live and what time of year it is. If you can't reach these
temperatures by just running the water then grab a bag or two of ice from a
local gas station and add it to the cold water. It doesn't have to be exactly
within this range, but it's obvious that the closer you are the better the
results you'll see.
Contrast Shower
This one is easy. And most of you who have ever had someone flush the
toilet when you were in the shower have semi-experienced this. All a
contrast shower entails is switching between warm water and cold water for
a certain amount of time.
All you do is get into the shower, clean yourself up and rinse yourself off
like you normally would and then start alternating between warm and cold.
You can start by gradually making the cold water colder with each cycle or
you can be a masochist and crank it all the way cold from the start. After
the pre determined amount of time you can turn the water back to warm.
Some people may want to turn it back to hot to try and warm up as fast as
possible. Personally, I think that defeats the purpose of the shower and
diminishes the effects of the cold water. It also makes the cold water feel
that much colder when you turn the handle back the other way. It's not
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meant to be completely comfortable so don't try to make it that way. How
long you should let each cycle last is up to you. Start off with 30 seconds
cold/60 seconds warm and gradual increase the time in cold water while
keeping the time in warm water the same. Eventually you can get the point
where the ratio of cold/warm is 4:1 or 5:1 (4 minutes cold/1minute warm).
If you don't want to get your entire body under the stream of cold water, you
can focus on just your upper back. Remember that section on BAT? BAT is
mostly located in between the shoulder blades and along the spine, so
focusing the water there will give you the most benefit from the cold water.
Pros:
1 - Can be done anywhere there is a shower
2 - Easy to work into and get used to
3 - Can be as quick as you need it to be or as long as you want it to be
Cons:
1 - Some showers may not get cold enough to hit the desired temperature
range
2 - Will require a water resistant watch…or the unwavering discipline to
count at the same tempo the entire time no matter how cold the water is
3 - Highly unlikely you will get to enjoy the company of sexy member of the
opposite sex to help pass the time.
Cold Shower
Cold showers are the next logical progression after you've maxed out the
usefulness of contrast showers. You start off the same as a contrast
shower. Clean yourself off if you need to, or just jump right in for the sole
purpose of taking a cold shower. Now instead of alternating between cold
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and warm, you'll just keep it cold the entire time. Same time limits as
mentioned above, so make sure you set an alarm or use a water resistant
watch. Start off with lukewarm to cool water and as each minute goes by
and you become acclimated to the temperature start making the water
colder and colder. Also just like the contrast shower, focus the water on the
upper back to take advantage of the location of BAT.
Pros:
1 - Again, can be done anywhere there is a shower
2 - Still easy to get in the habit of doing, and more effective than contrast
showers
3 - The water is moving so the temperature is able to stay consistently cool
Cons:
Same as Contrast Showers
Cold Baths
When you graduate from showers to baths you get the added benefit of
compression. The compression isn't on the same level as tightly wrapping a
bandage or plastic wrap around your legs, but the pressure from sitting
submerged in water combined with the low temperature that will make your
capillaries constrict make cold baths very useful at reducing pain and
discomfort after a hard training session.
Cold baths take away the possibility of alternating between warm and cold,
and almost completely take away the possibility of gradually getting used to
the temperature. The best way to get into a cold bath is to just run the
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water as cold as it can go and let it fill the tub. Once it reaches a level
where you can sit with your legs completely submerged you can get in.
Again, the best way is to just get in and deal with the initial shock. It won't
last very long because a) you'll get used to it and b) the water directly in
contact with the skin will warm up as the heat from your body transfers into
the water. This heat transfer is also why, if you want to get the most out of
the bath, you will need to periodically move your legs to circulate the water.
If you fail to do this whether out of laziness or forgetfulness it's not a deal
breaker. Just know you'll get the most benefit out of the cold bath by
making sure the coldest water is always in contact with your body.
If your tub is big enough, or if you're flexible enough, you can progress from
just sitting with your legs submerged. The next progression would be to lay
down as far as you can with your legs still submerged. Most people will be
able to get half of their torso and up to their elbows submerged. After that, if
you're flexible enough, you can cross your legs and slide down even further
until your chest or neck is submerged. Make sure your legs are still
submerged. The idea is to keep as much of your body in the cold water as
possible.
Pros:
1 - Can be done in a bathtub, big trash can or anything you can fill with cold
water and sit/lay in
2 - Allows you to progress from just lower body immersion to full body
immersion
3 - Allows you to focus on just your legs more than you were able to with
showers
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Cons:
1 - Once again, some people may not be able to get the water as cold as
they need/want
2 - Some tubs aren't big enough to allow full body immersion
3 - Crossing your legs and sliding down to get more of your body
submerged can be even more uncomfortable and cause tightness in the
legs, the exact opposite of what we're going for
Ice Baths
Anyone who has played high level sports and had access to an athletic
trainer knows ice baths. They are cruel and punishing yet useful and
healing all at the same time. Most athletic training rooms have a few metal
tubs that are deep enough to easily fit a 6'7", 300+ pound dude sitting in ice
water up to his neck. If you have access to these tubs, or something
similar, more power to you. But if you only have your bathtub you can still
make it work. The same progression of sitting, laying down and laying
down with your legs crossed works here.
An ice bath is nothing more than a cold bath with a bag or two of gas
station ice added to it. Make sure the water is already running cold before
you add the ice otherwise you're just wasting time and energy cooling down
warm water. For progressing temperature wise, start with a small bag of ice
and as you're better able to handle the cold, gradually add more until you're
at 2 large bags. Once you get to this point you are better off going out and
buying a thermometer to make sure you're within the 53F-59F range. Some
of you might think going colder is better but it's not. Once you get below
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53F you run a greater risk of damaging your skin and getting hypothermia
or frostbite. Ice baths are meant to heal you and aid you, not hurt you.
The colder you have the water means the less time you need or should
stay in it. I know the other three methods can be done for 20 minutes, but if
youʼre opting to use ice baths you should max out the time you spend in it
at 12 minutes. Anything more than that is not needed and could cause
minor damage to your skin.
Pros:
1 - Better able to get the temperature of the water low enough to reap all
the benefits of cold water therapy
2 - More effective at reducing pain and swelling from hard training sessions
3 - Builds fortitude and a tolerance to being uncomfortable, aka mental
toughness
Cons:
1 - It's really fu*king cold
2 - Requires you to pay a few bucks and make a run to the store to buy
bags of ice
3 - Best used with deep tubs found in athletic training rooms
And that's it really. Dousing yourself with cold and/or ice water will be
incredibly uncomfortable when you start. After a while you'll get acclimated
and used to the discomfort. As I'm writing this I've been using at least a
cold shower daily for 3 months now and it's too easy to finish off a shower
with an extra 10 minutes of cold water. I've felt less soreness, more vigor
and better sleep every since I started doing and at this point see no reason
to stop.
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Mike Inscho is the writer and creator behind
AlphaMaleFTS.com. He has served as an enlisted
member of the military and is now an officer in US
Army. AlphaMaleFTS.com represents his approach
to strength training, nutrition and increasing mental
toughness. His methods are based on experiences
from his time in the military and balancing life, school
and work with playing for a nationally ranked NCAA
football program. Intensity and efficiency are the
foundations of this approach.
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References:
http://www.runaddicts.net/tips-tricks/ice-bath-therapy-speed-up-recovery-and-enhance-performance
http://speedendurance.com/2008/05/11/ice-baths-for-workout-recovery/
http://www.sportsscientists.com/2008/01/exercise-in-cold-part-i.html
http://www.sportsscientists.com/2008/01/exercise-in-cold-part-ii.html
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http://surplus.unipa.it/oa/handle/10447/50485
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17978833
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2938508/?tool=pubmed
http://artofmanliness.com/2010/01/18/the-james-bond-shower-a-shot-of-cold-water-for-health-and-vitality/
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