00:00- Oh! I don't wanna go in but we're going in. - [Jenn] Do it. - Oh! Man, it's cold today. It's cold. (signal beeping). Today I'm ditching the lab coat, ditching the studio. I'm outside. I'm about to start a 30 day ice plunge challenge. Is it a truly amazing lifehack that's gonna make us live longer or is it just an internet fad that you shouldn't actually waste your money and time on? Day one of freezing my ass off starts right now. (gavel thuds) Oh. Oh, man. When you first get in here you do something called a cold reflex where you hyperventilate and you breathe really, really fast, and that's actually how people actually struggle when they go into super cold water and they start panicking. The worst part about it was actually trying to get in, was awful. - ["Spongebob Squarepants" Narrator] Flashback. - I'm going in. (laughing) (footage whooshes) Then there was this big surge of feeling super cold. Oh! My nose is actually starting to run. (Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey's voices quavering)
01:00(alarm bell rings) Three minutes for a first go at it I think is pretty good. 48 to 50 degrees. That's a good starting point. (text whooshes) Drinking my coffee to be warm. Day one went a little bit colder than expected. I think I would do a lot better if I had a partner involved in this. Jenn? Come on in. The wife. So you ready to do this? - No. (laughs) (Jordan laughs) (dramatic music) - And you just gotta get in, this part isn't bad, it's the next step that's horrible. So, here we go. (water splashes) Get into my zen place. - Om. - Do you go to a sauna, a hot shower, there's some benefits of going from super cold to super hot. Hey, are you ready to go in, babes? - No, I'm cold already outside, just like in the sun. - [Jordan] Okay, but what are you wearing? - My winter robe.
02:00Dun-dun- ("Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor) Freezing! Insert your favorite cuss words here. (laughs) - [Jordan] You just gotta get in, just get in, you're in. You're in, breathe. Breathe, breathe, breathe. - I gotta get out. (yelps) I think I did at least a minute, right? (buzzer buzzes) - I just can't believe you got in though. (Jenn laughs) To get maximum benefit from an ice bath, it's roughly around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. I believe it takes about anywhere between 30 seconds to a minute and a half to get used to how cold it is. And then you can sit in here a little bit longer. As I talk, it's actually harder to control my shiver. If I'm able to relax and breathe really slow through it, I'm actually able to calm everything down. It's also good when you get out to get movin', generating my own heat will actually be quite beneficial. Jenn's going to do it tomorrow because it is windy. I apologize for the audio because of the wind,
03:00things are moving around, but it's cold, it's obviously uncomfortable. (breathing heavily) There are so many things that this helps with. A lot of the health benefits include cardiovascular system more resilient against infections, mood-boosting, it helps with anxiety and depression. Helps with circulation of blood around your body. That was a good, solid four minutes. And that's good for today. Jenn is conveniently nowhere to be found. I need to jump in here. So I'm using a tub from Edge Theory Labs, they're in Southern California. Their cooler is actually heated too, so it has a bunch of horsepower that's more than normal in the industry standard, it cools it down to 37 degrees Fahrenheit. But it actually can be used as a little hot tub if you want it to, so it's not always chilly. And they're just super nice people. You can see my toes, they're a little white at the moment, that's just because my blood got shunted to my core, you know it's taking it from my fingers,
04:00and just pulling it all in. I did get a little bit of a vasospasm, spasming of my blood vessels. I actually do a little hack outside of socks and slippers, I'll actually put a little warm pack in there. Could this give a temporary surge in that dopamine, similar to medications that you might take that a physician would prescribe for you? According to a study, an hour-long exposure to neck-deep cold water at 57 degrees Fahrenheit increased norepinephrine by 530% and dopamine by 250% - It turns this to this. - I told you I prepared! I'm here for the dope-amine. Ooh. I can still feel the water. Has it been three minutes, who's keeping track? - [Jordan] It's been about four. - Four minutes? - [Jordan] Four minutes. I'm not going for a Guinness Book of World Records. - I am on night shift, so this is my morning. Now, me jumping into this thing will actually help give me energy so I don't have to be caffeinated all night long
05:00on coffee and energy drinks. I haven't lost any toes yet. Typically with this short time of exposure you're not gonna have hypothermia or amputations or loss of toes. Definitely have some tingling of the hands. All the professional athletes, they've been using whirlpools, ice plunges after hard activity. And it's actually been shown to help reduce some inflammation and speed up recovery. Sometimes you can have people who have like intolerance to cold in their extremities, in their fingers and toes, where they have vasoconstriction of the blood vessels. My hands are a little red. - I'm gonna play a little prank on my husband, this here tub actually heats up, so I'm gonna heat it up without him knowing and then I'm gonna act like, "Oh, yeah. Cold plunging is so easy." Let's see if he goes for it.
06:00Oh, that's great. This is so nice. - [Jordan] Hey. - Well, hello there. - [Jordan] What are you doing out here all by yourself? - Just thought I'd get my plunge on. - [Jordan] What's the temperature? - 42. - [Jordan] 42 degrees? Let me feel that. What do you mean? - [Jordan] Babe, that's like hot. What do you mean 42? - Okay, so 42 degrees Celsius. So a hundred and-ish. - Oh... - Give or take. I'm not totally sold on the whole cold plunge thing. - ["Spongebob Squarepants" Narrator] One eternity later. - Oh my gosh. Relaxing and it's super nice and warm. Alternating between hot and cold can strengthen your vasculature, AKA your veins and your arteries. Which improves the integrity of your cardiovascular system. Also, it can help filter out toxins in the body 'cause it stimulates constriction and subsequent relaxation of the blood vessels. So today, we're gonna talk about the metabolic effects of cold plunging. Obviously, the cold will increase my metabolism
07:00because when I get out I need to warm my body up. How long does it really last, and how much does it actually burn? Probably not that substantial. It can potentially take my white fat, which is stored energy and change it into beige or brown fat, which is fat that is more metabolically active. If you're having more brown fat, you actually have more adaptation to the ability to tolerate cold. Babes, you ready to jump in to get your ice plunge on? (crickets chirp) I am out here by myself, don't have time to set everything up with the camera. This is just my iPhone that I'm using and I need to jump in here. I really hope I can get some of that really stubborn white fat to turn over to brown fat over time, or to beige fat. Make me more resilient and adaptive to this cold. I think this is the coldest I've ever been in. Yeah, it's definitely the coldest I've ever been in. It has been raining and cold, I actually worked out yesterday and almost pulled a muscle up in my trapezius.
08:00I'm gonna use this more today to help recover. I had to get out of the cold plunge, I was in there for two minutes, literally only two minutes. But I went in with cold feet and they were actually starting to hurt a little bit. - That foot will haunt my dreams. - Outside of getting numbers and being in there, nope, gotta get out, I have basically vasospasm, decreased blood flow, to my toes. I'm dipping into this pack to warm up my toes. - This can potentially help with skin conditions. And I have chronic urticaria, AKA basically I just get crazy itchy hives, all the time, possibly due to allergies, environmental, food allergies, or just my mass cells acting a fool. - Act a fool. - When to the allergist today, and both he and my doctor at home - Just here in my cold tub with my rubber duckie. - Agreed that cold plunges may help. Did you pay him off? (Jenn squeals)
09:00(beep) - [Jordan] How you doing? - Not good. I'm probably gonna get out. (goat screeches) It's so cold. Oh, we don't like that feeling. It's like lava's pouring through my body, like seeping out. Oh, that's so weird. - So if somebody has, say, eczema, and there's itching and a little bit of inflammation? They've actually shown that it might and the sense of itching. The cold actually makes it feel better. It's definitely better for your skin when you take cold showers instead of hot showers, same with your hair, hot can strip away your normal oils. Southern California is gettin' blasted with snow. - [Newsreader] Parts of Los Angeles are under a blizzard warning for the first time in 30 years. - My back is actually sore from a lot of pull-ups that I did recently, I wanna get in so I can reduce some inflammation and speed up my recovery. My toes are so cold that I'm just taking them out of the water. There was a new study that came out that studied the effects of cold therapy on physically active individuals, I believe it was in the military.
10:00So I will definitely leave a link out to it. You can do a cold immersion for two minutes at 37 degrees, once a week, up to your neck like this and five 30 second cold showers, roughly around 50 degrees Fahrenheit and that would have significant improvements in abdominal fat, circumference of the abdomen and then psychological effects that are super positive for you. Happiness and reduced belly fat. - I woke up in sort of a fog. So I'm hoping to get a little extra pep in my step. This is the worst. I'm regretting my decisions in life. - I immediately regret this decision. - Good to go. (counter dings) - Oh, I don't want to go in, but we're going in. - That's cold, today it's cold. ♪ You're as cold as ice ♪ - I was doing heavy lifting yesterday and I've had an issue because of playing too much golf that my right lower back sometimes spasms out, so when I try to bend over it kinda hurts. I can almost relax a little bit better. (laughs)
11:00One, having the pillow. And having my hands outside of it. Today's purpose is my lumbar spine, this is more of a therapy today, for a muscular-skeletal injury, versus trying to drop down and get super cold. I wore this shirt just so everybody can see. Embrace it, just do it. I am gonna embrace the suck. Yesterday, I have to say I actually had a headache. I get tension headaches sometimes. When I got out, the headache was gone. So the headache responded to cold therapy. I did go out last night with the boys, had a couple drinks, I'm gonna see if this like totally ramps me up and gives me a ton of energy. (upbeat music) Babe, how is your cold plunge experience going so far? - [Jenn] Yeah. Mm-hmm. Everyday. - Yeah, sure. This is the probably the hardest thing I have to do today, so now I can go do it. Hey! (cat mewls) That's right. So I'm wrappin' things up, I'm gonna jump in here, before they come and take it away. ♪ Do bah do bah do bah do bah do bah do bah do bah do ♪
12:00- So, three things that are positive for me out of doing a month-long cold plunge? The resilience. The mental component of getting in this thing everyday was amazing, I'm glad I did it. The recovery. From my workouts, from pulling muscles, I felt a lot better. And then the other component of it is the energy, the way I felt when I was done with it, I felt amazing. Multiple hours of energy, clarity. - The first 30 seconds? Terrible. Capital T. You can't catch your breath, it's uncomfortable, it's freezing. If you can make it past the first 30 seconds, you start to have a lot bigger calm sensation come over your body. I don't like getting in, but I like getting out. - From a doctor's standpoint, we know that using this thing to help recover from injuries is without a doubt, one of the most common reasons why somebody would use this. But there are more and more studies that are coming out. So you have the increase in dopamine and you have the feel-good mental resilience
13:00as well as some benefits of reducing abdominal growth and increasing metabolism. So I would recommend if you're starting out fresh and new go to a temperature that's like cold, but nothing crazy. Start at like 55 degrees, start at 60 degrees. And start for a minute, two minutes. If you're on a budget, you know that cold showers are good for you. If you have the means and you have a budget for it, definitely check one of these out, you won't be disappointed. - My challenge was just trying to get a cumulative 11 minutes, which is your normal week total. I actually don't know if I hit the 11 minutes, but I think I got pretty close. - That does it for the cold plunge challenge. What's the coldest you think you can get down to? Let me know that, and if there are any other health challenges you wanna see me try. If you guys want more information on Edge Theory Labs, I'll include a link below. Thank you so much for watching and stay healthy, my friends.