Body & Mind

With your butt in an ice bath

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Whoever tuned in to the radio show of Mattie and Marieke around eight o'clock in the morning this week might have accidentally stumbled upon some adult content Fortunately, it was all fine, as the two were just sitting with their butts in an ice bath. That makes you pant and puff a lot.

If an activity makes it to our Dutch radio, you can assume it has become ‘normal’. So for those who voluntarily sit in a cast-iron tub filled with ice cubes on any random Amsterdam roof every weekend: it's time to come up with something new. If Mattie and Marieke are doing it, then it's only a matter of time before Truus from the Achterhoek lets her derrière sink into something icy too.

With your butt in an ice bath, what is the magic? Head towards Scandinavia and they immediately point to the ice-cold plunge pool after a steaming hot sauna. Good for your muscles, that's the motto. Taking an ice-cold bath is nothing new, but it is starting to become more mainstream. While rinsing off with cold water after a hot shower used to be enough, now you have to expose yourself to more extreme measures.

Doing a Wim Hof
By Wim Hof, also known as the Iceman, the ice bath became a trend. He claims that you can influence the nervous system and immune system with your mind. For this, he uses his Wim Hof Method, which combines a breathing technique with exposing yourself to the cold to achieve this effect. Hof also made health claims, stating that people with MS, rheumatism, and even cancer benefit from his Wim Hof Method. Something that researchers and doctors strongly dispute.

The Iceman and people trained by him were the subject of many scientific studies. Yes, it was found that the breathing technique influences your nervous system and the oxygen level in your blood, but it was not shown that the Wim Hof enthusiasts among us are less susceptible to diseases. On the contrary, Wim Hof's breathing technique can induce a certain hyperventilation that can make you lose consciousness. Therefore, it seems the most sensible advice not to just sit with your butt in an ice bath.

All these studies did not detract from the fact that the ice bath and breathing exercises of the eccentric Wim were embraced worldwide. Until De Volkskrant published an extensive article in September about the alleged domestic violence that Wim Hof inflicted on his ex-girlfriend, their son, and her other children. The magic surrounding the ice bath and his cold training evaporated like – yes – snow in the sun.

Warmed up for the ice bath?
The question remains whether taking an ice bath is healthy. Professor of thermophysiology Hein Daanen gives a clear explanation to Quest. If you take the mental state of a person into account and that person feels better after an ice bath, then they are healthier in that way. Physically, it says very little further. That explains why Mattie and Marieke stepped out of the bath completely hyper on Tuesday morning.

A quick Google search shows that you can buy a starter pack for the beginning ice bather for less than 25 euros. For those who really want to make it a experience. thing, there are also handmade ice baths available for almost 10,000 bucks. I saw someone not long ago filling an empty trash can with ice cubes and water; presumably, the mental outcome of that is the same. Only that last one has a bit of a smell to it.

Taking an ice bath is – we say it again – not without danger. Before you start filling the kiddie pool with buckets of water and ice cubes, it's good to repeat that. When you let yourself sink into an ice bath, you risk hypothermia, shock, and in the most extreme case, even cardiac arrest. If you really want to try it, guidance from a pro is therefore recommended.

Image: @kourtneykardash