Contents
Increasingly, in winter you can see walrus bathers fearlessly dipping into the icy water. Perhaps, such appeared among your acquaintances. Why not follow their example? Does winter swimming improve health and should everyone temper themselves?
Diving into ice water – is it really useful? “The opinion that swimming in an ice-hole is undoubtedly beneficial is a fairly common misconception,” says Peter Evstigneev, a stress management specialist, bath master. – In winter swimming, as in many other sports and recreation, there are enthusiastic people, there are fanatics, and there are reasonable ones. I am for a reasonable approach. Where to start?
I don’t like Instagram
The first thing a future bather should ask himself is why? What is the purpose? “If this is a one-time bath for the sake of a selfie, then it will not bring much harm (unless there are problems with the cardiovascular system) or benefit. Yes, and it has nothing to do with winter swimming. Courage, nothing more. The most important thing in this case is to keep warm as much as possible before and after bathing. Do not rub yourself before diving, do not cool off in line for the ice hole. Without preparation, you should not linger in the water for a long time: quickly plunged – and back, immediately put on warm clothes and shoes. A friend from Norway is a Guinness Book record holder: he somehow sat in an ice hole for an hour and a half! But he has been swimming all his life. If, without preparation, you linger in ice water for more than 5 minutes, then irreversible processes will begin in the body, ”warns Petr Evstigneev, who has been practicing thermal bath loads and bathing in ice water for many years.
If we set ourselves the task of improving and maintaining the body in good shape, getting energy, training and hardening the immune system, we need to act systematically and gradually. You should not rush from one popular health system to another, says Peter Evstigneev: “You can get hooked on vegetarianism today, eat goji berries tomorrow, dive into the hole the day after tomorrow. And all supposedly for the sake of health. We follow the trend of fashion, but this has nothing to do with a reasonable approach to recovery. Each individual activity – just a workout in the gym or just a diet – has a fragmented benefit. Rehabilitation works in a complex. Winter swimming is a hardening option, but it is accompanied by other investments in oneself: physical exercises, proper “smart” nutrition, and a constant regimen. These are common truths, but they are the ones that work.”
For an organism not accustomed to experiments, swimming in an ice hole without preparation can become unnecessary stress. Is it worth the risk for a beautiful picture on the social network and a few likes? Everyone decides for himself. But there are people for whom hardening is simply necessary.
Getting used to changes
“If changeable temperature conditions are part of your life, work, life, then cold training of the body will be useful,” the bath master believes. – But if you live in the southern latitudes and do not know what a large temperature difference is, then you should not indulge in the cold, and even more so in the hole. If in warm regions your work is connected, for example, with refrigeration units, where you get many times a day, or you move from a hot room to an air-conditioned room, then it would be good to train the body. Or you, living in Stavropol, work on a rotational basis in the North, because many companies send employees to regions with a different temperature. Or if you are going on a trip to another climatic zone, for example, from a positive temperature or a small minus to a ski resort, you should prepare yourself in advance. Without the ability to adapt, you can provoke a disease.”
And even if you have already moved to a cold region, you should not give up training, you need to do it constantly.
Vessels react to any, even a small change in temperature. “It doesn’t matter how big it is, training drops of several degrees are shown to everyone – from babies to old people and even sick people. It has a general tonic effect on the cardiovascular system, immunity. There are no contraindications at all. If the body is young, with flexible biochemistry, then it compensates for more tangible cold drops. Usually, until the age of 28, the body can withstand increased stress. The older we are, the more attentive we need to be to how quickly we recover from stress, the ups and downs of life, insomnia, physical activity, ”says Petr Evstigneev. And depending on this, it is possible to predict the stability and speed of adaptation to temperature changes.
To start the workout, a morning contrast shower is suitable. But many have an erroneous idea about it: we believe that it is necessary to immediately switch the tap from hot water to cold. But any temperature difference of several degrees of water and air is already a contrast, hardening, training of the body. You should start with a very small delta: for example, from 40 degrees to 35 or from 35 degrees to 30. And gradually increase the difference. Even getting out of a warm shower and standing naked for a minute is already a workout. And such differences will be accepted without resistance by the body, which sooner or later will get used to low temperatures.
The body should not be afraid
But the main indicator of the appropriateness of cold is pleasure or lack of it. “Alas, many force themselves, through strength and resistance, to climb into a cold shower, to jump out of a steam room into an ice hole for company, or to pour ice water from a tub,” the bath master notes. — Winter swimming is regularly done by those who enjoy it. I myself came to bathe in cold water through the bathhouse. I feel good, I like it. After long training, I can plunge into any body of water – both in winter and in summer. And what pleasure can there be when, out of habit, from a warm bed you dive into an icy shower? When your breath is taken away and you get a diaphragmatic spasm, then it does not bring any joy. The body contracts, tenses, and this is a signal – it means that they have gone too far. The body should not be afraid and perceive the cold as an enemy, otherwise the wrong hormones will be released.
Cortisol (which is released in response to stressful situations) is not at all what we plunge into the hole for. You need to create comfortable conditions for yourself, gradually, according to sensations, increasing the amplitude. Beginning “walruses”, according to the experience of Peter Evstigneev, can reach extreme temperatures in a month or two.
Another dangerous myth is that after winter swimming you need to warm yourself with alcohol. “This is deceit. Yes, you will experience a temporary sensation of warmth, but remember that those who drink alcohol freeze faster in the cold.
Petr Evstigneev recommends paying attention to the food of a novice walrus. “I was born and lived in Chukotka, where the temperature reaches minus 50, I served in the army in the North. The locals eat a lot of fatty fish and the meat of marine animals (seals, seals), and under their skin they have a large layer of brown fat, which you will not find in a resident of India or Thailand. It is thanks to this “rocket fuel” that they more easily endure low temperatures. We will not have such a layer, of course, but fatty and protein-rich foods will help to endure the cold. A Norwegian friend eats three bowls of seafood after swimming in an ice hole.”
For the little ones
The hardening of a child is not too different from the hardening of an adult, says bath master Pyotr Evstigneev. “My children have been tempered from the first days. The younger ones were generally born into the water. If you bathe a child in a warm bath, then, taking him out, do not rush to dry and dress him – hold him naked in the air for half a minute in the bathroom. This will already be hardening for him when he receives a comfortable small temperature difference.
You can briefly dip your palms in a basin of cool water. Then you can lower your feet into cold water. All this is best done in a playful way so that the child perceives the process with pleasure. If the family loves a bath, then children should be gradually accustomed to it, starting with a warm one. Do not immediately lead to the steam room at 90 degrees – so you will scare him and turn him away from the bath for a long time.
Pay attention to how you dress your children. If a child is constantly wrapped up, protected from any draft, walks in a “space suit”, then his body does not breathe, and this is a sure way to illness. He sweats in the cold, because children usually move actively, and then he catches a cold. Keep a reasonable balance: clothes should allow you to keep warm, but at the same time give the opportunity to move, and the body to breathe.