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Cold-water Therapy
Cold-water therapy sounds ridiculous when you think about the heat in South Padre Island, but it can be done everywhere. Cold-water therapy is exposing yourself to cold water through immersion or making a part of your regular shower cold. The benefits of cold-water therapy could motivate you to use these practices regularly.
During cold-water therapy, your body goes into “survival mode,” which is not as serious as it sounds in a controlled setting. Let me explain. When your body gets submerged in cold water, your body will naturally increase blood flow into the most vital parts of your body: the heart, lungs, and brain. Once you return to outside temperature or warmer water, your blood will go out to your extremities with freshly oxygenized blood and increase your circulation.
This is like if you sprain an ankle and put it in an ice bucket to prevent swelling. The ice will cause the blood to leave the area because it is getting constricted out of the injured area. Once you remove the ankle from the ice bucket, newly oxygenated blood will return and reduce swelling.
Cold-water therapy has benefits linked to improving overall circulation in the body. That means the circulatory system will become more efficient in providing blood throughout the body more quickly. Your body also expends energy to keep your body warm, so an added benefit can be increased metabolism.
Ice baths as cold-water therapy are common because they reduce inflammation and prevent muscle soreness. Other benefits also include bolstering your immune system to fight common colds. Another considerable advantage is combatting symptoms of depression by boosting your mood and decreasing anxiety. People have also linked doing a cold plunge or ice bath with mental strength. If you can conquer getting into an uncomfortable environment to start your day, everything that comes after will seem easy.
You can do cold-water therapy at your home in a couple of ways. The most common is a cold shower. You can do this by doing an entire cold shower twice weekly instead of warm or hot water. You can also incrementally do it by making the last 30 seconds to a minute of your shower cold. You will still get some of the same effects of cold-water therapy but adapting gradually. Another way to do it is to fill your tub with cold water and gradually add ice. This is more common for athletes because it helps with total body inflammation. Submerging yourself shoulder deep for no more than 2-3 minutes will have you feeling like you can take on the world!
A great way to do cold therapy on South Padre Island is going into the water at the beach during the winter. During the winter, the water can reach cold temperatures of the high 50s and 60s. This would be perfect to go into the water for 2-3 minutes. In that time, you will experience some of the benefits of cold-water therapy. Also, what better way to start your day than being woken up by waves of cold water on our beautiful beach?
