Swimming in cold open water offers pain relief and is also very healthy in other aspects. Even if it seems at least absurd and impossible to swim in cold water, specialists suggest that water with a temperature below 5 degrees is ideal for health.
Maybe you do not expect that but swimming in cold open water – sea or lakes – helps you get rid of illness and daily stress.
Benefits of swimming in cold open water
Cold open water swimming is:
- Strengthening the immune system – Cold water helps increase the number of white blood cells because the body is forced to react to the changing conditions. Thus, over time, the immune system strengthens;
- Improving blood circulation – Stimulates blood circulation, helping to heat the extremities;
- Burning calories more efficiently – The heart needs to pump faster and the body has to put more effort into keeping the optimum temperature. Thus, many more calories are burned than when swimming under regular conditions;
- Reducing stress – The cold water combats stress efficiently;
- Relieving from chronic pain – During cold open water swimming, the endorphins, responsible for inducing pain resistance, release twice more than normal and help reduce pains better;
A man is a living proof that cold open water swimming reliefs pain
A man suffering from constant pains after a surgery observed that his pains were gone when swimming in cold open water.
Being a former triathlete, the man had no problems swimming in cold water. However, cold water swimming is not for everyone, as he said.
In time, his pains were completely gone and his story has been made publicly available by Dr. Tom Mole who published it in the journal BMJ Case Reports.
Cold open water swimming tips
- Always wear a swimming suit;
- Don’t directly plunge into the cold water – Instead, slowly dip into the water;
- Always have warm clothes to put on after;
The biggest danger when you’re cold open water swimming is hypothermia, so, at the first sign of its installation (shivering, limbs weakness) get out of the water and warm yourself up.
