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How cold can you go! The benefits of cold therapy with Ryan Duey

Mar 30, 2022

Known for elevating the mind and the body, cold therapy has gained a lot of traction in the wellness space over the last several years, though it dates back to BC and was used by Anglo-Saxon monks, Hippocrates and has been referenced in the most ancient medical text known. Ryan Duey, Co-founder of Plunge, shares the multitude of benefits of cold plunging, a few best practices and ways you can expose yourself to cold therapy without exerting a lot of effort or investing in your own at-home tub.

Show Notes:

Check out the best at-home standalone system. Click here for $150 off – https://plunge.pxf.io/c/3141173/1072116/13696  or use code MOSTLYGREEN at checkout

Learn more about Wim Hof – https://www.wimhofmethod.com/

Watch the Vice documentary about Wim and cold exposure – https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/inside-the-superhuman-world-of-the-iceman/55a66a5c6d832c01483498c1

Pretty ok (not great) transcript:

This

[00:00:00] Jess: is Justin Mason with a mostly green life. The podcast that’s making sustainability and our connection to the environment. More fun and approachable for the eco. Today, we’re connecting with Ryan Dewey, founder of plunge to talk all things, cold therapy.

[00:00:13] Mason: So we thought we’d start with a primer about called plunging. My story. I think every spa we’ve ever been to over the years has had a cold plunge, but none of them could really explain the benefits. And if it did is usually part of what’s called contrast therapy with the Sonic. During COVID I discovered Wim Hoff, like I think a lot of people did.

[00:00:32] Jess: I think he became very popular

[00:00:33] Mason: during COVID. Yeah. And so I started with his breath exercises, but then started to learn about cold exposure. Right? At that time here in Austin, there was a crazy winter storm and we were below 20 degrees Fahrenheit for like three days. The backyard hot tub was running constantly just to not freeze over the system and was staying at 38 degrees Fahrenheit.

Perfect time to. I convinced just to try it with me a little bit. Yeah. Took a couple of days, but I convinced just to try it with me and we were hooked as the water warmed up and we could no longer get the cold exposure through the hot tub. I started to look at how to get it regularly.

I didn’t want to lug around eyes. It seemed really inefficient. I looked at an ice machine though, and it still didn’t seem right. I was in the middle of figuring out how to put a chiller on our hot tub. When someone sent me the link to the plunge

[00:01:25] Jess: and that chiller seemed like it was going to be costly.

Hard to yeah,

[00:01:30] Mason: a whole lot of effort. I was having to consult engineers and shit for it. So when someone sent me the plunge, it was perfect, much more accessible than other standalone systems. It looks really cool and modern and you can put it anywhere. We put it in our garage and have been learning about all the benefits of regular cold exposure.

Every.

[00:01:50] Jess: If you’ve never heard of cold therapy or cold exposure or cold plunging, it’s subjecting your whole body to temperatures. Usually below 60 degrees Fahrenheit and down to subzero temps to intentionally stress the body out in a controlled manner. You get to control how long and what temps you do based on your own body.

We’ve experienced firsthand several of the benefits, but here’s a summary of benefits that have been researched and studied on humans and have peer reviewed scientific data behind

[00:02:14] Mason: them.

For overall health, there’ve been studies to prove that it supports the immune system. It increases blood flow and reduces high blood pressure problems. It reduces chronic pain. It boosts your metabolism. And it can help with better sleep. And for

[00:02:29] Jess: mental health, you can experience a boost in energy, right afterwards, it elevates your mood.

It helps fight depression. It helps you practice discipline and also increases resilience. And lastly it activates your autonomic nervous system exercising a part of the body previously believed to not be accessing.

[00:02:45] Mason: I’m ready to schedule a whole podcast about the autonomic nervous system.

It is so cool. And lastly, in recovery for exercise, it lowers inflammation, recovery from also injuries and exercise. It reduces muscle soreness and it boosts overall performance. So

[00:03:03] Jess: I think anybody can find a few things there. They want to work

[00:03:06] Mason: on. Yeah, it really has benefits for anybody and everybody.

And today with Ryan, we’ll be discussing some of these benefits, sharing some best practices and ways you can expose yourself to cold therapy without exerting a lot of effort or investing in your own at-home tub. But if you are ready to take the plunge in there, you can head on over to the cold plunge.com.

That’s www.thecoldplunge.com. Browser site. See the different cold plunges and use the code mostly green for $150 off your order. Keep listening to learn more.

[00:01:17] Mason: here with you too. It seems like. Burgeoning amount of research about cold exposure. What’s your current checklist on the benefits of it?

[00:01:27] Ryan Duey of Plunge: I mean, For me, like right now, if I were to there’s so many, but like one of the most important to me is learning how to control. Our nervous system or before that thought that we were always more, just more or less victim to our nervous system. And external stress, you know, stress dictated where we were at, but the plunge is at a phenomenal, whether you’re in a plunge or getting him cold river, even cold showers, learning how to control breath, ultimately lower our heart rate variability when stress and cortisol levels are Sprite spiking.

I really like in the plunger, getting into cold water as a gym for your nervous. You’re kind of, you know, you go into the gym, you want to tear your muscles down and you’re stressing them out. That’s what we actually want to do. It’s intentional stress to the muscles and they come back and they build back stronger.

Well, that’s, what’s happening. When we get into the plunge, it’s this, you get in it’s the body recognizes stress, the exact same way, whether it’s someone’s screaming in your face, whether it’s someone driving right at you, whatever it is, it’s cortisol. It’s adrenaline that fires into our body and we respond to that.

So the. It’s a safe space to go in and really get intensity with our adrenaline. And then from there learning to control our breath within that mechanism. Then there’s a lot of other benefits that come from there of different hormonal responses. Um, but to me that’s kinda like the crux of it is like really.

Nervous system regulation.

[00:02:54] Mason: And it’s called autonomic arousal. Nothing. Yeah.

[00:02:59] Ryan Duey of Plunge: The atomic system and that, you know, that’s made up of our respiratory system, our nervous system, our leave the immune systems baked into that. One other system in there. Anyways, they’re all four parts.

[00:03:13] Mason: What was that lymphatic system?

[00:03:15] Ryan Duey of Plunge: Lymphatics a part of it and lymphatics a great mechanism within there where you get, like, what I mean for the lymphatic? One thing I’ve been doing lately is plunging. And when you plunge it’s your body, your blood vessels start to restrict. It wants to protect your vital organs within your body. And so blood flow is kind of for a moment.

You’re stunting the blood flow, but then when you get out, like I’ve been doing like a personal trampoline and jumping on that and then just really getting the lymphatic and blood to start flowing through the body again. So there’s ways to kind of mess with the body and mess with these mechanisms to, to work to our benefit.

Yeah. I think

[00:03:48] Mason: it’s fascinating that just a few years ago, the accepted science was that we had no control over these systems. And now we’re learning that we can. Actually affect them and exercises, involuntary muscles and such. So to me, that’s really fascinating. ,

[00:04:06] Ryan Duey of Plunge: it’s incredible on that front.

Like you mentioned, Wim, Wim has been the forefront of this, you know, Wim changed this whole, I mean, that guy, I always take a moment. And any, any time I talk about him just to give him his respect. I mean, this was decades that man was ridiculed called crazy. called different kind of shunned from society.

And he just kept on his path and finally stayed steadfast and committed to this and showed like, I’m not unique. I’m just a human. And this is a mechanism for all humans. And I think he really showed talking on that Automic system. What’s the one input we can all control and that’s our breath. We are in control of breath and the cold is a mechanism to really.

Work through different breath processes and outside of the plunge as well, like you’ve talked about Wim, Wim, hot breath work, and there’s so many others and that’s going to start sending inputs into our body. So it’s the breath is the, is the one input that we are in control of in that.

[00:05:01] Mason: Yeah. And it can be passive, so it accesses both parts of the brain because we can’t. Stop thinking about it and we’re still gonna breathe. But then when we do it intentionally, we’re able to access, you know, more of our brain essentially by using the breath. there seems to be a lot of evidence that it boosts the immune system.

Are you up on what the mechanisms are? And do you have any stories about that?

[00:05:25] Ryan Duey of Plunge: Yeah, it was just out of Wim Hoff workshop and one of the women’s structures there, you know, masterclass and what he’s working on. And his, the latest where they’re looking at it, it does have an immune system, you know, it, it builds a robust immune system and Wim demonstrated that in his initial study, when they were injected with basically e-coli 10 participants, he took them through a, uh, basically, uh, uh, less than a week.

He taught them different breath, work practices. And in turn showed that every one of them were able to ward off the system that should have caused some sort of flu, within their body. And what they’re seeing now is that heightened level of adrenaline is actually healthy for the body as long as you know how to regulate it.

So that’s almost this barrier that creates within our body. It’s why you’re healthier. When you work out, you’re healthier. When you cold plunge, you do these things that are kind of, that are stressful to the body. And well, what are they doing there? They’re raising our adrenaline levels, cortisol levels in the body.

It’s more of how do we control those and being able to understand the, that mechanism, as opposed to just being put into fight or flight and not really knowing where they’re getting really shallow breath being just becoming stressed out as opposed to intentionally choosing stress. And that is building a more robust immune system within our body.

[00:06:40] Jess: And so would you say that cold plunges are something you should do or can do while you’re sick, even does it help, your body process that sickness and get through?

[00:06:48] Ryan Duey of Plunge: I personally think if you’re sick, hold off on it. Um, that’s

[00:06:53] Jess: what we’ve done. We’re like, we don’t know if we should do this while we’re sick, especially when you have a cold, you know, I mean, it just sounds even worse to get in the cold punch at that point.

[00:07:03] Ryan Duey of Plunge: That’s what I felt. And I’m not. Yes, I’m in the cold punch space. I don’t hold myself as like a full-on expert on a curious, I’m always studying this, but from what I’ve from my own experiential side is like, when I’m sick, I need rest. I don’t need any extra stress into my body, my body to do its thing. And so that’s where I’ve leaned towards.

But I have had times where I feel a little tickle in the throat or it’s like, I’m on the edge. I’ll do my three to four rounds of whim. And that’s another, that is a stress on the body. That’s an intensity, it’s an intense thing you’re putting your body through. And I, I find that that can kind of get me over the hump or get in the cold plunge.

But if I’m already on that sick train, um, I’m rested, I’m hydrating. Um, you know,

[00:07:48] Mason: yeah. If your body already needs a sleep, then it’s like, alright, relax with it. I at this, I guess is an aside from cold punches, but I, I got really into the Wim, Hof breathing was doing it every single day. And after a while I kind of had, I had some weird side effects.

Like I had, you know, not quite elucidations, but almost like it felt like a lucid dream where I was a little bit separated from my consciousness. And then the worst part was that some of them, I would completely lose. That time, the breath hold. I would forget that I would come out of it and be like, wait, was I holding my, what round am I on?

Was I holding my breath or not? What part of the process am I in? And I’d lose myself in the process. And so I kind of stopped doing it. Have you ever heard any similar stories?

[00:08:36] Ryan Duey of Plunge: I’ve heard, I mean, Especially with the breath holds. If it’s something that’s new to you and you start to hold over two minutes, you could definitely get into that, like kind of go unconscious.

Um, you’ll come out. You’ll be okay. Obviously don’t do it around water. Don’t do it while you’re driving. Don’t do it while you’re standing out being a comfortable, safe that you’re laying down. Yeah, there, I mean, it could be a trivia experience. It’s and I know what you’re talking about on the time front it’s like when we’re connected with our breath time can be kind of calculated through breaths.

You know, it’s something that we have. We’re not always thinking about our breath, obviously majority of time, we’re not, but it is something that we can relate to time on. And when that’s not there, it’s like, well, what, how much time has passed was this, you know, a breath is, could be anywhere from two seconds to, you know, eight to 10 seconds.

And it’s like, if that’s not there, what’s happening with time. So I totally know what you’re saying.

[00:09:25] Jess: So we recently we listened to a podcast that had Andrew Huberman on as a guest and he mentioned that.

Reap benefits from spending just 11 minutes per week in cold therapy. Um, which is perfect for me because it would just be about two minutes per day. I’ve heard

[00:09:39] Mason: that 100 pounds soaking wet. So we don’t, we don’t need any of the raise metabolism for

[00:09:44] Jess: Jessica. Right? Well, we heard that you have to be in for at least three minutes to help with the metabolism.

And so I try to stay under that three minutes since I’m not looking for that specifically. but can you talk to us about how long. Spend, whether it’s like per day or per week to reap certain benefits beyond that metabolism and fact checkers. I’m not positive if it’s three minutes.

[00:10:05] Ryan Duey of Plunge: Yeah. I mean, I that’s super aware on your part of plunging for different benefits and that’s something that we’ve learned.

No. I think we came from a time where athletes would just get in after a workout and like get in the plunge and sit there for five minutes and then get out and it just suffer through it. And it was, there was kind of one thing that’s all and what we’re learning now. And there’s still a lot to be discovered here.

So this is, we’re definitely on like a forefront and like we’re beginning to understand more of how and why to plunge. on a timing standpoint, I think that’s up for debate. I hear two minutes. I hear. it’s going to come down also to the individual where the individual vigils in their process. Is this something that you weigh 225 pounds and you’ve been plunging every single day at 39 degrees.

You probably need to be, you know, and you’re doing it for a metabolism purpose. You probably need to be doing intervals or you need to be changing your dosing duration. So maybe you’re at 90 seconds and then you get out for 60 seconds and your back end for 90 seconds to kind of mess with that. If you’re like you that’s going in for.

You know, I don’t know that your, your exact intentions, but maybe mental resilience, maybe energy may, you know, whatever it is. It’s like two minutes could be great. but again, I liken it to a workout that you will build some sort of, um, resistance to it. Your body will, it will adapt to it. So you need to switch it up.

You can’t do the same workout every single day. And over time that, you know, you gotta find. New ways to get into plunge, new ways to plunge. And, and that’s, that’s the fun thing. a big thing at plunge this year is, we’ve had now we have now thousands of units that are all over the world.

It’s like the first time that people have really had readily available at scale units that they can get into cold water. So we’ve been following up with some. Different people in the fitness space. And how are you guys using it? And like understanding they’re using it for like active workouts. we were with a fitness instructor and they, and they were plunging for 60 seconds and then we’d get out and we’d get on the assault bike and go through that process.

And it was kind of a dichotomy of the blood flow and getting back into the system. So your original question, how long you should be doing. It’s more of a journey into understanding your body and how are you responding to that over time? And it’s a constant check-in and what worked three months ago might not be the same thing now and kind of responding.

Are you still hitting your edge? Is your breath still being taken from you when you first get into the plunge? But you know, obviously wanting to shorten that time that you’re regulating your breath. So that’s, what’s also really exciting about it is it’s a self discovery process and there’s not a protocol that one size.

[00:12:45] Mason: That’s a great tip. I don’t think we’ve been mixing it up. I think part of what keeps Jessica doing it regularly, read a lot about Davidson Claire and kind of their so turn pathways and actually the anti-aging benefits of cold plunge and these stressors that we have,

I’d like to dig in if you’ve tracked any kind of data or health biomarkers that you’ve tested with the cold plunge and actual benefits for it. But first I kind of want to take a step back and talk about it. How did you discover cold exposure and what got you into this space?

[00:13:17] Ryan Duey of Plunge: Yeah. Um, how I got into it was through him, Hoff.

This was back in 2015, I saw the vice documentary. That was the infamous vice documentary. I think it one documentary of the year through some major publication. And I just remember seeing it, it was the first time of just Wim and who he was as an individual, just there just, I cried, I watched it two nights in a row and I cried both nights and I was just so inspired and moved and grateful for what he had done.

So that was like my first introduction to like, whoa. There is changing the paradigm of what we thought was possible. You know, then I was getting into cold water here and there, but it was inconsistent where I live in the Northern California region. Obviously winters here, lakes and rivers are great to get into and then summer hits and you know, it warms up, And then a local facility in Sacramento opened up that had a cold plunge in it.

And, another company I have, which is float centers, we have a brick and mortar float, sensory deprivation takes center. I went and created a partnership. I was like, I gotta get into this spot. And so I made it that like their staff could come to ours and we can go to theirs. And we just, I was in there three to four times a week using their cold plunge.

So that was like a real introduction for me. And then I had a sickness. I was, I was, I got like six cold. In the end of 2018. And I thought I was fairly healthy and I didn’t know why I was getting these colds all the time. My health coach at the time was like, Hey, like we can kind of chase the symptoms we can kind of, we can go figure out what’s going on or let’s incorporate some wind breath into your morning workout or into your morning routine.

So I started doing four rounds of whim. The moment that started, I didn’t get sick. That was, I never figured out what was quite going on with that stuff, but whatever that was, it, it solves that problem. So that’s when I was like, okay, there’s something here on the breath work side of it. Yeah, that’s incredible.

And then kind of the, the next Genesis of actual plunge in the company was during the. Where me and my co-founder might Garrett. We both own float tank facilities and separate, not business partners within it, but we’ve gotten to know each other over the time COVID we were in California and COVID, you know, we had to shut our businesses down here in California.

So it gave us this unique window of, we were very clear in this moment, like, what is the opportunity here? and. He had just happened chance moved to Sacramento, which was already happening prior to the pandemic. He was in the bay area. He came up, he started building these in his garage and we decided to do, let’s just email our companies and see if anyone wants to buy it.

Let’s make 20 of these and start selling them, put a website up and, and it really just caught, it caught fire. It was a, it was a good product fit at the right time in the market. We really decided to do it because all the other options on the table was either you build your chest freezer, you know, and you have that, which isn’t really built for that.

It’s going to leak it doesn’t look pretty it’s electrical hazard, all the stuff, but it works. It’s a thing, or it was spend $10,000 and you get a home unit. So we were kind of like, man, could we make like a aesthetically pleasing unit that solves this filtration and on-demand cold option. And we. There’s a lot of trial and error.

We, we, we got it. And so then the company just really, it’s been a fast 18 months into kind of our acceleration of getting the units out, building and shipping them really now all over the world. Yeah.

[00:16:37] Mason: It’s been funny to even follow when we first got it, which was, I think may of last year.

And the guidance was to just throw a hydrogen peroxide in it every now and then. And then recently I go back to the site and it’s like, it like a, a hot tub or a spa or something. I’m like, oh, this actually, this makes a lot of sense. And so. You know, measuring the levels of different things, but it was kind of funny where I’m like, I just pour hydrogen peroxide in it and it’s fine.

And it was fine typically, but I, you know, probably something started to move

[00:17:16] Ryan Duey of Plunge: that, that fro it’s so funny. I mean, you guys have been may. I mean, it’s not even that long ago was that 10 months ago, but you guys have been on the journey with us, obviously you ordered before that, like where we’ve been. CNA.

And I mean, we’ve learned so much along the way. It’s like the hydrogen peroxide works in pretty neutral climates, but if it’s super humid, if it’s super, um, you know, temperatures are changing all the time. We learned water is a radical thing and things can start growing in there. So that’s where we learn.

We became water experts and we, you know, now we have baka spaz, a partner company we’re partnered with and how to maintain the water. So it’s yeah. And you guys have had a front row seat into a. You know, we’ve been figuring this out along the

[00:18:00] Mason: way. Yeah. And going back to tracking it, I actually tried to do a controlled study where we also have, which I w is another podcast episode altogether, but we have a hyperbaric chamber in our garage.

We have a little wellness spot, essentially in our garage with a cold type of Eric and some workout equipment. And I got a full blood workup done. you know, all the markers across 200, 250 markers, and then I did cold plunge every day and hyperbaric after that, I only had two weeks though, cause we were leaving on an RV trip and ended up

that results were inconclusive because the prep for the RV trip was so intense, like so much physical activity. That the blood work that I got the day before we left, looked like I’d run a marathon. It was what a, you know, a couple of the markers are way off. And one of ’em is like, either your kidneys are failing or you just had some really intense exercise and like, oh, okay.

I guess it, so I didn’t really get much out of it, but I’m really interested in controlled studies around it. So I’m excited for those that come, come out. Do you have any that you’re tracking any research or.

[00:19:11] Ryan Duey of Plunge: I’m actually going through it right now, I’m doing a pretty intensive markers on my body with a company that we’re we’re in talks with.

We’ve been sending some customers over to them. So I’m kind of be cool to maybe come back on and look at this at a different time. But I had my, I did a very distinct test exactly one year ago and it had so got my results and pretty comprehensive panel. And going back through it again and that’s incorporating.

Yeah, that’s a full year under my belt of like every single day cold plunging or getting with some other lifestyle changes as well. So kind of have an idea of what’s been altered, but I’m really fascinated to see what, what changes have been made, especially from like a hormone standpoint. So yeah, I’ll be happy to share those when that time comes, but you know, some of the things we do see, like the woop metrics, we definitely get that across the board with a lot of, that’s just more of our customers.

Tell us. for example, we work with rich Froning real closely and rich Froning is CrossFit champion. probably works out more than any human on the planet. You know, there’s maybe he’s in the top 10 and, uh, what he does, it is insane. He has a coal plant and she swears by it.

And one of his biggest things is his sleep scores were dramatic, basically. He was constantly in a stress mode. He’s completely broken down. But when he got his plunge, he stepped into the green zone in his sleep recovery stores. So that was really fascinating to hear from a guy that is not just in the 1%, but arguably, you know, more than any human on the planet.

And he saw such a distinct difference in that another one that we had, which was a real remarkable story is we had a customer, cock COVID long haul symptoms. To the point that this was back at the height of the pandemic, they would put them in studies. They couldn’t figure out what was going on with it.

And it was a laundry list of ailments that were coming on. They were putting them on all sorts of medications. Wasn’t where he wanted to go. But it was just kind of like, I don’t know what to do. He got his plunge and he called us a week after. And he’s like, this is the first time. My doctors don’t know what happened.

And he’s like, the only thing I’ve changed is getting into the plunge and controlling my breath and, you know, and I think he’d been incorporating some breath practice into it as well. So, that story while it’s a one-off it’s, it’s pretty remarkable, right? Yeah. I

[00:21:28] Mason: mean, yeah. Amazing goats are worth noting, even if they’re anecdotal

[00:21:35] Ryan Duey of Plunge: a hundred percent, man.

It’s like, you know, we got into it. We didn’t get into it to heal long haul COVID symptoms. That’s just like what we’re recognizing. I’m like, wow, we’re really tapping into this like elixir of life that is doing something really remarkable in the body. And we have some ideas of what’s happening. And I think there’s a lot more that we’re gonna start understanding of, what cold water and.

That adaptation is doing to the body. Yeah. Very cool.

[00:22:01] Jess: Well, something else we’d like to discuss is wind Upland Mason, and I usually do it first thing in the morning for two reasons, I’d say for stimulation to help wake us up, but also just to like, get the heck to be done with it is the second one probably.

and you know, we’ve heard that people do it in the evening though. So is there a better time or the best time of day to do it,

[00:22:20] Ryan Duey of Plunge: yes, totally. And again, I think it matters to kind of why you’re plunging and how you run as a human.

I love the morning, my morning. It’s part of my morning routine. It accelerates my morning. It’s that you guys get it? You wake up, you’re more alive. You’re I call it like a time machine. Cause I get to just accelerate through my morning as opposed to kind of moving on with logically I come out of the plunge and I’m okay, cool.

What do I need to get to? What do I want? Like I’m way more clear. So I love the morning. I do think the mornings uniquely challenging because your body still hasn’t woken up and let you know, especially if you’re kind of rolling out of bed, maybe doing some meditation and hopping in, the blood flow hasn’t really fully opened up and it’s, it’s kind of intense,

[00:23:02] Mason: um, because it takes resolve.

I mean, we we’ve been doing it for, you know, I guess over a year now, off and on, and there’s still mornings where I walk up. We’ll press it. I’m like, Nope, not today.

[00:23:18] Ryan Duey of Plunge: Yep. That’s every morning for me, I stand in front of getting, if I had like a, sometimes I have there have been more than just set my phone up, like, and I’m just like, I’m just going to like plush the cord and I forget it’s there.

And it’s like, I do this pre plage dance where it’s like, dude, just get in the plage. Pretty dance. I get it. And I think there’s, I think there’s something really special about that too, is like every morning there’s like a resistance to it and I kind of have, I have to conquer it. there’s no way out except through.

So, you know, for the morning, all of the above that we just talked about, I think in the evening, it’s a really interesting one. If you tend to run really warm for sleeping, if you live in a climate that, um, like for my girlfriend, she has a warm body, but she also likes to sleep with a lot of blankets.

So it’s kind of this crux that she’s in. So she’ll plunge about, you know, 30 minutes before bed and kind of cooler body down and get out and kind of regulate back in and then she’ll fall asleep. Some people talk about it’s an energy aspect when you plunge with intention, it kind of gives you what you need. So if you’re plugging in the morning for energy, that’s where your focus is. That’s what you’re looking to get out of it, that your body responds that way. The evening. It’s like, you know, you have bed coming in, you’re coming in to kind of regulate it and calm yourself down.

It’s going to give you that calmness mid day, I consider consider it a. Power nap. You know, if you got, you don’t have that 20 to 30 minutes for a power nap. It’s like, maybe you can go get two minutes in your plunge and just kind of get that, get that wake up that you need, move forward. And then I love post-workout.

and there’s different, viewpoints on this of plunging after a workout. I love the post-lunch workout just because of. Just calms my body down. It, my body’s so heated up. I get in there, it just feels like candy. I can do a really long plunge after a workout. There are some people that discuss there is an impact of it immediately after a workout. Stunting, some of your quote-unquote gains are your muscle, the muscle growth that’s taking place because you you’re basically impacting that repair process.

So you, the whole point of, you know, you’re tearing your muscles down, they need to go through that repair process, but you’re actually kind of aiding the process. So the muscle is going to recover it recovers quicker, but it might not have the same, Muscle growth that’s that would take place from that process.

[00:25:36] Mason: Yeah. I’ve been really fascinated by that because I, know that it’s the repair process and it’s actually the inflammation in the muscle that grows the muscle. And so. What I’m doing strength training. I know if I plunge right after I’m still going to get stronger and get benefit, but there probably won’t be any actual, you know, muscle mass as much muscle mass gain is what it kind of seems like.

So I was curious about your perspective on that, and then you, I guess you do just have to go longer because as it kind of cheating to go heat your body up before you jump in the plunge.

[00:26:15] Ryan Duey of Plunge: Totally. It’s going to take longer to lower that core body temperature, which has kind of the goal of, you know, where we want to get to in the body.

And that matters to everyone’s body mass and what, body fat and all the stuff that comes with that. So, know that’s why some people can cool quicker and take longer and working out too. And I think to your original question of like, does it, does it stunt some of the muscle mass this game? I mean, I lean more to like, so we work with Kelly star at Dr.

Kelly star at massive in the fitness space. And his statement is unless you are training to be a professional bodybuilder, the benefit, like what am I training for? And probably majority of the people listening here. Have we have regular jobs or, you know, and like they’re working out to enhance their life.

It’s not to go be as a professional worker outer. And you know, so what are we playing here? They’re playing the long game. We’re playing for longevity. We’re playing for recovery. So yeah, maybe, maybe a stunted a little, but you’re going to feel that much better to go back to the gym tomorrow and work out again.

And even rich Froning talks about that. The guy that is looking for every inch that he can get into. You know, maximizing his workouts and his, you know, his lifts and all that, all this times and reps and everything. He’s also like I, recovery is my most important thing, right? Like I can only get back in and do my eight hours of workout a day if I’m recovering well.

So to me, it’s worth me. Taking a bit of a trade off there to feel better recover quicker and be back at it tomorrow. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly.

[00:27:56] Mason: Makes sense. Well, I’m a little disappointed that after workouts, I have to stay in it longer because I do four minutes at 44, 45 degrees. And after I workout, I’m like, ah, I can, that was easy. And yeah, I guess I should start doing eight or nine. Yeah.

[00:28:14] Jess: And the jets make it so much cooler too.

I’m like I could do this so much longer. If the jets weren’t spitting at me and moving the water around. It’s a positive thing I got

[00:28:22] Mason: seen out to me. And you build a, a layer of, of slightly warmer water around your body. Well, I guess women do less cause they have less hair from, but yeah, I can feel it if I don’t move around my hair, you know, creates a little layer of warmer water around it.

[00:28:40] Ryan Duey of Plunge: Yeah. It’s that thermal Andrew Huberman talks about it’s that thermal layer that our body naturally creates. And like you guys have, you know, in the plunge, it’s like the water circulating. There’s a. Difference to that into it’s like windshield, you know, it’s not just the temperature where maybe just a stagnant ice bath you, you find that sweet spot and you can kind of lean into it.

The worst is when someone comes in and just mixes that water up and it’s, it’s there. That’s why I think showers are also like a really intense shower is a thing where it’s like, It’s kind of hitting your body and it just keeps coming, flowing there and it’s like, Ooh, like I think those are, those can be fairly intense.

It’s annoying,

[00:29:17] Mason: especially kind of spinning around with it. So what, so how far into the plunge do you go? How much of your body can I ask a question?

[00:29:26] Ryan Duey of Plunge: That’s fine. Take it all away. Cover my chest, cover my neck, get up to like the vagal nerve back here. Really activate up to the. Basically at the top of my neck, and lean in and you know, for me, it’s, my hands are really, I have to cycle them in and out.

That’s like my most intense spots while kind of go five seconds in five seconds out and try and push that edge a bit of how long I can hold it in. And then they just scream and I’ll come out. Other people talk about their feet, being a really intense spot as well. Um, and toes, for me, it’s not as intense, but the hands are.

 

[00:30:03] Jess: So we talked about, oh, we, we leave our feet and hands out, like a little bit of a cheating game again with that. Um, your feet are really sensitive.

[00:30:12] Mason: Mason. Yeah, mine. I mean, my toes are that and I try to, at the very end, I’ll do it. I’m like, okay, this time I’m going to go 25 seconds with my toes in.

And it just, I mean, it is horrible pain.

[00:30:25] Ryan Duey of Plunge: It’s a it’s it’s intense. I mean, like my breath, like I’ll be in control my breaths. Good. And I’ll bring my hands back in and I just feel like I just like all

[00:30:35] Mason: over again.

[00:30:39] Ryan Duey of Plunge: Every day now for 16 months. And it’s like, this is still a thing

[00:30:46] Jess: I think for me, is when I squeezed my arms really tight to my body. But when I let that go. The water rushes, like to the armpits. And that is like an intense cold moment. Cause I usually try to like bundle up more so than hands or feet.

[00:31:01] Ryan Duey of Plunge: Yeah. That is that. That is interesting. So you have it right up into your, like your like armpit area?

[00:31:07] Jess: Yeah. Yeah. Like I usually squeeze really tight. So then I guess I’m blocking that area from really touching the water. but then, then I open it back up. It’s like a huge rush. so we talked about exercise and warming your body up before you get into the cold plunge.

What about taking a hot shower afterwards? Does that have any, not negative effect, but does it reduce the amount of benefits? Because I like doing the hot shower, but I feel like there are certain benefits maybe like for your metabolism or something where staying colder longer

[00:31:35] Ryan Duey of Plunge: is helpful. my answer to a lot of these questions is like, what’s going to get you back in the cold plunge tomorrow.

So. I love a hot shower after like, I’ll spend some time outside. I’ll do my five minutes on the trampoline, stand in the sun and then I’m back up and I, I do take a hot shower and that’s how I warm up. And I just it’s important for me or else I’m kinda, I could end up kind of shivering all day. It takes my body a while to warm back up.

So that’s for me. I mean, it depends, like you’re saying, if you’re going for this metabolism process, it’s like, there’s something. That they say is really important for the system to naturally warm up and go through that metabolic process and kind of use that energy to warm it, warm your body back up.

So if you’re going for that, and I think it’s important to not heat up after, and you know, I think there’s many other benefits that are taking place. You know, even if you’re warming up after and you know, that can vary from a sauna, like doing the contrast therapy of a sauna to a cold plunge, Sama to a cold plunge.

And what you know, working on those polarities, is that

[00:32:37] Jess: in your practice?

[00:32:39] Ryan Duey of Plunge: It’s not often, I have a sauna at the house. I don’t use it too, too often. cold plunging, super consistent. My favorite practice, more of just from a sensation, like feeling. Is cold plunge to a steam room. And I think it is one of the most incredible feelings.

[00:33:02] Mason: Wow. We’ll have to try that. Yeah.

[00:33:05] Ryan Duey of Plunge: Go in for, get really cold, take it down. And then when you’re in the steam room at about two to three minutes in, just start to notice where you’re at and it is hyper presence and. It’s a, it’s a very special sensation in like mental state that, that,

[00:33:21] Mason: that is achieved. Nice.

And one of the best guidance that I had ever gotten was like, yes. At which you repeated it’s you want it to be cold enough to really scare you and as cold as you can get for a lot of these benefits, but the most important thing is doing it consistently. And so if it’s too, if it’s so-called that you end up walking away from the plunge in the morning, instead of going ahead and get an in it, then it’s not, you’re not getting any of the benefits.

So it’s like as cold as you can get, but to where you’ll do it every day, if you want,

[00:33:54] Ryan Duey of Plunge: we really recommend. People, whether they’re purchasing a plunge or they’re starting their practice. It’s like, well, if they’re purchasing a plunge, we’re like started at 55 degrees, but at 60 degrees, like somewhere in that range, like where, like you said, you get in and you’re like, Ooh, this is uncomfortable.

But just do that without a expectation of how long you’re going to do that for your body will tell you. When it’s time. And if that’s like a radical concept into, like, I don’t know if my body’s going to tell you, that’s a beautiful practice to go in and start listening to your body and then actually trusting it and being like, oh, it’s telling me I’m learning to listen to the body.

So that’s a, that’s been a beautiful process with the plunge of like, really encouraging, empowering people to be like, you’re. You know, it might be a new process to listen into it, but spend some time with it. And you’ll know, deep down when you should start increasing time or changing the temperature and, and, and play with that.

So that’s been a, it’s been a cool, cool function of this to see people stepping into that. Yeah,

[00:34:54] Mason: that’s really cool. And that’s what we did too. We started at 55 and when I got up to around three minutes at 55, then I take it down two degrees at a time until I could get back up to. Close to that time. And I eventually shared this with Jess.

She didn’t know I was moving it down and she was like, what?

[00:35:12] Ryan Duey of Plunge: Yeah. I was curious how you two work with, if you guys are always on the same temp or if there’s like a different,

[00:35:20] Jess: I don’t want to mess with it and frustrate him. It’s like he does it more often than I do. He has a better practice with it. So it’s like, I mean, we share it, of course.

And I go in it often, but I allow it to be his in a sense. And then like, I’m just there for the ride and the benefit. So like whatever temperature he wants it out, that’s fine. And I just get in it and I know that it will be better for me at the end of it, if it’s because he probably has it colder than I would like it.

but I’m going to benefit that from that at the end of the day.

[00:35:49] Mason: So hopefully by now listeners are on board because I really think cold exposure is an amazing practice that can help everyone aside from your system. I think it might be helpful to give people an understanding of what are the options, if they are just now, or like, Hey, I want to go do this.

What are the options from the easiest or cheapest and then up to you don’t necessarily need to go. The systems that are way more expensive than yours. Cause they’re obviously relevant.

[00:36:17] Ryan Duey of Plunge: I mean, there’s always the cold shower. That’s a way to get cold. There is the caveat with that and I think cold showers are great.

Doing what I’m on the road and I travel and it’s a way to kind of shock my system and wake up a bit. It’s a very different experience, you know, from being a full body submersion into cold water and breathing through that, then being in a shower for a couple of minutes and you don’t quite know the temperature, but it’s a great spot.

Get in there. You’re going to feel some, you’re going to feel different. You know, what, a cold shower for two minutes or even a minute and get out after that’s a way to start kind of be like, what’s this all about? You can always Google they’re they’re popping up all over into commercial. So you could find a spot locally that, you know, there’s so many different, beautiful facilities all across the country.

I think that’s a great spot. Find a place, book, an appointment, go over there, try it out. and then from there you could start to, you know, and those places are great. Just maybe start with, uh, if you wanted to get into it more, a membership and build some sort of consistency with it. and then from there, the, the next levels are.

You know, buying the horse trough and fill it up with ice hose, water, and ice. And that, that’s a fun to do on a Saturday with some friends, but you’re not really going to be able to get the consistency with it. That’s it first really expensive it’s time consuming. You have to dump the water.

It gets dirty. It’s it’s just, it’s it’s a good starter point. It’s a good little community builder. There’s always the DIY chest freezer. That’s the next level up of building your own. I’m not a big, I’m not a builder. I don’t like construction. That’s just so outside of where I would want to go. So I always would that, I always say, if you’re doing the chest freeze, like make sure you’re into that stuff.

Cause you can do that wrong and it could be yeah, exactly. Like the trade-offs of that could be massive. Um, so that’s a thing. Um, and then from there it’s, you know, you start to step into, you know, an actual unit for the whole. Um, like our units, 4,900 bucks is our base model. And that the big difference in the distinction with those, like you guys know is it has the filtration, it’s an on-demand option.

So this is really about the practice, this isn’t. I want to try this one time and I do this once a month. It’s like, you’re doing once a month go find the commercial facility. That’s great. We’ll up your trough. If you’re really trying to make this a part of your lifestyle,

this is the option because it’s, it takes out it’s already hard enough to get into cold water. Like you guys have it and you still walk out some mornings and you’re like, I’m not getting in this thing. Like let alone, if you add in other levels of having to cool it down or it’s dirty or draining it or all the stuff, it’s kind of the next phase into just having the practice to it.

So. Yeah, there’s different points of where you’re at in the process. We see people entering in that have been doing the trough for awhile or the chest freezer and, you know, want this unit. We have people that just jump right in and they’re like, I’m in, I know I’m going to do it because I’m buying this thing.

Like, that’s the way I put my, my money. Exactly. So that, that’s the gauntlet of cold plunge. And then the other one, like, like we didn’t even get into is the natural versions. Like where do you live? pools are obviously a great option for most of the country in the winter time.

You can get, you know, pool temperatures. Like I said, even if you’re in the high fifties, that’s a, you’re going to get some benefit from that’s cold, you know, especially if you’re new to it. Rivers, lakes, oceans, uh, Pacific oceans, obviously always cold here on the west coast. East coast, obviously that, that alters it’s, you know, depending on where you’re at in the country, on the, on the Atlantic side.

So

[00:39:45] Mason: down in Texas, the Gulf is a warm path.

[00:39:48] Ryan Duey of Plunge: Exactly. There you go. I mean, you guys probably maybe, maybe some rivers and lakes around.

[00:39:53] Mason: Yeah. We get some cold Springs and stuff in Austin. We have Barton Springs, which I think is 60 degrees year round. So.

[00:40:01] Ryan Duey of Plunge: Yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s definitely going to get you awake you up a bit.

So yeah, there’s always, the natural ones are always just Google that. Go connect, go connect into your local landscape and hop into the cold water.

[00:40:14] Jess: Very cool. Yeah. That’s awesome. So how do you think we convince more people of the benefits or to try it? How do we

[00:40:20] Mason: spread the word, Ryan?

[00:40:24] Ryan Duey of Plunge: Man. I’m not big into like selling stuff.

I’m big into action. And it’s like, you know, you guys have it. You’re probably building great momentum in your life. It’s like your, your life of how you’ve lived. Your life is going to convince people like, Hey, what am I doing? It’s like, and it’s not just cold plunges. I’m big on that. This isn’t the silver bullet.

That is the answer to everyone’s everyone’s issues and health issues. It is a component, but I think as more and more people do it, it just works. And momentum gets created and like, And you feel incredible. And I think that’s that’s enough and that’s where I trust the long game here that, you know, more and more people are getting into it.

A lot of big names are getting into it too. And they’re big advocates of it. I just, I, I rarely I have yet to meet anyone that does it consistently. That’s like my life is not a much bigger net positive than prior. and so that I trust that over. You know what that’s going to get people involved in it.

So may just keep, keep cool punches. That’s all I’ll say.

 

[00:00:00] Jess: Well, that was incredible. And now I’m ready to go cold plunge.

[00:00:02] Mason: I’m really looking forward to him sharing his results from the long study he’s in the middle of, that’ll be very interesting and a great data point. I want to redo my study

[00:00:10] Jess: today. I liked learning about all of the added benefits that I wasn’t aware of, especially helping with sleep, which we both know that I need help with.

So, as a reminder, if you’re interested in investing in your own plunge, head on over to the cold plunge dot. Browse their site in the different cold plunge options they have. And you can use code mostly green for $150 off your

[00:00:35] Mason: order. And if you’re joining our content, please rate the podcast on apple or Spotify or wherever you listen.

And if you’re feeling extra love, give us a review too. Thanks for listening.

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