Is Swimming in Cold Water really Good for You?
What are the pros and cons of swimming in cold water?
If you are a swimming enthusiast, you must have thought of prolonging your swimming season into the fall and even winter.
Of course, you can continue swimming in winter in a heated pool. However, not many people have this privilege.
Once you winterize your above-ground swimming pool, that is the end of that swimming season for you. But it does not have to be!
You see, once you know the benefits of cold water swimming, you can continue swimming well into the cold seasons. However, you need to be cautious because exposing yourself to that kind of cold is really not good.
Let’s look at the cold water swimming recreational and health benefits you will enjoy:
Pros of cold-water swimming
Are there health benefits to swimming in cold water? There are several. These have been studied for some time. Here are a few of them:
1. Release of feel-good hormones
This is one of the biggest benefits. When you engage in physical exercise, you trick your body to start secreting feel-good hormones such as dopamine, serotonin, and others.
This lifts your mood, makes you feel happier throughout the day, and makes you more sociable and approachable.
If you suffer from stress and anxiety, you might want to try swimming. Warm saltwater or chlorine pool swimming is okay, but cold water swimming is even better.
2. It kick-starts fat burning
Swimming is an energy-intensive exercise. However, swimming in cold water requires almost three times the energy that you use when swimming in an inflatable pool at home.
You will burn more calories swimming in cold water than in warm water. The body needs a double dose of energy. One, it needs the energy to swim.
Two, it needs the energy to keep warm. This energy comes from the calories that it burns. Therefore, it has to burn more.
If you can, you should try swimming everyday for 30 days in cold water and see just how much weight you could lose.
3. Cold water activates your metabolism
The moment you jump into the water, the ice-cold pricks the skin. The body immediately goes into preservation mode by enhancing metabolism.
Metabolism is the process by which the body breaks down food material for heat and energy. Frequent swimming in the open water can help to maintain your metabolic rate at an all-time high.
A high metabolism also means faster fat burning. Therefore, cold-water swimming can help with weight loss.
4. It is good for your immune system
When you come from warmth and then jump into the cold water, the sudden change in the conditions kickstarts the body’s white blood cell production.
This bolsters your immunity and makes you stronger. Of course, swimming in the cold water just once does not help much. This is for people who swim frequently.
5. It improves your circulatory health
Swimming in cold water is good for your body because it enhances the circulation of blood to all parts of the body.
When you get into the water, the limbs start to become cold. Therefore, the body must do more work sending the blood there.
This blood contains more nutrients and oxygen. If you swim more often, you are likely to experience a higher heart rate and better lung health.
6. Good preparation for triathlons
If you are a triathlon enthusiast, you need to prepare well. First, you need to learn how to swim in cold water in a wetsuit. In such an event, you don’t want to swim in your swimsuit.
Triathlon running requires you to wear more gear, like swimming goggles, water shoes, and others. These are the things that you will be required to wear when swimming in low temperatures.
Taking cold swims gets your body ready for the hard triathlon ahead. It also gives you the mental stamina that you will need for the hard competition ahead.
Cold water swimming cons
Cold-water swimming also has its fair share of cons or side effects. It is not something you want to try if you are ill-prepared.
1. You require more gear
You will need more gear to swim in cold water as opposed to swimming in warm water. Here are some of them:
- You will need a wetsuit to keep you warm
- Full-finger swimming gloves are going to keep your hands warm
- You might need swimming leggings to keep your lower limbs warm
- If you have swimming socks, you might need to wear them
- You also need to wear a neoprene swimming cap to keep your head warm
- Many more
2. The risk of hypothermia
This is one of the most serious risks when you are swimming in a cold pool. In the UK, 20,000 hypothermia related deaths occur yearly.
Hypothermia is a situation where the surroundings are so cold that the body starts losing heat. In the case of swimming in cold water, your body starts losing heat to the surroundings.
Science shows us the human body cools down fast. In fact, to cool down, the body takes twice the time it takes to warm up. It also takes more energy! In that case, it is best to swim without the risk of hypothermia.
The regular body temperature is within the 36.5 to 37.5°C range. When the body temperature starts to drop below 35°C, you are at risk of suffering from hypothermia.
People who love swimming in open the ocean face the risk of hypothermia. It is harder to control the temperature of the water in a lake or in the ocean. However, this does not mean that a cold-water swimming pool is any better.
If hypothermia occurs, your body starts to cool down or lose heat the minute you are exposed to the cold. Thus, it starts to cool down when you are changing into your swimming attire.
When you get into the water, the body cools down further. Again, when you get out of the water, your body cools down further.
Indications of slipping into hypothermia
To know that you are slipping into hypothermia, watch out for the common signs. These include shivering, blue lips, cold skin, pale skin, quick breathing, and, in many cases, slurred speech.
If you notice any of the above signs, know that your body is crossing the point of no return. In that case, you should find help very fast.
When you swim in ice water, experts recommend that you should not stay in the water for more than two minutes.
Even if you are swimming in a cold pool to lose weight, be careful with your timing. Get in and out as soon as possible.
Remember, when you are measuring the time you have been exposed to cold, you have to count the time it took you to change into your wetsuit, the time you were in the water and the time it took you to change back into dry clothes.
How to treat hypothermia
Treating hypothermia is not hard at all. However, you should get help soon before your body becomes too cooled down that you are unable to do anything for yourself.
Get out of the cold water and change into dry clothes as soon as possible. You need to warm up gradually.
After wearing dry clothes, wrap yourself up in extra-warm clothes or use a blanket. Also, get a hot and sugary drink or eat a sweet snack.
If there is a fire, move closer. It will take a long time to warm up completely, but again, not extra long. If you don’t start warming up in 20 to 30 minutes, you should seek emergency help.
If you have been asking: Can swimming in cold water make you sick? The answer is yes. It cannot only make you sick, but it can also kill you easily.
Cold water shock
Unlike hypothermia, where the body loses heat to the surroundings gradually, cold-water shock is so abrupt. Jumping into cold water can send your body into cold-water shock and even kill you immediately.
What actually happens is that when your body comes into contact with the cold water, the blood vessels in and under the skin close up immediately due to the shock. Thus, the heart has to work much harder to sustain the blood flow.
If cold water shock is going to kill you, it will do so in the first 90 seconds of getting into the water. However, not to be dramatic you won’t die, but the sudden immersion into ice-cold water is going to cut your breath short so fast.
How to avoid cold water shock
To avoid cold water shock, avoid jumping into cold water fast. First, you need to give your body time to acclimate to the cold weather. This means exposing yourself to the cold when you are changing so that you get used to the cold.
Also, when getting into the swimming pool, do not jump in. Rather, get in slowly, feet first. It is going to be quite a chill, but it will help you avoid cold-water shock.
3. Drowning when swimming in cold water
When you swim in cold water, there is a bigger risk of drowning than when you swim in warm water. For example, if you experience cold water shock, you could drown so easily.
By definition, drowning is when you inhale water into your lungs. You can imagine just how easily drowning could occur when you experience cold water shock.
One of the signs of cold water shock is rapid breathing. In those critical 90 seconds, you can inhale a lot of water.
When swimming in the ocean, you could become too cold. One of the side effects of swimming in cold water is that your body cannot be as active as it would be in warm water.
Therefore, you could drift along to wherever the current carries you since you might not have the energy to fight it.
The waves will be too strong for you to swim against them. If you are going to swim in cold water, choose a moment when the water is not too cold. If there are no waves and currents to swim against, you are going to preserve your energy.
4. Swimming in ice water will give you chilblains
What are chilblains?
When your body reacts abnormally to the cold, you could suffer from chilblains. This is a condition where your blood does not circulate normally when you are exposed to a sudden severe cold.
What happens is that the blood vessels that are close to the skin surface narrow up, and some might even close up.
Since blood circulation to the skin is interrupted, you will start noticing swollen parts of the skin that are reddish and itchy.
Chilblains are common in the UK in the winter, when the weather turns cold and damp. Thus, when you swim in winter, check out for this condition. It is not as severe as cold water shock or hypothermia, but you should still be concerned about it.
Can swimming in cold water make you sick?
As you have seen in the past sections of this article, you will definitely get sick from swimming in cold water.
Swimming burns calories. Swimming in cold water burns even more calories. But there are downsides.
If you are not careful when swimming in cold water, you can experience hypothermia, cold water shock and this might even lead to death.
So yes, despite there being so many health benefits of cold water, you could get sick. If cold and damp weather alone in the UK can give you chilblains, you know that cold water dipping can make you go through worse than that.
Swimming outdoors in winter is extremely challenging and only very well-prepared people can do it. You cannot swim in regular swim trunks. Rather, you need a thick, say, up to 5mm wetsuit for swimming.
Is swimming in cold water good for your body
It is perfectly okay to swim in cold water. It is not going to have any adverse side effects to your body.
And swimming in cold water has its benefits for the skin, immune health, and other aspects of your health.
If you swim in cold water frequently, your heart has to increase its beat rate to pump enough blood rich in nutrients to the muscles.
In return, this has the benefit of giving you clearer skin. Remember, the skin is also getting nourished from the enhanced blood flow.
Are there health benefits to swimming in cold water?
As mentioned earlier, there are tens of benefits to swimming in cold water. This means swimming in the cold season or swimming in the ocean.
From immune-boosting, burning more calories, and giving you a cardio workout, you will also enjoy better circulation health.
In fact, swimming burns more calories than running. Swimming in cold water burns even more calories than taking a dip in warm water or running.
While there are many benefits to swimming in cold water, do not extend your swim more than necessary. If you stay in very cold surroundings for too long, you could experience hypothermia.
Conclusion
Those are the pros and cons of cold water swimming. However, please note that swimming in ice-cold water is not for everyone.
Most importantly, you need to ask this question: How cold is too cold to swim? Experts say you should avoid swimming in water colder than 21°C/70°F.
Experienced swimmers have swum in water temperatures colder than this. However, if you are a swimming beginner, this is not advisable.
Even if you are an experienced swimmer, do not stay too long in the water. A minute or two should be enough. Even a thick wetsuit is not going to protect you fully.