What temperature and for how long should you cold plunge?
A cold plunge is when you fully submerge your body up to your neck in water below 59° Fahrenheit (15° Celsius).
There is evidence that cold plunging at even warmer temperatures, as high as 68° Fahrenheit, can cause beneficial adaptive responses.
Short-Term Head-Out Whole-Body Cold-Water
59° Fahrenheit—two to four sessions per week for 11 minutes total time—is enough to cause measurable metabolic boost according to Dr. Susanna Soeberg.
You can read more about this study here:
Dr. Susanna Soeberg Cell Press Peer Reviewed Study
Her study on cold exposure therapy was performed on winter swimmers who dipped into the ocean. This study has become a reference for defining what a cold plunge is.
Another definition to consider: you ought to cold plunge at a temperature where it is uncomfortably cold yet safe. This is a great rule of thumb created by Dr. Andrew Huberman.
What temperature and how long to stay in a cold plunge is based on your unique cold tolerance.
Do not see cold exposure as a competition, but rather as a means to build insight, resilience, and adaption.
Some people naturally have high tolerances; others naturally have low tolerances.
If you are just starting out, start at a higher temperature and lower duration. Stairstep your progress. Once you understand your thresholds / limits, you can begin exploring different temperatures and times to increase your adaption during a cold plunge.
Varying temperatures and duration is incredibly useful in keeping your body always adapting.
Think of changing temperature and duration as similar to changing weights, sets, and reps while working out. The goal is to keep your body always guessing, always adapting, in order to maximize the benefits.
When Dr. Susanna Soeberg is asked what temperature and duration is best, her response is “The perfect temperature is simply to keep changing it.”
Exercise, cold exposure (cold plunge), heat exposure (sauna), and intermittent fasting are all hormetic stressors. All of these protocols provide the most benefit by changing up your routine.
Why Cold Plunge Up to the Neck?
Cold plunging up to the neck, fully submersed in water, provides a significantly higher dose of cold exposure that cold showers.
If you have the opportunity to cold plunge, see for yourself the difference between submerging to your chin vs. to your shoulders. In addition, explore the difference between having your arms in the water and outside the water.
You will notice an increase in intensity from having your neck and arms submerged.
Furthermore, you can experiment full dunking your head underwater at the start and at the end of your cold plunge. This leads to further adaptation / adjustments your body goes through during cold exposure.
Forget Intensity, Focus on Consistency
Where most people stumble is thinking they have to go intense right out of the gate. They see people on Instagram doing an ice bath or cold plunge just above freezing temperatures. Forget all that.
The question you should be asking yourself is: how can you integrate cold exposure into your life on a daily / weekly basis to accomplish your goals?
No one session is going to define you. Just as with exercise, you want to develop a routine around cold plunging that is scalable.
Are There Benefits to Going Colder?
Anecdotally, there are benefits to going colder. You can think of colder temperatures as lifting heavier weights. Do you have to lift heavier weights to experience the benefits of resistance training. No. Will you gain more adaption and potential muscle growth? Yes.
The same is true for cold therapy. Although not necessary, colder temperatures will give you a faster dose. Some users have said it fully resets your nervous system faster.
More peer reviewed science needs to emerge on the benefits of handling colder temperatures as you build tolerance. Just as there are benefits to lifting with heavier risks and going into hotter saunas (and risks), there are likely benefits to going colder, provided that you have built up tolerance over time.
Since cold exposure is the most powerful of the hormetic stresses, you do need to be careful about diminishing returns and incurring damage. With lifting heavier weights, there is the real risk of injurying your back, joints, etc. With hotter sauna temperatures, there is the risk of heat stroke and dehydration. With cold exposure, hypothermia is a very real risk, and it can happen extremely quickly if you are not careful.
You Can Always Cold Plunge for Longer in Warmer Temperatures
An alternative is you can always cold plunge for longer duration at warmer temperatures. This is akin to doing more weight lifting repetitions with lighter weight. There are still great benefits from doing this, and you reduce the risk of injury and diminishing returns.
