What Exactly Is Cold Water Therapy?
Cold water therapy is the practice of submerging oneself in water that’s below 59°F to treat injuries, muscle soreness, and stimulate numerous other health benefits. It’s also known as cold immersion therapy or ice bath therapy.
This type of practice has actually been around for a couple of millennia now. However, recent adaptations to the practice using modern technology include ice baths, brisk daily showers, outdoor swims, and purpose-built cold water therapy tubs.
Cold water therapy has been used for many years in sports medicine to help reduce inflammation and speed up injury recovery, but it's also been linked in some research to weight loss.
Up until now, this highly effective therapy method was only available in sports therapy clinics and professional sports training facilities. Thankfully, now RENU Therapy makes cold water therapy possible anytime in the comfort of your own home. These cold therapy tanks are roughly the size of a small hot tub and handsomely fit into your home's surroundings.
Cold Swimming Links To Boosting Metabolism
One historical example of the benefits of cold water is the multiple generations of Korean women who earned their living by diving to catch seafood in the chilly waters near Jeju Island. Before the transition to modern wetsuits, these women swam in waters ranging between 50°F to 70°F wearing only thin cotton bathing suits. Upon deeper research studies into these women, it was discovered that their basal metabolic rate was significantly higher during their winter diving months than during their summer diving season.
Further Studies On Cold Exposure And Fat Tissue
Cold temperatures have been repeatedly shown in studies to increase activation of the body's fat-burning capabilities, particularly by activating brown fat, also called brown adipose tissue.
One Harvard study revealed that people who spent ten days consecutive days in rooms cooled to a mild 60.8 degrees significantly increased activity levels of their brown fat. Further, it's been discovered that people who have higher amounts of brown fat also have lower body mass indexes, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Is Brown Fat Tissue Helpful?
You may be surprised to learn that the fat in your body is made up of different colors. Research has identified both white and brown types of fat. Brown fat, or brown adipose tissue, is also sometimes called beige fat or inducible BAT. Some research suggests brown fat is beneficial, especially compared with white fat. How does this work?
When our body stores excess calories in the form of fat, it's white fat that accumulates, not brown fat. Therefore, when we try to get rid of fat, it's this white fat that we're trying to reduce.
However, the other type of fat found in the body, brown fat, actually burns calories! To maintain the core body temperature necessary to stay alive and healthy, brown fat helps provide an energy source.
As babies, our bodies start off with high levels of brown fat, but as we age, levels of this type of fat decline, while white fat increases. Even worse, activation of the brown fat in our bodies declines with age as well, robbing us of calorie-burning abilities.
Can You Take Cold Showers For Weight Loss? : Do cold plunges help lose weight?
Keep in mind, just because cold activates brown fat and brown fat is associated with lower weights doesn't necessarily mean that only cold showers can lead to dropping pounds quickly.
In one study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, test subjects who submerged themselves for two hours per day in only 66-degree water lost an average of one to two pounds over the course of six weeks.
Comparatively, ten minutes is all you should spend in a cold plunge, which can drop to as cold as 39 degrees. These colder temps may do a better job of activating brown fat and in less time!
Using Cold Plunge Tubs At Home For Losing Weight
Always Have Instantly Available Ice Water
Traditional bathtubs filled with ice can't deliver the consistently ice-cold water needed for convenient home cold water therapy. Thankfully, the purpose-built cold plunge tubs from RENU Therapy will provide you with continually refrigerated water for instant cold water immersion weight loss benefits whenever you want.
RENU cold plunge therapy tubs are nearly three feet deep, enabling you to achieve full immersion in ice-cold water for maximum therapeutic effects.
Staying Safe When You Cold Plunge For Weight Loss
Be sure to warm up after you get out because your body temperature can keep dropping even after you're out of the cold water, increasing the likelihood of hypothermia.
Experts in cold water therapy recommend taking the following steps to warm up safely and gradually after your cold plunge therapy routine for weight loss:
- Immediately put on a hat and gloves to warm up.
- Get out of any wet clothing and dry yourself off.
- Get dressed in warm, dry clothing, starting with your upper body.
- Drink a warm beverage to warm up from the inside.
- Have something sweet to eat, as sugar helps elevate your body temperature.
- Sit down someplace warm or walk around to help raise your body temperature.
- Just remember, don't warm up by taking a hot shower! Doing so could cause you to pass out.
Where Can I Get A Cold Plunge Tub?
To more easily reduce white fat across your entire body, accessing the convenience of cold plunge therapy whenever you want is possible with RENU Therapy's line of cold plunge tubs. We hand make all of our cold immersion therapy tubs 100% in the USA and provide our customers with the best warranty coverage on the market.
Featuring a wide array of design choices including cabinet color and breath deck wood finishes, you’re sure to find the perfect cold tub to match your home's design features.
Contact RENU Therapy today and discover how you can get cold plunge therapy to aid weight loss at home!
