[00:00:00] Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of the So Here For It podcast. I'm currently going live on Instagram at the same time. I'm starting to do the thing where you're doing multiple things at once, cause repurposing is a thing for me. I am so here for working smarter, not harder in my business and in my life.
And so here's the thing that I really want to share with you this week. Hear me and hear me well. Just because you've seen somebody do an ice bath doesn't mean it's going to benefit you.
Also, there's a caveat to this. People will have seen me do ice baths in my time. People would have seen me go to the contrast pools. People would probably say, well, isn't that being contradictory, Amy? Like I've seen you do ice baths. And the truth is I have, but have I enjoyed it? Has it [00:01:00] really helped my body and nervous system? And, who is it really for? And we're going to dive into it inside this episode, because if you are somebody who thinks they have to do ice baths in order to build resilience, or in order to boost your immune system, or in order to improve your mental health, the truth is you don't have to.
And I'm going to teach you a whole lot of nuance because most of the studies that have been done, have been done on men. Surprise, surprise. Most of the studies that have been done with the ice bathing and the anti inflammatory effects and the people who are getting a lot of benefits from the ice bath.
It's usually to do with men and athletes and they're often staying inside these ice baths for a really long time. I want to tell you a story. Let me tell you this story because it's actually really, really helpful.
Several years ago I was in Bali, [00:02:00] right? Running a retreat. I was running it with one of my good friends, Karlie. We decided that because at this retreat, it's an all inclusive space. Like it's so good that they've got all these beautiful, healthy cafes. They've got the beach, they've got pools and a gym. And this time we saw all these empty baths and we were like, oh my gosh, maybe we can get them to order in some ice and we'll do ice baths with the ladies.
And we thought it was a great idea. And I, previous to that, had never done an ice bath and I, I'd seen it on social media and I'd seen people doing it. I'd just really heard about Wim Hof, like this is pre, this is pre 2020. So I think this, this was like in 2019. About November, 2019. And so this is before the world changed.
And at the time I was like, okay, I want to do this with these women. They're looking at me like, we've never done this. Can you show us how it's done? And I'm like, well, I've never done this. And yes, I want to show you how it's done. So [00:03:00] I taught them how to do this really specific breath. And for me, because I'm a breathwork facilitator. And I've done yoga for a really long time and I've given birth twice at home without any sort of pain relief, apart from being in water, like water seems to be my thing, right? I know what type of breath I can do that brings focus, but also helps me with pain relief. So I taught everybody that breath. And if you want to know more about breath work, you can send me through a message.
And we can talk more about that because I actually have a whole course on this sort of stuff. And it's not the forceful breath work. It is the healing breath work. Anyway, back to the story. Inside the ice bath, I slid in and I'm like, we're just going to do three minutes and we're timing it. It was perfect. We have this beautiful music playing. It was actually amazing. My first ice bath experience was transformational and I loved it. And I was like, okay, cool. And each of the women went in that were freaking out and then calm them down and got them [00:04:00] to do the breathing. And it was so great. And then we did it again the next day.
Cause of course we want to like, see if we can do something better, but I noticed my ego drop in, in that next day. And I was like, there's something about the way I'm feeling inside this ice bath that I'm trying to prove myself, but nobody else could see that I was doing this. Right. And it's like, while I was in the egoic stage, I stayed in that ice bath for over the three minute mark.
Meanwhile, the benefits you get from an ice bath, so the improvement in your dopamine, your norepinephrine, your anti inflammatory effects, that all just happens in a minute. You really don't need to stay in there longer than a minute. Anyway, I sat in there for five minutes and that day, my nervous system took about six hours to recover.
And so what had happened is I went into a stress response, as opposed to feeling really good and feeling healed [00:05:00] from it, I went into a stress response. So it took me further past that therapeutic effect and it actually went into a stress response and I couldn't warm up. I was shaking, I was really, really sensitive to everything that was around me.
And I felt stressed, you know, how sensitive you feel when you're stressed. And it's just like, everything felt bigger than what it was. And I was like, Oh my gosh, this is so not a good idea. And when I got home, so I got through that. It's fine. It's not like it was detrimental forever. I got through it. It was fine.
But then when I got home, I decided I wanted to do a whole lot more research into it. Because then what I found is like, Oh, it's the, the research, a lot has been done with Wim Hof and the style of breath work that he's done. But then also I looked into like, okay, well, traditional Chinese medicine, they're like full on about the cold.
If we're talking about the healing aspects of warmth, they say that the invasion of cold, which is like people's immune system going [00:06:00] downhill, they will say that that will happen only in response to cold most of the time or the wind. So they say, keep, keep your feet warm, keep your body warm, keep it covered, particularly if it's cold weather or particularly if you're exposed to the cold.
So it doesn't make sense in a Chinese medicine sense to ever do an ice bath, but then I was like, okay, that's fair enough. But you think about women who are in their luteal phase. So after you've ovulated, you go into luteal phase. You think about when you're in that phase, you are more sensitized to stress.
You are more sensitized to the outside world. And the last thing that I would consider doing, if I was just about to get my period is sit in a freaking ice bath, like it's painful. So I tend to avoid that sort of thing. Now, up until recently, I had pretty much avoided them. Earlier in the year I was training for a marathon and I did do a few ice baths, but most of the time they had [00:07:00] four different pools.
And I think if you've been following me for a while, you would know that I love the contrast pools, but there's an ice bath, which is somewhere around like the eight degrees mark. And then there's a cold bath, which is a little bit colder, which is more like 12 to 15. And then there's another one that's like body temperature.
So it's about 36 degrees. And then there was a hot bath. All of them are magnesium baths, but the next one up, the hot one is like 40 degrees. And I often felt like stifled inside that. So anyway, I would normally just go between those two, like tempered ones, like the 12 degrees and the body temp one.
My nervous system had never felt better. I felt so good. My brain clarity was amazing. So I then looked into, okay, the benefits of contrast pools and ADHD, the benefits on focus, all these different things. And I'm like, okay, there are so many women who I speak to who are late diagnosed, so I mean late in life, late diagnosed ADHD, I highly recommend you going and doing this cold [00:08:00] exposure with warm exposure, but it doesn't mean it needs to be ice bath.
So there's times and places we need to see nuance when it comes to our health. And that's where I'm coming from today. Now I got really excited. And this is what I shared on my social media a couple of weeks ago, is that if women are going to do this cold exposure, it's actually really, really beneficial if you are someone who gets the inflammation symptoms. Now think about it like this. If you get inflamed around your joints in your luteal phase, if you get inflamed in your pelvic cavity, so like if you have any form of period pain, endometriosis, adenomyosis, PCOS, it's still an inflammatory point in time. Yes, it can be helped. And yes, it is a blood flow issue with most people.
So my thing here is to say, don't go to the extreme. You don't need to go into the ice bath to get the effect of cold exposure. Now the exciting thing, here it is. [00:09:00] The study that has been done on women recently, this is the exciting bit, is women with endometriosis. And they have explored having these women after they've ovulated. So yes, you need to know when you ovulate. So track your cycle. I also have a masterclass if you want access to that, just message me because there is so much info inside of that, that you can use for the rest of your life. And it's $22. So best investment ever. Track your cycle, you know when you ovulate and then for those two weeks ish, cause no one's textbook, but for those two weeks, once you've ovulated, if you get any sort of pelvic pain and you're exposing your body to at least one minute of cool exposure, just cool. So that means one minute of your shower each day is cold. You could dive into the ocean each day and it feels cold. You could go into a local waterfall and it's cold. That sort of cold exposure just for one minute. If you do that for 14 days straight leading up to your period, it has been shown to [00:10:00] decrease inflammation, which also has had this effect on pelvic pain.
Which I think is phenomenal and like, finally, they have done some studies on women. Finally, it's something that I'm so happy to put out there to my community, because this is the stuff that women need. Women need to know this stuff that like, as soon as they've ovulate, A, they need to know when they ovulate, yes. But B, they also need to know like things other than painkillers. They need to know things other than the pill. They need to know things other than the Mirena. They need to know where their body is at because the body's constantly giving feedback, right?
So here is a gift from me to you today to add the cold exposure in. Heck, even if you don't get pelvic pain, I would suggest that you do it because here's the other thing that you can get. You can get so much more mental clarity. Who doesn't want more mental clarity? Because when you've got mental clarity, you make better decisions. You can take action. You can be more productive, not only in your work, [00:11:00] but also with the way that you live your life. Like you just stop being so distracted by everything all the time.
So add the cold exposure, just from ovulation onwards. See how you feel. I would love to hear your feedback. And I also just want to remind you that this is my jam. Like if you have questions about this stuff, please send me through a message. Send me through a message and ask me a question because I'm here to help more women be empowered about their health, to make healthy choices, to live their best lives with the people who really, really matter to you.
So thank you so much, and I will see you on the next episode.
