Home/Compare/Cold plunges and ice baths
Compare
The Joyful Exhale vs. cold plunges
Cold water is a real stressor with real short-term effects, and a lot of people love it. It is also where breathing advice gets dangerous. If you are going to get in cold water, my book has one job: keep you breathing slowly and keep you from hyperventilating or holding your breath anywhere near it.
| Cold plunges and ice baths | The Joyful Exhale | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A physical stressor | A breathing practice |
| Acute effect | Big: adrenaline, noradrenaline, alertness | Settling; then a quiet felt sense |
| Evidence | Short-term mood: early; long-term: none | Slow exhale: small trials; release: craft |
| Risk | Real: cardiac, drowning | Minimal with the two rules |
| Breathing in water | Slow exhale only | Slow exhale only |
What cold plunges and ice baths is
Cold-water immersion, from a cold shower to an ice bath to a winter lake, triggers a gasp reflex, a spike in heart rate and blood pressure, a surge of adrenaline and noradrenaline, and, for many people, a lasting lift in mood and alertness afterward. Enthusiasts pair it with breathing, often the Wim Hof style. The claimed benefits range from recovery to resilience to depression relief.
What the Joyful Exhale does differently
My method is not a cold practice and makes no claims about cold. Where it intersects is the breath you take when the water hits. The cold-shock gasp is an inhale; the thing that gets you through the first thirty seconds is a long, slow exhale, repeated, which is the exhale-weighted breath. That is the only breathing I would do in cold water. No breath-holds, no fast breathing before or during, ever.
Where cold plunges and ice baths wins
Cold wins on the acute effect: nothing in my book produces a noradrenaline surge, and some people find the after-glow of a cold swim does more for a low mood than anything else they have tried. There is early trial evidence for mood and for perceived recovery after exercise, and a large practice literature. If it makes you feel alive and your heart is sound, I am not going to argue you out of it.
Where I reach for mine
I reach for mine for the days that do not include a lake, which is most of them. The exhale works in the meeting after the swim. And I reach for the book's safety pages hardest here, because cold water plus breathing advice is where the field has killed people. The breathing you should do in cold water is slow and continuous. Anything else belongs on dry land or nowhere.
What the research says
Cold immersion has a growing but still thin trial literature: short-term improvements in mood and alertness, mixed results for recovery and inflammation, and no good long-term outcome trials. The Wim Hof systematic review covers the combined protocol and finds the inflammatory-marker effect comes largely from the breathing-driven adrenaline. Slow exhale breathing is the well-supported piece, and it is the piece that keeps you safe in the water.
Safety
Cold shock can stop a heart; anyone with cardiovascular disease, arrhythmia, or uncontrolled blood pressure needs a physician's clearance first. Never alone, never after alcohol, never with hyperventilation or breath-holds before or in the water, which is how people drown. Get in slowly, exhale slowly, get out before you are numb.
Bottom line
If you love the cold, keep it, and take only the slow exhale into the water with you. Leave every other breathing technique on the bank.
Questions people ask
Should I do breathing exercises before a cold plunge?
Not fast breathing and not breath-holds; both have led to drownings. A few slow exhale-weighted breaths before you get in, and slow exhales while you are in, are the whole protocol.
Are cold plunges good for anxiety?
Some people report a lasting lift in mood after cold immersion, and early trials support short-term effects. There are no long-term trials. It is a stressor, which is not what everyone's nervous system needs.
Can I hold my breath under cold water to build tolerance?
No. Breath-holding in water, with or without prior hyperventilation, is how experienced swimmers black out and drown. Nothing on this site is ever practiced in or near water.
In the toolkit
Two rules, no exceptions
Never practice any technique on this site while you are driving, operating machinery, or doing anything that needs your full attention. The slow ones can make you drowsy, faster than you’d expect. And never practice a breath-hold, bellows breath, or any vigorous breathing in or near water. Read Before you begin for the doctor’s list and the rest.
Written by Eric Bradley. Last reviewed October 2026. Comparisons describe other methods as their proponents teach them; nothing here is medical advice.