Dayana

Chris Smith

Matt Anderson

Alex V

Daniel Belfort

Wayne Marsh

Ksenia

Naval

Brett Hall

Petri Kajander

Junaid Dawud

Aryan Gandhi

For all ice baths & cold showers enthusiasts or those curious to learn more 

 My theory, and this may be backed up by other people, I 

 don't know, is that anything that we learn in the elements,

 with the elements, out in nature, with a fire, with the 

 stars and the space around you, in water, in the sunlight,

 gets imprinted in you in a different way as 

 a biological being and is easier to pull from

 there to remember that to bring back the feeling.

 This thread has been quite serendipitous for me because I get hemiplegic migraines

 and I have them pretty much under control to a large extent but on

 exercise, high-intensity exercise, it's very difficult to avoid them and I'm

 always exploring, always trying to figure out how I can kind of, you know, get past

 heart rate maxing out and whether I could, you know, just have breaks in

 between the training to allow my heart rate to settle to avoid the migraine.

 However, one day when I was training I felt really, really hot. I felt my body

 that moment to saunas and it doesn't matter

 whether I've, you know, whether I'm totally relaxed and feeling great. In

 the sauna, a few hours later I will get a

 migraine and I just made the connection as I'd finished the training session so

 I went straight to the shower, this was probably about six weeks ago, I went

 straight to the shower and I turned it on cold and basically put my head under

 and lo and behold, afterwards there was no migraine so that was the first step

 towards something possibly new and novel that I'd learned and discovered.

 Today I did this training session and for me it was really really intense and

 off the top of my head off from my shirt

 I went straight to the shower turned it on cold to the coldest setting walked in

 started with my head under but then thought to myself well just you know use

 the breathing that you've heard about last night take the shock and just do it

 and I went in and I went straight under the water it took probably 20-30 seconds

 to adjust and then I stayed there for a good five minutes until my body had

 cooled down to the extent where I felt it was cool enough it was still still

 fairly fairly warm but it cooled to where I thought this should be a good

 test and lo and behold it's usually within 45 minutes that I've got a

 migraine I have no migraine I'm tired from the training fatigue from the

 training but thanks to this thread really it kind of prompted me today to

 to have a go so I'm grateful for that and I just thought I'd provide some

 feedback I know it's anecdotal but I've studied migraines for probably 30 years

 and I've tried every trick in the book so this 

 is one new weapon that I'm testing so far so good

 So my question really to the fire and ice experts is moving forwards I

 definitely want to incorporate more of the cold side of things but I don't want

 has any hints tips or suggestions while I'm exploring this I'm thinking about

 you know core body temperature and you know the how that can be tied in with

 electrolytes etc etc so any input would be appreciated also if this chit is not

 appropriate for this thread then I'm happy for somebody to remove it.

 First, let me disqualify myself as an expert. 

 I'm somebody who does this stuff, but I wouldn't

 continue to do the sauna while you do the

 cold. I would say make sure you're properly hydrated, fully hydrated, you know, and do

 have some electrolytes in there so that 

 can replace some of the ones that you will

 lose from sweating during the sauna. But also maybe experiment with making sure that you're

 sauna to begin with until you start to find what

 the correct balance between, you know, hot 

 and cold, how long in each one is that kind

 of works well for you where you feel like you're getting the benefit. But with anything

 like this, I would, I always recommend starting with like slow, go with low intervals until

 you feel comfortable with those or maybe not comfortable, but capable with those. And then

 ratchet up until you find the spot that you want to be.

 Thank you Wayne so much for sharing your experience and your feedback.

 Grateful to hear that you found relief from your migraines.

 I know that could be really painful and frustrating.

 I agree with Junaid that for you to get the most 

 benefit out of anything you want to do incremental steps and

 Get feedback from your body Basically is how does it make you feel?

 Do you get depleted? Do you get energized by it and

 With the sauna sometimes we like it so much. We feel 

 so good there that we might spend too much time in it

 So maybe you're getting too hot for what's 

 for your body and hard for you to come back from

 Elevating the core temperature so much even with the workout

 So I would say the same thing shorter sessions in the sauna

 hydrating maybe do Short session cold shower, short session cold 

 shower come back and forth a few times and see how you like that.

 These practices can be very fun and addictive if 

 your body likes them and it's easy to go overboard.

 I remember once I ran a class and then a private session after that.

 So I was in the ice and in the sauna for maybe four hours

 straight and I had never been so sick in my life. I was not only

 dehydrated, I was just out of it. I felt like a zombie. I couldn't think and

 we underestimate the effects of these practices in our nervous 

 system, in our brain, because we don't know so much yet about it.

 So always, always take feedback from your body and trust your sensations.

 Yeah, it's good to keep in mind that when you're doing 

 hot and cold exposure, what you're doing is stress exposure.

 It is stress on the body. So, you know, you 

 want to tread lightly because it's not trivial.

 That's a great point. Moderation and variation always guarantee a long game

 while if you go all in into one area, let's say you only do strength training

 and not flexibility or you only do cold exposure and you don't do breathing,

 you're not really using all the systems of your body and you're putting stress

 into one system which will increase wear and tear.

 One more thought on migraines is that sometimes using a practice such as hypoxic breathing or

 performance breathing can have an impact on migraines. I'm going to stitch an example of

 that is super ventilation and breath holds practice that will release adrenaline and

 increase your sympathetic response. Not advised if you have heart issues,

 high blood pressure, none of that. But if you 

 healthy overall, feel free to play with this one.

 I have heard great feedback about it for migraines and 

 overall increasing lung capacity, endurance and mindset training.

 Please lie on your back with your knees 

 bent or sit comfortably on a chair and begin to

 pay attention to your breathing. Let the air come 

 in and out through the nose in a nice and easy way.

 And pay attention to your breathing mechanics.

 So you're breathing in, feeling the abdomen first and then the chest.

 And as we explore this power breathing together you will maintain this breathing mechanics

 using your belly as a pump. Breathing in and expanding 

 your abdomen out, breathing out and letting your abdomen sink

 in. If at any time you feel any powerful 

 sensation that you are not comfortable with you can

 stop and resume your normal breathing. So exhale 

 completely now and follow my voice for the count of five.

 One, two, three, four and exhale for five.

 And now inhale again. Exhale. And in, out.

 And we're going to speed it up a little bit so you inhale and exhale.

 And for the next rounds you're going to inhale 

 through the nose and exhale through your mouth.

 Out, in, out. Continue giving a few rounds of 

 and through the nose and out through the mouth.

 Little faster now. Gently reaching your belly out with the inhale and letting it drop.

 Five more. Three, two, one. Three, four, five and with the next exhale you will hold.

 Relax and hold. You feel the urge to breathe, you can swallow.

 Soften the muscle. Let your body relax into this hold.

 And now we're going to rebound. Inhale again.

 Now you're going to inhale through your mouth like you're sucking through a straw.

 Inhale the air out strongly as if you're pushing air to blow up a birthday cake.

 Like bellows, like you're pushing out a fire, blowing with your belly, pushing it out like

 In and out. As fast as you want to make it, keep it up.

 Relax and breathe. Keep it up. Soften your hands, your legs, keep it up.

 Five more. And hold. You can relax into this hold.

 You're going to feel some powerful sensations in your body, your hands, your feet, your

 legs. If you want to intensify the sensations, you can squeeze everything in.

 See if you're holding your pelvic floor 

 your belly or trying to make your face red.

 Squeeze into this hold. Staying it a little longer.

 And now we're going to breathe in together.

 Inhale and hold. And you're soft. And on this inhale hold, 

 you have a lot of oxygen to go by, so you can relax into it.

 You can squeeze everything tight, intensify the sensations.

 You can swallow if you feel the urge to breathe.

 And exhale. We're going to rebound. Again, power breathing in.

 Exhale out. Big inhale, big exhale. And yourself completely and rebound in.

 A little faster now. Come on. Keep it up.

 A little faster. And with the next exhales, we're 

 going to make some sounds from the back of your throat.

 Hold on the exhale, relax into the sensations on your body, your tingling on your hands,

 your head, your back, your legs. Enjoy the sensation in your body.

 You can squeeze it in tighter if you feel okay with it.

 Hold. Hold. Swallow if you feel the urge to breathe.

 Keep holding with me. We're going to go for about a minute, minute and a half.

 Got this. Keep holding. A minute now, 10 more seconds, you got this.

 Keep holding. A little more. And exhale.

 Take a nice controlled breath through your nose and let it out hissing.

 And again in through the nose and gently out the mouth.

 In the nose, out the mouth. We're going to slow it down now.

 In the nose, out the mouth. Enjoy this moment of clarity and focus.

 And in again. Out, nice and easy through the nose.

 We're now bringing your heart rate down.

 Preparing yourself to resume normal activities so you stabilize your breath now.

 In and out. Couple more cycles. You can after this resume your normal breathing.

 Open your eyes. Take this into your day.

 I rather enjoyed that breathwork session. That's cool. I'm a regular yoga nidra

 practitioner, so things of that nature with a guided meditative aspect are pretty cool.

 So I think I'm going to have to stop saying surrender pituous.

 longer without me going on too much about it.

 But yeah, I keep dropping on things lately that 

 more and more aligned with what I'm searching for,

 especially in terms of migraine training and optimizing my health.

 So this exercise was, first of all, it was really, really well laid out again.

 And so credit to you for that. Very easy to follow.

 I may have tested it at the wrong time. It 

 was 4am. I woke up and I saw a notification.

 So me being me, sometimes silly at times, I listened to the notification and then thought,

 Oh, okay, I might try that. Get me back to sleep.

 Yeah, the opposite effect. I was kind of wired afterwards, but in a good way.

 I really enjoyed it. It was funny. I heard something about heart rate increasing.

 I've noticed the increase in heart rate at certain times.

 So yeah, hypoxic breathing is another rabbit hole 

 need to start traveling down. Thank you very much.

 Well, the backyard's almost ready for my 

 first fire and ice of the season, and I'm getting

 the freezer filled with a bunch of ice right now.

 So hopefully sometime next week I'm going to do one.

 Hi Wayne, thank you so much for the feedback. I'm glad you liked it. Sorry

 that you thought it was gonna put you back to sleep. Not really, no. Nothing with

 the title power breathing, endurance, none of that is gonna put you back to sleep.

 your heart rate going. So yeah, we do it

 to sometimes find calm and bliss during the holds but really it's endurance