SILVERTON – Nearly every day before Silverton’s notoriously frigid winter temperatures turn the tub of water on Jimmy Keene’s deck to a solid block of ice, he cold plunges.
The ritual starts with Keene walking onto his deck in his bathing suit, using a crowbar to chop up the layer of ice that formed overnight and churning it into a frigid slurry reminiscent of a margarita. He sets up his timer and calmly lowers himself to his chin in the 28-degree water, which he puts salt into to lower the freezing point. Then, he just sits and breathes.
Keene’s Zen-like demeanor contradicts how brutally uncomfortable cold plunging is. But comfort is not what he is in it for.
“It doesn’t feel good,” he laughed while cold plunging Dec. 19. “It’s uncomfortable. But it’s growth, right? It feels uncomfortable at the beginning, and it might feel a little uncomfortable during the process, but the real value for you as an individual is the growth part of that comes afterward.”
For Keene – who has had three knee surgeries and two shoulder surgeries over the past six years, as well as compressed vertebrae in his lower back – taking an icy bath daily helps relieve his physical symptoms.
It also helps with his head. He struggles with post traumatic-stress disorder stemming from his service in the U.S. Army. Working through that is what led him to cold plunging – his therapist encouraged him to bring a bowl of ice water to their sessions, and whenever the conversation got too intense, he would dunk his face in the water and let the icy shock reset his nerves.
“I have three combat tours and got PTSD and was taking a lot of different medications,” Keene said. “I’ve lost count. I think it was like seven or eight medications that I was taking. And I’d been coming to Silverton for years, and it was the one place that relaxed me. I only started doing this like three years ago, because there’s a lot of therapeutic benefits.”
Those therapeutics are why cold plunging – otherwise known as cold water immersion therapy – has become a worldwide phenomena. Wim Hof, a pioneer in the trend and father of the Wim Hof Method, helped propagate the phenomena from a relatively fringe pastime to a wildly popular activity.
But according to Nathan Mitton, a chiropractic physician whose practice, Durango Spine and Sport, offers cold water immersion therapy, cold plunging is not just hype. Rather, it has a host of health benefits.
“There’s a number of physiological benefits as well as performance and health benefits,” he said. “It’s kind of a relatively new thing, and it’s largely due to Wim Hof. So I understand kind of the natural skepticism around that. It seems like an extreme measure, not what you would think of when you think of conventional treatments.”
But, Mitton said, cold plunging has shown promise as a medical treatment. He said it can reduce inflammation and swelling. It also helps to decrease pain perception by decreasing nerve conduction velocity, or how fast pain travels through a person’s body to their brain. That is helpful to anyone who may experience soreness after periods of heavy training or exercise.
“It also helps to accelerate recovery after any type of intense training, by reducing DOMs, which is delayed onset muscle soreness, which is typical after heavy workouts or any type of novel exercise that the person is not accustomed to,” he said.
Additionally, switching between hot and cold water can boost a person’s mood and improve their sleep. That, he said, ties into stress management – which Keene has noticed in his practice.
Mitton recommended that anyone interested in cold plunging start slow.
“Typical protocols are anywhere from one minute all the way up to five or 10 minutes, depending on how cold it is,” he said. “It really depends on the person’s tolerance. Most of the research is showing anywhere from about 11 minutes weekly could yield those health results. That could all be done in one session. It could be done in a few sessions for a few minutes.”
Yet, cold plunging is not without its risks, Mitton said, and anyone trying it should do their research and consult a medical professional before beginning.
Anyone with high blood pressure could see a spike in blood pressure, because cold plunging causes the veins in the body to constrict in a process called vasoconstriction. People with conditions such as Raynaud’s, heart disease, hypothyroidism or autoimmune disorders should consult their doctor about cold plunging. Additionally, elderly people and those who are pregnant should seek a doctor’s approval, he said.
Once cleared by a medical professional, Mitton said, a good place to start is a few minutes in 45- to 50-degree water.
“I would say to start really slow,” he said. “It could be total body submersion for a very brief amount of time or gradually increasing your exposure to it. Another thing you could do is start on the warmer end of that cold spectrum – I’d say the mid 50s – then gradually decreasing the temperature of the water. But anything where you can kind of ease into it and do it gradually.”
It will be uncomfortable at first.
“In today’s modern day and age, everything is about making things as comfortable as possible, and this is quite the opposite of that,” Mitton said. “For me, counting and focusing on my breath, anything I can really do to distract myself from the discomfort helps.”
For Keene though, the discomfort is an opportunity to grow. He also recommended taking it slow, but encouraged first-timers embrace the pain.
“You grow when you’re in situations where you’re uncomfortable,” he said while still immersed in his icy tub. “When you put yourself into difficult situations, you get stronger.”
After 15 minutes, he finally emerged from the tub, apparently not noticing the ice stuck to his skin, and went to let his body warm up on his couch – no hot shower or blanket, just drip-drying and shivering.
Whenever he warmed up, Keene would go back to work with his business ventures or helping other veterans facing similar challenges through his nonprofit San Juan Mountain Adventures. He invites other vets to come stay with him in Silverton, maybe go skiing at Purgatory Resort. He also enjoys finding homeless veterans and bringing them food, clothing and camping equipment.
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
