Getting Started
Your first ice bath, minute by minute
Your first ice bath, one minute at a time: what happens, when it gets easier, and the small mistake most people make after they get out.
By Erik Lund ·
The whole method, in one paragraph
Fill a tub with cold water to about 10 to 15 degrees Celsius (50 to 59 Fahrenheit), get in slowly, sit still, and stay for thirty seconds to two minutes on your first try. Get out, dry off with a towel, put on warm clothes, and skip the hot shower for the next twenty minutes. That is the entire method. The rest of this guide is what happens inside those two minutes, and why the twenty minutes after are the part most people ruin.
What to expect, before you get in
You are about to sit in cold water for the first time and are wondering, with some justification, whether this is a good idea. It is, in the sense that many people do this without incident and often find it useful. It is not, in the sense of being obvious and easy. The cold is not the hard part. The first ninety seconds are.
Time: about fifteen minutes end to end. Difficulty: not what you think. Expect to be surprised twice.
What you'll need
- A tub, stock tank, or bathtub deep enough to cover your shoulders when seated. Anything you can bring water to a low temperature in.
- Water and ice. How much ice depends on your target temperature and your starting water temperature. A rough beginner rule: cold tap water in most homes needs one to two bags of ice to reach 10 to 15 degrees Celsius in a small tub.
- A thermometer. A cheap waterproof one on a string is genuinely all you need. The tenner from the pool supply store beats the smart sensor for one reason that matters at 4 degrees: batteries in cold do not die when it is convenient. More on this in [our thermometer guide].
- A watch or phone timer.
- A towel and warm clothes for after. Wool socks, a hoodie, a beanie. Nothing that needs to look nice.
- Shorts, if you like your neighbours.
- A friend the first time, if you want one. Not required. Not silly either.
Step 1: Set the water up
Fill the tub with cold tap water first, to a depth that will cover your shoulders when you sit down. In most tubs that is twelve to fifteen inches.
Add ice slowly, and measure as you go. Ice will keep bringing the temperature down for a few minutes after it looks fully melted, so wait a beat between reads. Beginner range as commonly practiced is 10 to 15 degrees Celsius (50 to 59 Fahrenheit). Colder is not more beneficial in proportion, and gets harder to sit still in.
If you overshoot cold, add tap water. If you undershoot, add ice. Either way, take a minute to let it stabilise before you get in. The temperature you read at the moment you sit down is the one that matters, not what it was five minutes ago.
Step 2: Get in
The temptation is to stand at the edge of the tub for a while and look at the water. Do not do this. It gets harder the longer you look. The best cold plunge is the one that starts within about ten seconds of you being ready to start it.
Get in slowly, in this order: one foot, then the other, then sit down and lower yourself so the water covers your shoulders. Keep your hands on the sides of the tub, out of the water, for now. Palms and fingers feel colder than the rest of you, and taking them out of the equation for the first thirty seconds makes the ninety-second wall lower.
You will gasp. This is called the cold shock response, and it is exactly the reflex the name suggests. It is normal. It is loudest right at the start, and it is what makes people quit at ten seconds who would have been fine at ninety.
Step 3: The first ninety seconds
This is the negotiation.
Your body is signalling danger. Nothing dangerous is actually happening to a healthy adult in 10 degree Celsius water for two minutes; the alarm is what happens anyway, because your nervous system evolved for full-body cold that meant something else entirely. Sit still. The signal is loud. It will get quieter.
The lever you have is your breath. Slow inhale through the nose, slower exhale through the mouth. Do not hold your breath. Do not hyperventilate. Every deliberate exhale is a small message to the rest of your body that you are, in fact, fine. Around sixty to ninety seconds the cold shock response subsides, and there is a moment of relief that is genuinely unmistakable when it arrives. That is the moment the practice becomes a practice.
If you get out before the ninety seconds, you have still taken a cold plunge. Thirty seconds counts. Almost everything the research is talking about starts to show up in the first minute anyway. Session number two matters more than session one's stopwatch.
Step 4: The next minute
Once the alarm quiets, the water is still cold but no longer alarming. Your body has done its work: peripheral vasoconstriction has moved warm blood to the core, your hands and feet are colder than the rest of you, and everything vital is warm and fine.
This is where sitting in cold water starts to feel oddly quiet. Some people describe it as clarifying. Some describe it as boring. Both are correct, and both are more useful signals than anything measurable at this stage.
Stay for another thirty to sixty seconds if you want to, or get out. Both are legitimate. Your first plunge does not need to be your longest.
Step 5: Get out, warm up (the mistake most people make)
Stand up slowly, holding the sides of the tub. You will feel light-headed for a second or two; that is your circulation catching up. Step out onto a towel or mat, dry off with a towel immediately, and put your warm clothes on before anything else.
Then, please, do not get in a hot shower. This is the mistake most people make.
Research on cold immersion suggests a hot shower immediately after negates a fair amount of the thermogenic response the plunge just triggered. More practically, it also flattens the after-glow, which is the reason people come back to this practice. Give it twenty minutes. Sit somewhere warm but not hot; wool layers do most of the work; a cup of tea if you want one.
The after-glow itself is peripheral vasodilation: warm blood floods back to the surface of your skin, and you feel a tingling warmth that is very difficult to fake pharmacologically. There is a physiological name for it, but "the glow" does the job. Unlike most things in life, this one really is about the destination, not the journey. Nobody goes back in for the first thirty seconds.
Common mistakes on session one
- Standing at the edge for five minutes. Genuinely harder than getting in. Aim for less than ten seconds between "ready" and "in the water."
- Trying to hit a number. Two minutes, three minutes, five minutes: none of these are the point on session one. The point on session one is session two.
- Head submersion. Below the neck is enough. Full cold-shock to the face is a different physiological event and adds real risk without matching benefit. Room to build up to; not needed now.
- Hot shower straight after. Covered above. Twenty minutes of layered warmth, then a warm (not hot) shower if you like.
- Doing it hungry, hungover, or on two hours of sleep. Your body is already managing something. Save the cold water for a day when it is not.
What to do next
If your first plunge was less bad than you expected, that is the most common outcome. Do it again inside the next two or three days while the memory is fresh; the second one is easier than the first, and the third is easier than the second. Consistency is the whole game, and two minutes you will repeat beats ten you will never do again.
If you have any cardiovascular concerns, high blood pressure, or a history of heart issues, do not go past a first cautious plunge without talking to your doctor. See [our guide on cold plunge and high blood pressure] for what the mainstream cardiology guidance actually says.
Once you have a few sessions in, the next question is usually how long to stay, answered in our follow-up guide.
Frequently asked questions
Should I hold my breath when I get in?
No. Breathe out slowly through the initial gasp. Holding your breath makes the cold shock response worse, not better. Slow nasal inhale, slower exhale through the mouth, is the whole technique.
How cold is too cold for a first time?
Anything below about 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) is genuinely harder on a first session, not more beneficial in proportion. If it is your first plunge and you have the choice, err warmer.
Do I need to submerge my head?
No, and on a first plunge we would not. Below the neck is enough for essentially every benefit the research points at. Full head submersion is a different physiological event with its own risks; something to build up to over sessions, if at all.
Can I do this in my bathtub?
Yes. That is how most people start. Bathtubs are not always deep enough to cover the shoulders when seated, so you may have to slide down further than feels dignified. A dedicated stock tank or plunge tub is a later purchase, not a first-plunge requirement.
How often should I do this?
As commonly practiced, three sessions a week is a reasonable rhythm for a beginner. The pattern that seems to matter is consistency over months, not intensity in any one session.