> Gasping and panicking, they inhaled water. Friðþórsson, by contrast, managed to control his breathing. He later described remaining clear-headed throughout his swim.
I wish the article had gone into Friðþórsson's breathing a bit more. It seems like this and/or his body fat are what kept him alive.
You get used to that cold shock, I take a cold shower every day for many many years, and quite frankly I don't feel a "cold shock" anymore, even in winter.
It's really just requires a bit of training to get less sensitive to cold; on the other hand I also have a tendency to get warm a lot quicker, which can be a bit annoying sometimes. I keep my house at 18C and no warmer, when many people I know want 21C or sometime more...
I used to take cold showers when I was in moderate temperature zone, now I am in US/Canada, and recently started having cold showers (for the last 2 months) almost after 10 years.
I agree to all of the things you said, once you get used to the cold showers, in fact you would want more and more cold water running over you. More cold will get to be fine.
However, one thing I find annoyingly bad, given the time of the year is that I feel by body warmer (and feel that I might run a fever) and had to check temperature couple of times to see it is only normal. Not sure if this is going to be a long term thing or I might get used to it eventually.
I'm currently only taking cold showers, this is the third time I've started doing so. The very first one was quite an experience: my vision turned gray for a few seconds, I couldn't breathe, and I nearly fell over. The next day's was a little jarring but tolerable, and it kept on like that, a little less each day.
Then I fell out of the habit. My second and third times getting back into it, I didn't experience nearly the same drastic physiological effects, it was Day Two over and over again.
Do it gradually -- first one arm, shoulder; then the other arm, shoulder, then your front, then your head, then lastly your back. Don't dither about it, but don't dive into it either :-)
Well, nothing scientific than I'm aware of, strictly speaking, but I love the effect.
Right after the shower, you'll get super warm, even in winter. You're system just gets going to equalise your temperature.
Also, you'll be woken up no dithering about in a stupor until your coffee kicks in, it definitely gives you a kick in the backside to get going, so even just for that, it's worth it in my opinion.
And, I never get cold. I can work outside in a t-shirt in winter (UK winter) without feeling any cold.
A physiotherapist suggested it to me and did it himself, and I think the claimed benefit was our modern demon "inflammation". I'm not qualified to judge but it would probably help for people with some kinds of joint/back pain.
Edit: Forgot I also heard about it promoting an energetic response in the body (starting your engine for heat) to wake up for the day ahead and start burning fat before your first meal. I heard Tony Robbins talk about an ice room or something similar in his house that he uses for that. Probably not ideal for night time showers.
I have tried to get used to cold showers several times. I always feel great afterward but I always get sick after a few weeks of cold showers. Not sure why that is.
Not advocating it, but you could look into Wim Hof's method: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Hof. Critics do wonder if it has to do with his brown fat composition.
I wish the article had gone into Friðþórsson's breathing a bit more. It seems like this and/or his body fat are what kept him alive.