FINAL DAY of The November Challenge: Cold Exposure & Performance (30/11/2022)
Reflections, lessons & announcing my December Challenge.
My report for Wednesday 30th November 2022 - the final day of my November Cold Tortur…Exposure challenge.
This report structure will be a little bit different. I’ll start with my reflections & learnings from this challenge in the form of:
My lessons & reflections from carrying out this challenge,
My improvement points if I were to replicate the challenge,
My practical actions I’m taking into the future even after this challenge has finished.
I’ll then talk about my December challenge, and finish with my ‘experience’ of the day (as I do in all posts).
November Challenge Reflections:
My intention was to do 11 minutes of cold exposure per week via cold showers and using the plunge pool at my gym/health club.
Overall, I managed to achieve this.
Week 1 - 12 mins (5 days)
Week 2- 13 mins (6 days)
Week 3 - 13 mins (6 days)
Week 4- 19 mins (6 days)
In total, I did cold exposure on 23/30 days.
Of those 23 days, 20 of them were cold showers, 2 of them were the plunge pool at the spa.
Pretty happy with this!
So, let me summarise 5 lessons/insights from this challenge:
Cold showers have been a very positive addition to my routine, especially in terms of creating focused states after.
My routine was to do 2 minutes in hot, 1-5 minutes in cold, then 3 minutes in hot to finish.
Always left me feeling energised, but the best way to describe it was a ‘calm energy’ or ‘calm focus’.
I’ve found that my discomfort tolerance & motivation has increased across multiple areas of my life.
Overcoming the discomfort of cold showers for a month does seem to have translated to an increased capacity for me to do the less entertaining work tasks in a committed & focused way.
As a whole, any form of procrastination/entertainment this month has decreased a lot - though that may also be related to me having plenty of work & deadlines!
But I’ve also found I’ve been a lot more proactive on a work front - I’ve been chasing more work, instead of letting it come to me.
At my current level of cold tolerance, I found 3 minutes to be optimal for the showers.
I found 1 minute by itself wasn’t too bad, but positive effects were shorter lived.
2 minutes was moderately tough but energising.
3 minutes was brutal but more energising - probably optimal for me for a combination of both being energising and training my discomfort tolerance.
4 minutes was very unpleasant & not quite sure if it was any more energising.
5 minutes was just silly, I won’t be doing that again :P
Didn’t feel much harder than 4 minutes, just prolonged the same level of suffering.
Movement in the cold makes the cold exposure even tougher to bear…but also better if you’re looking to improve the benefits of cold exposure.
I did this on the few occasions I went to the cold plunge - that was brutal.
I’m always moving the cold showerhead around myself, though because much of your body doesn’t get hit by cold water as you’re doing that, it’s a lot more bearable than the cold plunge.
Made it more challenging for myself by occasionally doing cold showers where I get my entire head & hair wet - body & face showers are easier than getting your full head under.
Timing matters for the cold shower - for me, 3-4pm is optimal to give me a second wind.
Ideally it’s recommended in the morning or afternoon - too late and the spike in adrenaline can mess with sleep.
I found doing it in the morning (after a morning run, for example) meant I felt pretty tired around 4pm.
But doing the cold shower at 4pm (after an afternoon training session) gave me a second wind for the day.
For most of us, if we’re not flexible with timing, any cold shower is better than no cold shower.
What I would improve on if I were to do this challenge again in the future:
More cold plunge pool time. I was a bit frustrated that I couldn’t create the time to use the cold plunge pool at the gym/spa. It’s meant to be better in terms of benefits when it comes to cold exposure. That being said, a cold shower is better than nothing, and 11 minutes of cold showers per week can still yield some good health benefits.
Perhaps measure the water temperature. From start of November to end of November, I feel like the water in the shower definitely got colder (as expected due to cooler temperatures —> cooler pipes transporting water). But how cold remains a mystery to me.
1 Action Points from this challenge that I will take with me into the rest of 2022:
11 minutes of cold showers per week would be ideal. I feel like 2 minutes 4 times a week is feasible, with 1 day of 3 minutes.
But even just 30 seconds of cold is better than 0 seconds on the days I shower before 5pm.
Where I am now with past challenges I’ve done in 2022:
January Challenge: Eating Whole-Foods Plant Based
Still eating plant-based and feeling strong. Mostly whole-foods. Some dark chocolate and olive bread. Include protein powders in my morning oats breakfast.
Body in good shape. Somewhere in the 12-13% body fat range - 12.4% on 17 November - very nice maintenance amount at my bodyweight (between 59.5-61kg).
Strength is good. Deadlifted 150kg recently, and did 5 ring pull ups with 40kg strapped onto me - that’s a personal best.
February Challenge: Sleep Optimisation
Not so good this month. Work has meant I’ve worked later than normal, and the discipline has slipped. Ah well, always a work in progress.
March Challenge: Reading
None. This month has been focused on clients, workshops, relationship and health.
April Challenge: Meditation
Has been happening, but less consistently than last month. Only a handful of times.
However, I have been doing mindful walking for 5 minutes each time I walk. No music, just being present with my senses.
Also still been doing my 5-minute Wim Hof breathing practice daily. It’s not quite meditation though.
May Challenge: Running
Still running. 110km to run in December to hit my 1000km for the year target!
Got myself a little sub-challenge of seeing if I can break a record for one of the nearby segments on Strava. Seems very doable.
June Challenge: Social Media
LinkedIn. Non-existent apart from work stuff.
TikTok. Follower count up by 100 since last month having made just 2 more posts! Got a video prepared to post tomorrow, but in general not focusing on this.
Instagram. Damn, I still haven’t made a single post.
July Challenge: Stretching.
Still stretching daily. No more than 10 minutes, which isn’t ideal, but body has been feeling decent.
Had a few injuries this month. My right pec is still a bit tight after training, and my left knee/shin had a bit of pain after an intense sprint finish.
August Challenge: Curiosity Calls.
None really. A few business development calls, but mainly just actual work - client sessions and workshops.
September Challenge: Learning Spanish
Still doing it everyday! On an 80-something day streak now!
As much as I hate to admit it, it’s been very satisfying building on my streak.
A lot of the exercises I’ve been doing are review ones, which has helped to consolidate some of my learning.
October Challenge: Podcasts
Pretty much non-existent, apart from a Marisa Peer one I listened to on the long drive to Norwich.
So, what’s the challenge for December?
December Challenge: YOGA
Sigh.
I really don’t want to do this one…
…which is exactly why I’m going to do it.
Yoga and I have had an interesting relationship.
Because, get this…
My mum is a yoga teacher.
I kid you not.
My mother has been teaching Hatha yoga for over 20 years now…
So, to admit that I’ve never done yoga properly is quite a strange confession to make.
I know, I know…
…I should have really made more of it, not everyone is lucky enough to have a mother who teaches yoga…
But I have made the most of my mother’s other skills - she’s taught me more about coaching, therapy, meditation, healthy living and spirituality than anyone else in the world…
…and I’m so, so grateful to her for these gifts.
It’s just yoga I’ve struggled with.
Don’t get me wrong - I’ve done my sun salutations. I do my downdog, updog, cat, pigeon, warrior pose when I do my morning stretches….
But to do it as a routine?
Something about it just never resonated. It was too slow. Not quite movement, but not quite meditation.
I’d rather sit cross-legged and meditate. Or just go for a full out training session.
Not this weird intermediate.
But, I’ve decided I’m ready to do a 30-day challenge on it…
(Or rather, I’ve run out of ideas for other challenges…)
So, I’ve recruited the trusty YouTube to help me find an online teacher.
In the end, after about 3 minutes of research, I had to decide between 2:
Yoga With Adrienne
Yoga With Kassandra
And…I’ve chosen the latter.
Why?
Because her 30-day challenge has 10-minute sessions, while Adrienne’s are 30 minutes long :P
And, right now, I’m packed with work, training and other projects - 10 minutes is all I’m willing to give.
So, it’s time to embrace Yoga for December.
Starting tomorrow, a 30-day challenge begins.
Meaning that the final day of December can be dedicated to reflecting on everything.
As part of this challenge, I’ll be reflecting on:
Time of doing it.
Will try to do it earlier rather than later, or either as a warm-up or cool-down around my training.
What I actually did.
Any poses, etc.
Mood after doing it
Hypothesis is that it’ll be slightly better after.
Energy after doing it.
Hypothesis is it’ll be a weird blend of very calm & focused.
General reflections on mindset.
So, that’s the December challenge - the final one! Let’s see how it goes!
Thank you as always for your continued support!
My Experience (Wednesday 30th November 2022):
Reflections on Cold Torture…I Mean, Exposure Challenge:
Method: Cold Shower
Time: 11:45am
Duration: 5 minutes
Before:
10.5km run done.
Time to see if I can do the longest cold shower duration of this challenge…
During:
0-1 minutes: Feeling good, feeling pumped.
1-2 minutes: Going strong, but getting a bit nippy.
2-3 minutes: What? I’m barely halfway? And it’s just going to get worse? STOP THIS. No one will know…damn it, but you will. Stick it out.
3-4 minutes: SO cold. SO SO cold. My teeth are chattering. This is actually the hardest part of it all…
4-5minutes: Don’t think, just breathe. Endure. Almost done. Almost done…done!
After:
Proud for doing it - my discomfort tolerance has definitely improved over this month!
Hot shower for 3 minutes so nice…
…still shivering after I got out though!
Energy good for afternoon session of work, though a dip in the early evening.
An awesome way to end the challenge though!
We’ve made it to the end of the November Challenge! Thank you so much for reading - I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Hope that you have an amazing December ahead.
Until tomorrow,
Kam