plunging at Queen's university

Today my housemate and I decided to do the polar plunge at the pier on the Queen's University Campus!

As some of you may know it is very common in Scandinavia to do cold and hot therapy (hydrotherapy) where you spend 10-20 minutes in a source of heat such as a sauna, hot tub or stream room. Then you immediately expose your body to cold water for at least 10 seconds. Finally you relax for another 10-15 minutes and repeat the process.

HOT THERAPY

Unfortunately Kristen (my housemate) and I didn't have access to hot therapy so instead we just bundled up in our warmest clothes and sped walked to the pier (which takes about 10 minutes from our house). We were both pretty warm on our walk over besides the 30km/h wind speed. So we would say this is as close as we could get to any sort of hot therapy.

Then it was time for the real deal! - COLD THERAPY

We both took our turn going down the ladder, which was probably the coldest part since it is made out of metal. Then we plunged down together! What an experience!!!

Fun Fact: the water temperature in Kingston was 8.3 degrees Celsius

Here is the full video of us plunging

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/c93cf1_87f0117e0d49403a8fc324d1c39a5940/720p/mp4/file.mp4

REST!

Now time for rest! after we got out of the water we QUICKLY put all of our clothes on as we were freezing cold. Then we headed over to Tim Hortons and treated ourselves to some delicious hot chocolate!

I highly recommend that everyone tries polar plunging or hydrotherapy as it improves your mood by releasing endorphins!

Other benefits include:

- boosts immune and lymphatic system

- activates circulation and raises heart temperature

- relieves sore muscles

- reduces swelling and inflammation

- increases pain tolerance

and by doing it regularly it is proven that it helps with your quality of sleep, lower body fat, and a longer life!

If you are reading this blog post we recommend that you try it and post a picture to our member page