If you’ve been taking cold showers at home or going to expensive cryotherapy, then now is a good time to have your own cold plunge at home.

After all, you already know that cold immersion or cold exposure is great to:

Reduce muscle soreness, bruising, and inflammation
Ease symptoms of depression & anxiety
Feel alive and rejuvenated
Boost your immune system
Improve your hair and skin
Build your mental strength

And you can do all this in the comfort and convenience of your own home thanks to this guide, so let’s get started!

Here’s what you’re going to learn:

Table Of Contents

Chapter 1: The Cold Plunge and Its Benefits

In this chapter, we’ll dive deeper into understanding what exactly is a cold plunge and some of its medically proven benefits.

I’ll also mention a few things to keep in mind as you get started.

What is a cold plunge?

The act of taking your body and placing it in water that is 57 degrees or lower, for a target time of at least 3 minutes. There are several ways to do this simulate this experience: take a cold shower, use a cattle trough or bathtub filled with ice and water, or swim in a freezing Arctic lake.

For this guide, we’ll be using a chest freezer so you can have your own inexpensive setup at home to use whenever you want.

What are the physical & mental benefits of a cold plunge?

Results may vary from person to person, but some medically reviewed benefits include:

Increased endorphins, which jolt your alertness, clarity, and energy levels.
Boosted metabolism, which can even out certain hormone levels and heal the gastrointestinal system, leading to weight loss.
Improved blood circulation, allowing warmer, freshly oxygenated blood to be delivered throughout the body. This speeds up muscle recovery, and can contribute to better looking hair & skin.
Helps fight off common illnesses. The shock of cold water in the bloodstream helps stimulate white blood cells called leukocytes, which help fight infections in the body, like the common cold or flu.

And if you’re fanatical about self-improvement and have that David Goggins penchant for pushing the envelope with pain and discomfort to see how much you can take and make it out alive, then you’re definitely crazy enough to have your own cold plunge at home.

But of course, be sure to consult your medical professional before adopting something like this, especially if you’re someone with a heart condition that could put yourself at risk of a heart attack or stroke.

With that said, let’s take this to the next level and build your own inexpensive cold immersion at home.

That’s what I am going to cover in the next chapter.

Keep reading….

Chapter 2: How to Build Your Own Cold Plunge For Home For Less Than $400

The concept is pretty simple for making your own cold plunge for home. Instead of having to constantly get or make bags of ice and filling your bath tub, you fill up an ice chest freezer with water and turn it on for a few hours a day to make/keep the water ice cold for you to take a (daily) cold plunge. It’s that easy! (Shoutout to my friend Derek who first told me about the concept.)

The materials and things you’ll need

7 cubic feet chest freezer. You can buy a used one from Craigslist, OfferUp, 5mile, LetGo, and similar websites/apps where you can find someone in your local area, but know that you’re at the risk of it not working properly for the long run and you’ll likely have to pick it up yourself, which can be difficult if you don’t have access to a truck. If that’s not worth your time or risk, you can buy a new one and have it delivered.
waterproof sealant – You’ll need two tubes of these for the inside of your ice chest.
caulk gun – This is to dispense your waterproof sealant.
painter’s tape – This is to minimize the mess when you’re waterproofing the inside of your ice chest.
pool thermometer – This is for measuring your water temperature. If you want to get fancy, you can get an infrared thermometer gun.
electrical timer – This will turn/keep your chest freezer on for X hours a day so that it cools the water down and gets it ready for you the next time you go in. If you want to get fancy, you can get a smart electrical plug that you can control through your wifi.
permanent marker – To mark the water level inside your ice chest so you know how high to refill it.
aquarium filter – To help keep your water clean in your ice chest.
Speedo – If you’re male, you’ll want a pair of these (or get a pair with some flair) because the more skin exposed to the cold the better!
waterproof stopwatch – You’ll need this to time yourself in the ice chest (and shower).
flip flops – A simple pair of flip flops will keep your feet clean as you walk from the house/shower to your ice chest so that you don’t get any dirt inside your ice chest when you go in.
microfiber towel – These small absorbent towels are great to quickly and easily dry yourself after getting out of the ice chest and wring to dry out. If you’re going into your ice chest daily, these towels are nice and handy instead of using large bath towels and doing laundry more frequently.

Optional Items

bucket – To take out and refill water in your ice chest and something else I’ll tell you more about later 🙂 I used to drain the entire ice chest and refill it every couple of weeks, but it takes too long to get cold again and it’s easier (and cleaner) to maintain daily by using the bucket to take out and refill water after every use.
garden hose filter – This is great for filtering your water before putting it into your ice chest.
electrical safety cord – I always unplug my ice chest before going in, but if it’s inconvenient for you to do that, this should make it safer.

Putting it all together

Once you’ve got your chest freezer waterproof sealed (and dried) on the inside, just fill it up about 3/4 of the way with water and sit inside. Based on your body mass, you’ll figure out how much more (or less) water the ice chest needs so that the water level is about an inch or so from the top.

That way when you get into the ice chest next time, the water level won’t be too low (where you don’t get your chest submerged) or too high (where it spills over the top).

That’s where you can use your Sharpie to mark the perfect water level so that whenever you’re refilling it, you’ll know exactly how much water to put in.

And that’s all there is to it! At least for a simple setup, that’s all you need to do. But if you’re looking for a more thorough setup, John Richter has written a very comprehensive book called The Ultimate Chest Freezer Cold Plunge DIY Guide and provides a great community and support in his Facebook Group.

At this point, you should have just the right amount of water filled up in your ice chest and all you gotta do is just plug it in directly into the wall and bypass your electrical timer for now because you’ll need to run it for at least 24 hours to cool all that water.

Ultimately, you’ll want it down to around/under 40 degrees Fahrenheit, but you can get started at warmer temperatures like 60s, 50s, or whatever temperature if it’s your first time.

But before you get in, you will need to first get your mind in the right headspace before getting in.

Chapter 3: The Mental Mindset to Prepare for the Cold

Like any new routine, you will need to commit both mind and body to it.

I’m not sure about you, but the thought of jumping into cold water gives me some anxiety, especially if you live in a warm climate and aren’t used to cold.

That’s why I broke out the process mentally.

Below are tips on how I trained my mind to prepare for the cold shock.

Your mind will think you’re going to die

The initial shock once you get in will create a devil’s advocate in your mind.

“This is too cold for me!”

“Why am I doing this to myself?!”

“You’re going to freeze to death!”

“Get me out of here!”

These thoughts are all impulsive reactions to the sudden painful shock of cold as your body is primitively fighting to stay alive.

However, keep these facts in mind.

According to the United States Search and Rescue Task Force, in cold water temperatures of 32.5 degrees Fahrenheit, your expected survival time is 30-90 minutes.

Using a cold water survival calculator, based on methods presented in the Xu & Giesbrecht and Hayward studies, at a temperature of 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the typical person would survive 82 minutes.

And if you really want to know on the end of the time spectrum, Wim Hof (more on him later) holds the Guinness World Record for sitting in an ice bath for 1 hour, 52 minutes and 42 seconds.

So just know, the facts all point to you being fine for those 3 minutes that you are in the icy cold water. You should survive and be fine, as uncomfortable as it may seem.

But of course, knowing that and being to do that are two different things.

Within the first 10 seconds of when I first started, with the water only below my waist, I had those negative thoughts rush into my head.

Obviously my body can last longer than 10 seconds without dying or long term damage of any sort, but my mind couldn’t comprehend that concept and get my body to deal with it.

And I jumped out after only lasting 10 seconds.

But I pushed past those negative thoughts.

A month later, I can sit in cold water with my entire body up to my chin for 3 minutes.

It’s crazy how the mind can learn to adopt and stretch beyond its boundaries.

Here’s an example: Roger Banister’s sub 4-minute mile.

On May 6, 1954, Roger Banister ran a mile in less than 4 minutes at 3:59:4, which was a psychological feat never done before by a runner.

But once Roger did it, others knew it was possible. Within a year, 4 more runners broke this elusive milestone.

Roger’s 4-minute feat taught us about the limits of conventional thinking.

That same phenomenon will happen to you.

The first time you do it may just be a few seconds because your brain doesn’t think you can tolerate the pain.

But as you do it more, you will discover that you can hang in there for so much longer.

Make it meaningful

Consciously create a reason for why you’re subjecting yourself to a painful cold plunge.

Some people set an intention or say a prayer, but for me, I consciously create a powerful reason for why I’m doing this.

Yes there are health benefits, but I’m using the cold immersion as a daily metaphor for something else.

What does getting into this freezing cold water mean to me today?

And the answer to that question could vary on a daily basis.

The key is going into the cold plunge with an intent.

Here are some answers that have come up for me:

Conquering the water means conquering my mind.
Being able to sit in this freezing water means I can withstand whatever uncomfortable things the world throws at me.
Being able to sit in this freezing water means I can persist through challenging situations.
Getting into this ice chest with painful freezing water means I can take action and do things even if I don’t feel like it.

By creating your “why”, you will give yourself more courage and strength going into the ice chest and more likely sticking it through to your desired time, whether it’s 30 seconds or 3 minutes.

It is all about your mindset.

Now let’s build out a complimentary morning routine.

Chapter 4: Create your morning routine for success

Now it’s time to build your routine before your plunge.

Routines create long-term habits.

You have the materials, you have the right mindset, and you know your reasons for why you are doing this.

Now let’s roll this into a morning routine that you will learn to execute on autopilot.

Take a hot running shower (pun intended)

To maximize the benefit of the cold plunge, take a hot shower beforehand.

Hot water causes blood to rush to your skin. Cold water causes your blood to rush to your internal organs.

By combining these two together (contrast therapy), you are forcing/maximizing your blood circulation. This increases the amount of freshly oxygenated blood to be delivered throughout the body.

To take the hot shower to another level, one of the things I like to do is “run in place” while taking my hot shower to even further get my blood pumping. This is where you stand in a running position and “run” by pumping your arms as if you’re sprinting, but keeping your legs stationary and grounded. I learned this fun one from Brian Bradley of Egoscue:

It’s almost like being on a stationary bike, but for your upper half of your body instead of your legs.

Obviously, be safe about it because you don’t want to slip in the shower while you’re doing this.

During the hot shower, I also think about my reason for why I’m doing this today. It’s important to determine this BEFORE you get out.

I’ll tell you why later.

So how long do you shower for? I personally do it for 3 minutes because that’s the same amount of time that I’m in the ice chest.

If I get to “enjoy” the hot shower for 3 minutes, then it means I must equally “grind it out” in the ice chest for 3 minutes.

My reward is going to be just as long as the work I’m about to put it in in the ice chest.

Another reason I like to go equally 3 minutes in the hot shower and ice chest is to remind myself that the perception of how fast time goes by is related to my experience of what I’m doing.

An enjoyable 3 minutes in the hot shower goes by much faster than a painful 3 minutes in the ice chest.

Knowing this information, that means every time I’m doing something I don’t like, feels like a chore, or is uncomfortable, I get to remember that if I change the way I feel about what I dislike doing in that moment by seeing the positive or silver lining in it, then my perception of how long it takes becomes more bearable and maybe even enjoyable.

Physically speaking though, how long should you take a hot shower for maximum benefit? According to the folks at Leaf, 5 to 10 minutes under hot water can work wonders.

An at-bat routine

Everything from here should be mechanical execution. No more thinking.

Just doing.

Why?

The last thing you want to do is get all the way up to the ice chest, open the lid, look at the water, and dread how cold and uncomfortable it’s going to be.

If you do that, you’ll be delaying getting in, feeling crappy while you’re delaying, and even make the actual experience in the cold water more painful than it has to be.

Instead, you want to go through the motions of everything so that by the time you get up to the ice chest, you just get in.

Less thinking. More doing.

Think of a Professional MLB Players at-bat routine. For fans of the sport, you might remember Nomar Garciaparra.

He would start by relentlessly strapping and unstrapping his batting gloves. Then he would touch the end of his bat. Do a little toe tap dance. And finish by swinging his bat round and round. While odd, he had a .313 batting average over his career, so that routine (prior to getting up to the plate) clearly worked for him.

Your cold plunge walkup

If you have followed along so far, you already have the foundation of your routine:

Turn on shower to hot. Put a waterproof stopwatch onto your wrist. Start timer. Step into hot water. Run in place. Decide why you’re doing the ice chest today.
Your 3 minutes of hot shower is up. Turn off the water. Put on your bathing suit.
Grab your flip flops, hose filter, optional bucket, and walk towards your ice chest with intention.
Get to the ice chest, UNPLUG the electrical cord from the timer, open the lid, QUICKLY reiterate why you’re doing this. Get your watch into stopwatch mode.
Stand in the ice chest or at least get your feet in.
Press the start button on your stopwatch.
Sit all the way down (if possible) into your ice chest submerging as much of your body as possible.

That’s it! (At least for the easy part.)

Now you have the right mindset and routine you can follow on autopilot over and over again.

What’s next? Talking about your plunge.

Chapter 5: Your First Cold Plunge

The initial shock

Ok now is the big moment that you’re stepping into the ice chest.

Remember when I suggested pressing the start button on your stopwatch BEFORE you get in?

Because the moment you step in, there’s an immediate cold shock.

There have been many times where the shock was so overwhelming that I couldn’t push the one button on my stopwatch correctly! I’d freak out and smash another button.

Now if you’re just standing in the ice chest with the water no higher than your waist, the shock isn’t “as bad”.

When you eventually sit down, neck deep with the water over your chest, that’s when the shock hits hard.

There’s an immediate shock and gasp for air as your body freaks out.

In fact, the physical response is very similar to a panic attack, which means a cold plunge is actually a great controlled way to simulate an overwhelming situation and learn to control your body and breathing to manage the attack.

Researchers at Wayne State University of Medicine found that cold water “has the potential to create a feeling of well-being, mood control and reduced anxiety”.

That’s all fine and dandy until you get into the ring with this guy…

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” – Mike Tyson

You can get all the advice in the world about what to do when you’re in the cold freezing water, but it can all go out the window once you get in at the beginning.

Such a shock sends your mind and body into survival mode.

At least that’s what happens initially.

It might take a while and several attempts before you give into that negative voice in your head that tells you to get out of the cold. Just hang in there and stay as long as you can each time until you hit your target time goal.

Because at some point, you overcome those snap reactions and instead are able to consciously focus on what to do to manage the physical cold.

Here’s what I do:

I imagine being wrapped by a warm and comforting weighted blanket, with an intentioned focus on slowing my heart rate down. Because when you first get in, the shock will cause your heart to race. I imagine myself being able to control and calm down my heart.
While slowing down my heart, I also slow my breathing. Instead of taking many short fast breaths, do the opposite: take fewer, longer, and deeper breaths through your nose. Decrease the number of breaths you take and increase the duration of your inhale and exhale. Inhaling slowly and fully through your nose for as long and deep as you can pulling from your diaphragm (“belly breathing”) and exhaling as slowly and fully through your nose for as long and deep as you can pushing from your abdomen.
An extra thing that I do is visualization. On the inhale, I imagine my body absorbing the discomfort and pain of the cold. Instead of fighting it and not letting it enter (resistance makes it worse), I embrace it on the inhale and allow it to flow into my body (because I’m going to make it flow through and out of me on the exhale).
On the exhale is imagining my body expelling the pain in the form of heat. If you’re into comics, it’s like Dragon Ball Z or Human Torch. If you’re into meditating, it’s like the golden, ice blue, or white flame.

Celebrate your win

Stay in for however long you can, and when you need to get out, then get out (and press the button on your stopwatch).

Now celebrate!

You just did something that most people aren’t willing to subject themselves to.

The first step is the hardest. Every step after this gets easier.

As time goes on, you’ll notice you can stay in longer, and maybe even turn the temperature down a bit!

Chapter 6: Progressing into a Pro Plunger

Would be a good idea to have pictures of you in this chapter

Congrats again on completing your first plunge.

But like every routine, you need to track your progress.

Only by tracking how you do, and working to get better, you’ll become a Plunge Master.

Measuring progress

When it comes to making progress, the easiest metrics to use are:

Temperature
How long you can stay in
How much of your body you can submerge

Temperature – To keep this simple, I just started with having the water as cold as possible (low 30s – without salt, water will freeze at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, so that’s as cold as your ice chest can get). However, you can start with warmer water. Maybe start at 60 degrees and then go from there.

Time – This is the easiest one to track and make objective progress on. However long you stayed in there today, shoot for just a little longer each time. Even if it’s just 1 second more, shoot for that. It’s adopting the mindset that you are becoming better every day. Just 1 second more is validating that belief. When I first started, I could only stay in for 10 seconds. Then the next day, I did it for 11 seconds. The next, 12 seconds. Eventually my increments increased, but it was always the mentality of just a little bit more. Keep that up and eventually you’ll get to 2-3 minutes or whatever your goal is.

Body – The easiest way to start is just standing in it with the water not going above your waist. Then slowly getting more and more of your body into the water. Keep in mind at some point though, it’s easier to just say “eff it” and submerge your entire body in than inching your way in. What you do want to do though is save your hands for last. There are a lot of nerves in your hands and it’s really hard at the beginning to keep your hands in for the same amount of time as your body.

So for me, the way I got started was:

Having the temperature in the low 30s so I didn’t have to think about that variable and have it easy to keep constant.
Focus on getting more and more of my body in each time until I was able to get my entire body in (except for the hands).
Once I got my entire body in, I stayed in for as long as I could more and more until I could do 3 minutes of my entire body.
Then I started putting my hands in for the last 10 seconds of the 3 minutes. Then next time it’s the last 15 seconds of the 3 minutes. So on and so forth until I could keep my entire body and hands in for the full 3 minutes.

Why do I save the hands for the last part of the plunge rather than the beginning or middle?

I found that if I did it in the middle, it broke the relaxation and flow of my mental state and the rest of the remaining immersion would be more painful than it has to be. Thus, I save it for the end when I’m about to get out anyways.

Another way to do it is to be standing outside the ice chest (maybe when you’re done) where your body is not in the freezing cold and just practice submerging your isolated hands in for longer and longer.

Then at some point, being able to do it with your body in the water at the same time.

Submerge your face

At some point, I was looking to see how I can make it more challenging and thought, “what if I can one day have my entire head submerged in the water?”

Not sure if that’s a great idea or dangerous for my head to be submerged that long. So in the meantime, I figured why not build up to it and put my face in.

Man!!

The first time I did it was like the first time I put my hands in. Didn’t realize how many nerves were in my face until the cold hit it!

I probably didn’t last 5 seconds, but boy does it wake you up!

Doing a cold plunge AND putting your face in the water is a great way to get your morning routine going.

Same with the hands though, eventually the more I did it, the more I could tolerate my face in the cold. I worked on putting my face in for the last 5 seconds of my 3-minute plunge.

Then the last 10 seconds.

Then the last 15 seconds.

Eventually I could do it until I couldn’t hold my breath any longer.

But rather than push that limit and risk passing out (and drowning), I decided to break the training into 10 second increments.

So what I would do is put my face in for 10 seconds (exhaling in the water at each second), take my face out and take a deep breath/inhale, then go back in and repeat.

As of this writing, I’ve gone from one cycle, to two, to three, to four, and now five. If I keep going, I’ll eventually be able to do it for the entire 3 minutes.

I use a nose plug so the water doesn’t go into my nose.

I also bought a snorkel because at some point I envision being able to keep my face in the water the entire time using the snorkel to breathe.

Once I master that, then maybe one day I’ll put my entire head in?

Still need to do some research to see if that’s a good idea.

Probably not lol.

Daily bucket cleaning

So one of the reasons I recommend getting a bucket is so that you can regularly clean the water in your ice chest every time you use it by cycling out a bucket of water and refilling it with fresh clean water.

I used to use it daily (without doing this) for 2 weeks until the water started to look really cloudy.

I would drain the entire thing and refill it with water, but then it took almost 2 days for all the water to cool back down to low 30s even if I have it plugged in the entire time.

This meant the next day, it wouldn’t be as cold as I wanted.

That’s when I figured out that if I have a bucket, I can take out about 1-2 buckets of water from the ice chest, replace it with 1-2 buckets of fresh clean water, have the electrical timer set to keep the ice chest on for 4 hours, and by the time I’m getting back into the ice chest the next day, it’s still in the low 30s.

If you do the ice chest daily, you’ll eventually find the sweet spot of how much water you can replace and how long to set your electrical timer so that the water is cold and ready for you at the same time the next day.

I found this practice of daily water replacement with 2 buckets better than not doing anything daily and completely draining and refilling every 2 weeks. An aquarium filter will also help.

Ice Bucket Challenge yourself

So if you’re using your bucket to replace some of the water daily after use, that means you’ll have a bucket full of ice water.

When I first started, I poured that onto the lawn, but then I thought…

“Why waste a good bucket of ice cold water?”

That’s when my brilliant idea came to me: “why not dump that water on my head?”

And thus, I began ice bucket challenging myself daily and slowly pouring it onto my head.

Oh and that’s when I discovered that my head and ears have those nerves like my face and hands.

Immersing my entire body into cold water is a different experience than pouring water over my head.

It’s a faster and less intense cold and feels more refreshing and victorious than complete immersion.

Thus, it’s a great way to end your cold plunge.

Finish off with a cold bucket of water slowly poured over yourself with a victorious and primal scream to go with it.

End in cold

As you wrap up, be sure not to immediately take a hot shower.

The drastic contrast in temperature can cause pain to your skin.

It’s best to gradually warm up. Try a sweater or wrapping yourself in a towel.

What I like to do after a cold plunge is finish off my morning routine by getting on the rebounder/trampoline with some music and doing my affirmations.

And that’s it!

Pat yourself on the back, you cold plunge warrior.

Chapter 7: Some Real World Results

To further understand the benefits of the cold plunge, I wanted to share some real results.

A cold plunge routine has been adopted by notable figures, and gained popularity over the last few years.

While results may vary, you can see how some have benefited from taking the plunge.

Sophie Kreitzberg

Writer at the Refinery29 site, took the cold plunge every day for a month.

She documents her journey through a detailed 4 page blog post.

As soon as week 2, she documents her mood improved and she had her stress relief under control.

By the end of 30 days, she noted softer hair, a boosted mood, and a routine as necessary as her morning coffee.

Tony Robbins

One of the foremost personal growth enthusiasts in the world, he himself is a huge advocate of cold plunges.

If you’ve seen Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru on Netflix, you may remember that scene when he’s giving a tour of his Florida mansion that he has a small 2-foot by 3-foot in-ground pool specifically made for a cold plunge to start his day.

He’s even gone in depth of why he has adopted cold plunges, citing improved lymphatic circulation, improved cardiovascular circulation, reduced muscle inflammation, and boosted happiness levels.

Wim Hof

And of course, the Iceman!

Wim Hof has developed his Wim Hof Method, and is considered the voice of cold therapy.

He is the go to authority in the space for many celebrities, like Joe Rogan, Tony Robbins, Jim Carrey, and Liam Hemsworth to name a few.

As described on his site, participants that have gone through his method have shown an increased immune response and fewer symptoms of disease.

As you can see, many individuals have documented online their routine & beliefs around cold plunges.

The list goes on, but please know you are joining a strong community of high achievers!

Now It’s Your Turn

So that’s how to build & start your own cold plunge routine right at home.

Now I turn it over to you, what strategies from today’s guide do you plan to use?

What are your reasons for researching how to do a cold plunge? Or are you just a self improvement junkie.

Let me know your goals and reasons by leaving a quick comment below right now.

The Ultimate Guide to Your Cold Plunge for Home