Cold Water Swimming-Benefits and Risks: A Narrative Review.

Beat Knechtle,Lee Hill,Pantelis T Nikolaidis,Caio Victor Sousa,Zbigniew Waśkiewicz

doi:10.3390/ijerph17238984

Abstract

Cold water swimming (winter or ice swimming) has a long tradition in northern countries. Until a few years ago, ice swimming was practiced by very few extreme athletes. For some years now, ice swimming has been held as competitions in ice-cold water (colder than 5 °C). The aim of this overview is to present the current status of benefits and risks for swimming in cold water. When cold water swimming is practiced by experienced people with good health in a regular, graded and adjusted mode, it appears to bring health benefits. However, there is a risk of death in unfamiliar people, either due to the initial neurogenic cold shock response or due to a progressive decrease in swimming efficiency or hypothermia.

Highlights

Cold water swimming— known as winter swimming or ice swimming—describes swimming outdoors mainly during the winter or in the colder and polar regions [1]
Winter swimming implies that it must be winter. It can be synonymous with ice swimming when the water is frozen over because ice swimming explicitly requires the ice to break (Figure 1)
Jansky et al [27] found no increase in neutrophils after 60 min in water at 14 ◦ C, while Brazaitis et al [28] demonstrated an increase of 55% after a total of 120 min in 14 ◦ C cold water with periodic reheating

Summary

Introduction

Cold water swimming— known as winter swimming or ice swimming—describes swimming outdoors (lake, river, sea, swimming pool, etc.) mainly during the winter or in the colder and polar regions [1]. This special form of endurance sport is becoming increasingly popular. Winter swimming implies that it must be winter. In colder countries, it can be synonymous with ice swimming when the water is frozen over because ice swimming explicitly requires the ice to break (Figure 1). Ice swimming (in water below 5 ◦ C) has evolved into an all year-round sport [2], with many swimmers participating and competing regularly in both local and international events

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Conclusion