Althouse: It's such an ordeal to feel better in the style of Joe Rogan.

December 21, 2022

It's such an ordeal to feel better in the style of Joe Rogan.

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48 comments:

Sydney said...: Wouldn’t a cold shower work just as well!; 12/21/22, 9:01 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: Tokugawa Ieyasu's favorite pastime was falconry. He regarded it as excellent training for a warrior. "When you go into the country hawking, you learn to understand the military spirit and also the hard life of the lower classes. You exercise your muscles and train your limbs. You have any amount of walking and running and become quite indifferent to heat and cold, and so you are little likely to suffer from any illness."

Maybe Rogan should get a falcon...; 12/21/22, 9:05 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: I prefer a hot tub. tho I don't have one.; 12/21/22, 9:07 AM
Nancy said...: AAAAAAGH!!!!; 12/21/22, 9:23 AM
GrapeApe said...: He’s got the shrink dick for sure! I would need a financial incentive to do that every day.; 12/21/22, 9:29 AM
Bill Crawford said...: A metaphor for blogging everyday for 10+ years?; 12/21/22, 9:29 AM
tim maguire said...: Sydney said...Wouldn’t a cold shower work just as well!

If the point is to wake you up, probably. But his ice bath is much colder than your shower, even in winter. I think there are health claims dependent on the extreme cold.; 12/21/22, 9:35 AM
Assistant Village Idiot said...: And of course everyone has to tell us about these things these days.; 12/21/22, 9:37 AM
Joe Bar said...: Well, I guess that guarantees nothing worse will happen the rest of the day.; 12/21/22, 9:40 AM
Carol said...: I like a cold plunge after hot tub but it doesn't need ice in it!; 12/21/22, 9:43 AM
Lexington Green said...: Defeating the inner bitch is good.

Winning a battle of willpower to start each day is a time-tested method of self mastery and general effectiveness.

Extreme measures, like ice baths, may be the right ones.

It depends on the person and the circumstances.

Rogan is ambitious and successful.

He knows what it takes to maintain peak performance.; 12/21/22, 9:45 AM
Ryan said...: Surfing is my version of this. Get out of the cold ocean, pull down the wetsuit, and take a cold shower on the beach while folks wearing jackets walk by gawking.; 12/21/22, 9:45 AM
Lexington Green said...: Defeating the inner bitch is good.

Winning a battle of willpower to start each day is a time-tested method of self mastery and general effectiveness.

Extreme measures, like ice baths, may be the right ones.

It depends on the person and the circumstances.

Rogan is ambitious and successful.

He knows what it takes to maintain peak performance.; 12/21/22, 9:45 AM
Achilles said...: Sydney said...
Wouldn’t a cold shower work just as well!

Similar but not as strong.; 12/21/22, 9:47 AM
Achilles said...: The first goals here are 2 fold for people that are not into this.

First Deliberate Cold Exposure(DCE) forces your mitochondria to work. This causes the weak mitochondria to be consumed and the strong mitochondria to replicate. Doing this every day will increase your mitochondrial density.

This will make it harder for you to get sick, increase your energy levels, and it will improve your cognitive performance.

The second primary benefit is building up your mental resilience. When your body is shocked with cold it sends signals to your brain that cause it to go parasympathetic.

If you can learn to force your body back to the sympathetic state while under stress you will be able to react better in stressful situations. This is part of Special Ops/Forces training in the military.

Start out with a 1 minute fairly cold shower. Next day do it a bit longer.

Eventually it isn't that hard. I am going up to 3 freezing 5 minute showers a day starting today.

Other things that start happening is you lose weight and you sleep much better.; 12/21/22, 9:58 AM
wildswan said...: The rest of the day would look good no matter what happened if I started the day with a plunge in ice water but there might not be any rest of the day if I shocked myself like that. Still, Joe Rogan is a very productive guy and the first thing he does when he gets up is confront his desire to take things easy. It's a good idea but I'd have to find something easier.; 12/21/22, 10:05 AM
Lloyd W. Robertson said...: I had about ten years as a fairly serious runner, and the topic of ice baths definitely came up. I tried a few when my training was at its peak. As far as I could tell, with the many fancy things people will try, there is nothing as effective as ice when it comes to reducing inflammatation. The soreness of muscles after a hard workout, the need for time to recover, has something to do with inflammation, so ....

One woman I ran with was always funny. Forget walk breaks on the downhill. I walk on the uphill. And once we had a speaker at our clinic, talking about injuries and such. She said: tell me what to do about sore muscles and inflammation, but don't say the phrase "ice bath."

I remember a doc about the Irish dancers, RiverDance or whatever. After a performance they climb into a kind of 40-gallon barrel full of ice water. Just up to the waist or so. They can fit two to a barrel, which has the potential to be kind of sexy but ... the freezing cold.; 12/21/22, 10:05 AM
Joe Smith said...: Not easy to psych yourself up to do...very disciplined.; 12/21/22, 10:05 AM
khematite said...: Seems like just a slight variant on the ancient joke about the guy who kept hitting himself in the head with a hammer because it felt so good when he stopped. Except that no one ever actually went ahead and did that.; 12/21/22, 10:07 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Luftwaffe chief surgeon Erich Hippke had it done at Dachau. Science!, you know.; 12/21/22, 10:13 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Sydney,

I don't know it would provide the same benefits, if there actually are any, but, no, it isn't the same at all. I speak from experience.; 12/21/22, 10:59 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I noticed how his speech started to slur a bit near the end. I hope he isn't doing that all alone- it is easy for the muscles to seize up enough to make it difficult to get out of that tub.; 12/21/22, 11:01 AM
farmgirl said...: Better him than me. You go, Rogan!!
I get up and go to the barn. It was 24 this morning. Idk what the temp is in the barn- 45/50 maybe? It’s pretty cold, but not below freezing.; 12/21/22, 11:15 AM
JAORE said...: May be a way to try on Trans gender. Your penis will be minimal. Your testes will disappear.

No surgery needed.; 12/21/22, 11:17 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I've been cold water showering for a long while now. I've noticed some benefits.; 12/21/22, 11:23 AM
Howard said...: I prefer it in the original German: schweinehund; 12/21/22, 11:24 AM
Ice Nine said...: Rogan: "Does it work?...I don't know."

WTH? Call me crazy, Joe, but that right there would be quite enough to convince me to not submerge myself in ice water for five minutes every morning.; 12/21/22, 11:27 AM
tastid212 said...: George Costanza complained about shrinkage.; 12/21/22, 11:37 AM
Achilles said...: Here is 2 hours of information on what Deliberate Cold Exposure does and How to use it by Andrew Huberman.; 12/21/22, 11:43 AM
robother said...: Joe's penis has strategically withdrawn, perhaps to engage his inner bitch.; 12/21/22, 11:49 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Wouldn’t a cold shower work just as well!"

Joe Rogan's ice plunge bath is chilled to a temperature of 33° — as cold as it can be and still be liquid.

I don't think your cold shower is going to match that.; 12/21/22, 12:34 PM
Ann Althouse said...: One thing I don't like about that cold water machine is that it's noisy. At first, I thought, too bad for all his wealth, he's still annoyed by neighbors with their leaf blowers. Then I realized it was the machine. It's not relaxing. The whole thing is irritating. I guess that's the idea -- to be challenged.

To the extent that he talks about it as a way to wake up and become alert in the morning, I would ask why he isn't waking up clear and energetic. It this is a way to offset substance use or insufficient sleep, I am not impressed.; 12/21/22, 12:39 PM
Kay said...: Many elites are doing these daily ice baths as well as other cryogenic therapy. Who knows if it carries any benefits, but I can definitely see how it might help a person psychologically.; 12/21/22, 12:42 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: Sometimes it’s better to listen to your inner bitch. At least she’s not dumb enough to think jumping into a tub of ice water is a good idea.; 12/21/22, 12:47 PM
DrSquid said...: I remember from Naval aviation survival training in Iceland in '76, in the water of the north atlantic survival time is in the range of 12 to 15 minutes before death from hypothermia. Seawater there is just a few degrees colder than Rogan's ice tub, due to the colligative properties of salt in the water. He's found a very effective (although possibly dangerous) way to wake up in the morning, but I'll stick with 2 cups of very strong coffee.; 12/21/22, 12:49 PM
rcocean said...: I dunno, if it helps him...cool. Millions and millions have achieved the same result since the dawn of man without an ice bath.; 12/21/22, 1:05 PM
Caroline said...: His mouth is what needs discipline.; 12/21/22, 1:12 PM
Achilles said...: Lloyd W. Robertson said...
I had about ten years as a fairly serious runner, and the topic of ice baths definitely came up. I tried a few when my training was at its peak. As far as I could tell, with the many fancy things people will try, there is nothing as effective as ice when it comes to reducing inflammatation. The soreness of muscles after a hard workout, the need for time to recover, has something to do with inflammation, so ....

If you take an ice bath shortly post workout it will reduce inflammation and help you heal faster.

It will help you build muscle endurance.

The main issue I have with post exercise DCE is that it causes you to build type 2 muscle fibers rather than type 1.

I hit the ice bath before the workout now rather than after.; 12/21/22, 1:19 PM
Achilles said...: Kay said...
Many elites are doing these daily ice baths as well as other cryogenic therapy. Who knows if it carries any benefits, but I can definitely see how it might help a person psychologically.

The benefits of Deliberate Cold Exposure are somewhat recently being discovered but there are clear benefits.

This is a similar situation to the current revolution going on with diet.

It is clear now that wheat, corn, beans and other grains are just bad for you. Same for Vegetable oils and brown rice.

But some people will not accept new information because it will force changes on their life they don't want to make.; 12/21/22, 1:25 PM
Achilles said...: Yancey Ward said...
I noticed how his speech started to slur a bit near the end. I hope he isn't doing that all alone- it is easy for the muscles to seize up enough to make it difficult to get out of that tub.

This is part of the training value.

Joe just sits there. He is going to get the metabolic benefits but I think he is missing out on the cognitive and resilience training.

As your body switches to parasympathetic your cognitive function and fine motor skills are necessarily reduced to give more energy to the autonomic nerves so you can run faster and ignore pain/fatigue better.

During the first shower in the morning I force myself to floss and brush my teeth.

In the beginning it is not easy to do a good job at these relatively fine motor skills while your brain is freaking out about the shock.; 12/21/22, 2:08 PM
Krumhorn said...: I prefer the Nordic Cycle alternating between a sauna and cold immersion a number of times. After 2 or 3 cycles, you can't tell the difference, and it feels great.

- Krumhorn; 12/21/22, 2:37 PM
madAsHell said...: Whatever became of the bathing in liquid nitrogen fad?? Now that's what a real man does.; 12/21/22, 3:00 PM
Big Mike said...: Now if Rose had been seduced by Joe Rogan instead of (fictional) Jack Dawson, he'd have survived the lengthy immersion in the North Atlantic, the two would have been rescued together, and they'd lived in the US happily ever after.; 12/21/22, 4:11 PM
Tarrou said...: @Krumhorn

The Russian variant is similar, except you drink the whole time and get whipped with pine branches inbetween sauna and ice.; 12/21/22, 4:55 PM
Jupiter said...: Actually, I would rather take a three-minute ice bath every morning than sit through one of his three-hour snooze-fests with some semi-interesting prattler. I'm thinking that Time must not pass as slowly for Joe Rogan as it does for me.; 12/21/22, 5:14 PM
boatbuilder said...: I like Joe, and he's generally a good interviewer, but he also seems to be easily distracted by shiny objects. Such as all sorts of food and exercise fads.

However, he looks pretty damn healthy, and he has a few hundred million in the bank, so it's all good.

I don't understand why he didn't invite Neal Young for an interview. It would have been good for both of them, and they could have smoked up a storm.

I listened to his interview with Bjorn Lomborg. Lomborg was making the points that we need to use petroleum, and nitrogen, or most of the world will starve; that we have developed and are developing "clean" methods of energy production, that we greatly reduced carbon emissions primarily due to fracking, and that the alternatives (wind, solar, wood, dung, deforestation and extreme poverty) are far worse environmentally, etc; Rogan kept badgering him about some Rolling Stone article about a stream damaged by fracking, and some guy who claims to be raising beef in a manner that somehow removes carbon and nitrogen from the air. Steadfastly missing the basic point. Lomborg was polite but I wanted to smack him.; 12/21/22, 6:20 PM
Howard said...: I've been dabbling in cold water swimming this season. A couple of the guys in their late thirties I swim with have been doing the ice baths. Interestingly, they don't go with me on the cold pond swims but a couple of the ladies in their mid to late fifties have. It takes time to build a tolerance.

https://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/the-ice-mile/; 12/21/22, 6:33 PM
farmgirl said...: I thought he smoked pot to chill out.

Anyway, wouldn’t the 2habits cancel e/other?
PS I be never done drugs(other than alcohol) & I’m not a fan b/c of personal reasons(issues)…; 12/21/22, 7:31 PM