MOOSSE

Ice bath

An ice bath is only half of the ritual.

Cold water is cheap. An old bathtub, an inflatable tub, a lake in January: you do not need 4,000 euros for that. What most people miss is the warmth beforehand. Without a sauna an ice bath is a struggle, with a sauna it is the best half hour of your week.
  • How cold, how long and in which order
  • What an ice bath at home realistically costs
  • When you had better not go into the cold water
See the sauna tent To the contrast bath
Man jumps into the cold water after the sauna
10-15 °C
A fine temperature to start
1-3 min
Long enough in the cold water
3 rounds
A complete contrast bath
up to 100°C
The warm half, in a MOOSSE

The contrast bath

Warm, cold, rest. And then once more.

This is the order that has been the same in Finland for a few hundred years. You do not need to improve on it.

1

Warm up, 10 to 15 minutes

The sauna up to temperature, you in it until you really sweat. This is the part that makes the rest bearable. Cold water without warmth beforehand is a struggle. Cold water after 15 minutes of heat is relief.

2

Cool down, 1 to 3 minutes

Walk into the water calmly, never jump. Breathe low and slowly. The first thirty seconds are the hardest, after that it goes quiet in your head. Get out before your teeth start chattering.

3

Rest, 10 minutes

Get dressed, sit down, have something to drink. Your heart rate drops, your skin tingles afterwards. This is where the effect is, and exactly the part most people skip.

4

Repeat, 2 to 3 times

Three rounds is a complete ritual of about an hour and a half. End with cold if you still have the day ahead of you, and with warmth and rest if you want to sleep.

The temperature

How cold should the water be?

Colder is not better. Between 10 and 15 degrees the same thing happens in your body as at 3 degrees, only you are far more likely to stick with it and do it again next week. Experienced users drift down to 5 degrees on their own, but that is not a goal in itself.

In the Netherlands you need no ice at all from November to March. Tap water in a tub outside cools down by itself to around seven degrees, and open water in those months is usually between 4 and 10 degrees. Want the same feeling in summer? A cold shower after the sauna is a fine replacement. There too the effect is mostly in the transition, not in the number on the thermometer.

Watch the time, not the degrees. You get out by feel: if your breathing stays calm and you can still talk, you are fine. If the chattering starts, you have stayed too long.

MOOSSE sauna tent next to the water in the garden

The warm half

A sauna that comes to the water.

The awkward thing about a fixed sauna is that the cold water is rarely right next to it. A MOOSSE sauna tent comes along in the car and is up within five minutes at the edge of a lake, in the garden next to the pond or on the beach. That turns the walk from warm to cold into ten paces instead of a plan.

The stove is wood-fired, so you need no socket where you want to sit. More about how that works is on wood-fired sauna.

  • 14 kg tent, 23 kg stove, in two carry bags
  • Up in 5 minutes, at temperature in 30 minutes
  • Wood-fired, so no electricity by the waterside
  • Complete from €1,349, free shipping in NL and BE

The maths

What an ice bath at home really costs

A ready-made ice bath with a cooling unit and filter costs between 2,000 and 6,000 euros, plus electricity to keep the water cold all year. That is lovely if you want to sit in 4 degrees at six in the morning in July. For most people it is an expensive solution to a problem that the Dutch climate solves for free eight months of the year.

The cheap route works surprisingly well: an inflatable tub or a second-hand bathtub at the back of the garden, filled with the garden hose in winter. Under 200 euros, and the water is cold enough in a night. Refresh it regularly, because without a filter standing water quickly turns cloudy.

Work it out once and you see where the money belongs. The cold is almost free. The warmth is the part you buy something for, and that part decides whether you are still doing this in February.

Walking calmly into the cold water after the sauna

Staying safe in the cold

Five rules you should not skip.

Cold water gives your heart and blood vessels a strong stimulus. For healthy people that is exactly the point, but the first seconds are also the risk: you gasp for breath automatically. That is why you walk into the water and do not jump in, and why you do not do it on your own.

As for the effects: that cold water makes you more alert and happier is well supported. For big promises about fat burning, the immune system and muscle recovery the evidence is much thinner. Do it because it is nice, not because a video says you should.

  • Never alone, certainly not in open water
  • Never jump or dive, because of the gasp reflex
  • Breathe low and calm, and get out before you start shivering
  • No alcohol, before or during
  • With heart or blood vessel problems, high blood pressure, epilepsy or pregnancy, ask your doctor first

One more thing

Questions about the ice bath

For most people 1 to 3 minutes is enough. Start at 30 seconds and build up gently. Longer is not better: as soon as you start to shiver and cannot get your breathing calm any more, you get out. After a sauna round the same time feels a lot shorter, because your body starts warm.

Between 10 and 15 degrees is fine for beginners and gives the same feeling as colder water. Experienced users are often around 5 degrees. In the Netherlands, outdoor water from November to March is cold enough on its own, so you do not need ice.

Sauna first, then the cold water. That is the order of the classic contrast bath: warm up until you sweat properly, then cool down briefly, then rest until you feel normal again. Repeat that two to three times. End with cold if you want to be awake, and with warmth and rest if you want to sleep.

Cold water gives many people a clear boost in alertness and mood, and that effect shows up in research. For muscle recovery and fat burning the evidence is a lot thinner than the internet suggests. So see it mainly as something pleasant and refreshing, not as medicine.

If you have heart or blood vessel problems, high blood pressure, epilepsy, or are pregnant, talk to your doctor first. Cold water gives a strong stimulus to the heart and blood vessels. Never go into the water alone, do not jump in because of the gasp reflex, and do not combine it with alcohol.

A ready-made ice bath with a cooling unit quickly costs 2,000 to 6,000 euros. A simple inflatable tub or an old bathtub in the garden costs under 200 euros and does exactly the same in winter. The expensive part of the ritual is not the cold, but the warmth beforehand.

To get about 150 litres of tap water from 15 to 8 degrees you quickly need 10 to 15 kilos of ice, and that melts away within an hour. That is exactly why most people in the Netherlands choose outdoor water in winter or a garden tub that cools down on its own.

All frequently asked questions →

Further reading

Wood-fired sauna

Real wood, real steam, no electricity. How the stove works.

Read

Mobile sauna

A sauna that comes along to the campsite, the forest or the water.

Read

Outdoor sauna

What a fixed outdoor sauna costs, and what the alternative costs.

Read

You arrange the cold. We arrange the warmth.

Wood-fired, up to 100°C, set up in 5 minutes next to the water. Complete from €1,349, with 30 days to change your mind.

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