Cold water has a way of stripping wellness down to something honest. The body does not care about the language around the ritual. It responds to temperature, breath, and the sudden demand to stay organized under pressure.
This transcript has been lightly cleaned from the source captions for readability while preserving the original sequence.
hey what's up guys it's this and guess what we are going to visit Andy Galpin today at CSU Fullerton we are so excited we are going to spend all day with him learn the ins and outs of ice bathing bassy ice faffing ice bathing and is it as beneficial as people think is it detrimental does it cause inflammation what exactly is the hype over getting in a huge tub of ice watch these videos and it on the internet and it just looks like it's painful it's I I just want to know how beneficial is it really something that we should be doing every day some people are doing this daily weekly monthly how often should I be doing it yo it's Anders stoked to hang out today with dr. Andy Galvin I'm headed to go see viv and Colton right now we're gonna go talk about ice bass we're probably gonna get in an ice bath and I'm going back to school CSU Fullerton health frightening nutrition is gonna be tough on the road today I'm doubling up organifi green drink the greatest thing ever make sure you get some use coupon code proof for 20% off I'm stoked to hang out because all the coolest people in the world right now are doing this ice bath thing from Laird Hamilton Tim Ferriss you name it everyone's talking about getting cold and we're gonna learn from the master dr. Andy Galvin on why welcome to prove where it's not what you hear it's what you see hi I'm Vivian and I'm on a mission to meet the most influential and
talented leaders in the fitness industry I'm going to dive deep obtaining the best information they have testing it myself and then sharing it with you there's so much information to learn and I can't do it alone I'm Anders for the last 21 years I've dedicated my life to helping people live a stronger healthier life this journey has led me from strength coach to gym owner and now the host of barbell shrug we are bringing you inside the greatest minds in health and fitness no more listening and reading we want to show you we want proof [Music] studies are coming out and we've probably seen them they're saying it's just a fad the ice bath is actually not as effective as people are saying so why put yourself through you know what we're about to do and by all the sides did it up and make it part of your you know weekly routine or whatever it is it's really not doing as much as what we think so like everything else the sois context you jump in the ice at the heart lift the goal of growing muscle mass it's probably putting you not only is it not good for you spring in the wrong direction I said that there are some other good data that suggest enhances the pollak adaptation so perhaps enhance endurance right now this is only looking at faucet it's not looking at what pardon us and Max's banking now into psychology it's not expanding any mood energy I feel like and so you cannot answer a
question like that with a single paper or a single ariados thing yeah you have to understand why are you beating the ice with the first place so the people that the second talking about class this is a classic example of dormers to learn right so someone that does that insert their forces there's no benefit diet it's clearly exhibiting like maybe there's not a benefit before that adaptation but you're gonna experience this you're gonna be thankful for and you can't then walk away from that tell me there's no pattern it was a joyous experience it's going to be joyous experience and there is some there are other adaptations there's numerous converting life after brown which is both important for health losing body fat right performance elevations recovery so if you're jumping in my spouse immediately after a workout depends on the adaptation that one wants to enact the conversation about well what do you mean maybe I separated by six hours now those have a lot of people I clear cascades that are blocked when you jump in after exercise if they're already done their thing right so now that we blocking me be less of an issue you also want start talking about what type will work out so you get a small short workout you did a short look out on the screen I intensity high load in a steady state is a recovery workout you can get like these are all different questions that all have different answers and so to make a clear statement that ice is good or bad is it more of just exposing yourself and forcing your
body to adapt or is there something actually specific about the cold that matters yes no both of that yeah I would of course make the argument we need to be expanding what we expose ourselves to physically what you're living right so what do that means the ice know you're gonna have a hard time finding anybody that says that the heat is more difficult you finally need to take a warm shower you find a way right they're not warm when you recognize to me while there is good appear evidence hot is good I think people get enough fun yeah let's say you shouldn't do it but I think the other one that is more difficult and less likely to experience if you do this thing twice a year three times of you you're not causing any kind of - nothing well I that doesn't mean there's no benefit right yes I can - broadening our experiences of exposure it is really what we need to be able to handle stress in a bunch of different ways and the one thing the many things I like about the cold is a very quick way to induce severe physical stress that's not burying yourself with you because we and in fact a lot of people like you my own fighters like they do they like the sport they get physically beat but this is not that much like difficult for them because it's a place of comfort for something like this and don't like this kind of discomfort so now it's like starting as a white belt again it's like
us stepping in as farm for the first time where you're like all you think about all day is saying you don't want to get kick and how bad it's going to get much because it does I just understand how hard that hurts how much that hurts the same thing we can get here in small doses what's the recommended amount of training so the real answer here is because I actually prefer not selling people go because it should be a field right yeah you should you're going to want to get out after 10 seconds after one second so whether I tell you a minute or three minutes this matter having said that I would really say the golden Marcus is three minutes and after you have people talk about how you get numb yeah that's not true that's gonna keep getting [__] cold the whole time and the real key to all the stuff is reclaiming your breath when this gets cold yeah right okay here we go baby go all the blood flow from like basis this one your thermal sense yeah that's the one that when you get close to that it's
gonna you'll know the difference between be cold and and feeling where's your wife hey yeah watch it I just actually just keep this and I pointed out it does it again wait no I uh there's one Ernie come talk to me he had to do a checkup Wow I feel like that was an insult that you don't like to talk to me no I do I just got really nervous there for a second holy [__] that's good smashes what's it feel like that like like it explains how like you panicked like there we go good nice nice
slow down I'm gonna count to five bit between breaths good good [__] vibes baby yes I'm saying I feel like talking actually makes it way worse what why do you think that because when you breathe really went on Calvin tell me when I'm wrong I feel like you're using your core to circulate blood you know when you start talking like even that mental [__] block right there yeah of him putting an ice cube in here does nothing except to [__] with your brain yeah come close to me anis I'm this [Music] [Applause] we are back from seeing dr. Andy Galvan
we did it was very cold but we survived and had an awesome time what we learned I feel like: Bertrand is a really important tool for training your nervous system maybe some things don't always have to have like some scientific yes or no and the fact that you're just doing them is more important than you know may be having some return on your investment we get really hung up on weights and sets and reps and is this the right thing or the wrong thing and the truth is you should just get the coal tank to expose yourself to things that are very challenging overcoming adversity and realizing that there is a next level of badassery that you have inside you and you don't have to see that in the gym so like he's saying I'm gonna dumb it down for you basically add stress to your body in a different fashion than beating yourself up in the gym every single day yes getting in a bath full of ice can be beneficial for your muscles and overall recovery but if you're looking at it in a different form getting in the ice bath as little as three times a year maybe six times a year you're adding an overall different stress to your system you don't see every single day that you do in the gym lifting those weights or get me on the spin bike or running those miles whatever it may be try it off back home after an awesome day on the road with the crew where we
went up to CSU Fullerton to visit with dr. Andy Galvin and get a huge tub of I learned all the pros and cons of doing that whether you should do it before training after training or even at all so we had an awesome day it was a long day but I'm back home in comes because I'm able to have my organifi gold drink which is one of my favorite products I have it after a long day it's one scoop into some water and it's a full-body reboot that I am pumped on so if you would like to try that go to organifi dot-com backslash proof and you can also use proof as a coupon code for 20% off which is awesome so again don't forget to follow us on instagram at proof fitness and our website is proof - fitness comm where you can download a furry nutritional eva the Anders and myself have written with a macro calculator as well as my favorite smoothie recipe which I would love to hear your thoughts on so again follow us on all the above and come to episode 2 which will be with Brett Contreras of the glute lab here on proof [Music]
Transcript auto-generated by YouTube. Verbatim — duplicates intentionally preserved.
In this visit with Dr. Andy Galpin, ice bathing is treated less like a trend and more like a controlled stressor. That distinction matters. The value of cold exposure for health is not in suffering for its own sake. It is in giving the nervous system a clear, brief challenge it can adapt to.
Every useful protocol begins with a dose. Cold water creates a strong physical signal quickly: skin temperature drops, breathing changes, attention narrows, and the body has to decide how to respond.
That response is the practice. When the exposure is deliberate and brief, cold becomes a way to rehearse composure. The body meets stress, organizes around it, and returns to baseline with more confidence than before.
"We need to be able to handle stress in a bunch of different ways." — Dr. Andy Galpin
Stress alone does not build capacity. Adaptation happens when the body has enough recovery protocols to interpret the stress as training rather than threat. That is true for lifting, conditioning, heat, and cold.
This is where the restraint of a good protocol matters. More is not automatically better. The right exposure leaves the body alert, clear, and able to recover. Too much turns a useful signal into unnecessary strain.
cold exposure is immediate. The first seconds ask for breath control, attention, and a willingness to stay present without forcing. Repeated with care, that moment becomes familiar.
The benefit is not only physical recovery. It is the felt knowledge that stress can arrive without taking over. You learn the difference between discomfort and danger. That distinction is central to resilience.
A thoughtful cold practice respects temperature, time, and state. The goal is not to prove toughness. The goal is to create a consistent stimulus that the body can integrate.
Enter calmly. Keep the breath organized. Leave before the signal becomes noise. In that restraint, cold exposure becomes a recovery practice rather than a performance.
Cold becomes useful when it is precise enough to train adaptation, not dramatic enough to overwhelm it.
Treat cold exposure as a dose, not a dare. Temperature and time both matter.
Use breath as the first marker of control. If the breath cannot settle, the dose may be too high.
Give recovery the same respect as exposure. Adaptation needs both the signal and the return.
