30/09/2026
🥶 WHY WE DON’T SPLASH OUR FACES IN COLD WATER
There’s a bit of advice that gets passed around in cold-water swimming:
“Splash your face with cold water first it will help you acclimatise.”
But it’s not quite that simple…
Professor Mike Tipton, Professor of Human & Applied Physiology at the University of Portsmouth, has spent decades researching what happens to the body when we enter cold water.
And there are two powerful reflexes involved.
🌊 COLD SHOCK RESPONSE
Sudden cooling of the skin triggers the cold shock response.
Your body responds with:
💨 A gasp
💨 Rapid breathing/hyperventilation
❤️ Increased heart rate
⬆️ Increased blood pressure
🩸 Constriction of blood vessels
It’s your body’s emergency response to sudden cold immersion.
🤿 THE DIVING RESPONSE
When your face is immersed in water, receptors around the nose and mouth can trigger the diving response.
This does almost the opposite.
❤️ It slows the heart rate
🩸 It causes selective blood-vessel constriction
🫁 It encourages breath-holding
So we have one reflex saying “GO!” and another saying “SLOW DOWN!”
And when you suddenly put your face into cold water while your body is experiencing cold shock, these two responses can compete.
Professor Tipton describes this as “autonomic conflict” competing signals from the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. This is one reason cold water immersion involving the face, particularly combined with breath-holding, can increase cardiovascular stress. This can be dangerous for you.
So what should you do instead?
Don’t rush.
Get into the water gradually.
Keep your airway clear.
FLOAT. BREATHE. LET THE COLD SHOCK SETTLE.
Your breathing is the thing we want to get back under control before you start swimming.
The first minute or two isn’t about proving how tough you are. It’s about allowing your body time to adapt to what you’ve just asked it to do.
We’re not trying to “beat” your body’s reflexes.
We’re giving your body time to deal with them. ❤️🌊
SLOW DOWN THERE’S NO RUSH ❤️
