In case you didn’t get the memo: the cold-water swimming craze is officially here to stay. What arguably started as a lockdown trend — wild swimming in lakes, seas and rivers because we couldn’t use pools and lidos — has combined with the cold therapy wellness movement (see icy poster boy, Wim Hof) to become a permanent fixture in feel-good regimens.
“The benefits are really quite startling when you look into it,” says Jem Wallis of Escape Swims, which provides professional outdoor swimming and cold-water immersion sessions in Cornwall. “There’s a huge amount of anecdotal evidence of thousands of swimmers feeling better in body and mind, now being supported by research confirming those outcomes. We know the rise in adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine is significant and sustained for hours after a swim.”
