Fitness Tips

All About Cold Water Immersion

Fitness tips with Leanne Spencer | www.bodyshotperformance.com

Cold water immersion has become more trendy, more popular and more well known and there’s a good reason for this: Its many health benefits!

How It Works

Cold water immersion causes a very fast drop in temperature (it’s a bit of a shock to the system). Mentally, it puts you immediately into the moment and brings you into your body. Physically one of the ways it helps your health is with the fast drop in temperature causes vasoconstriction. Blood rushes to the vital organs in the body. So even though it feels quite shocking and uncomfortable on the outside, you’re getting increased circulation to your vital organs.

Health Benefits

Health Benefits Include: • lowering stress levels • creating more mental toughness and resilience • increasing your immune system • boosting your circulation • improving sleep • feeling calmer • positively affecting your parasympathetic nervous system • increasing your metabolic function • improving mood • decreasing delayed onset muscle soreness

Mental Health

It’s been shown to improve your mood, and has got strong links with mental health benefits as well. Mike Tipton, a researcher at the University of Portsmouth, has been studying what these extreme experiences can do to the human body and mind: “…led to an immediate improvement in mood following each swim and a sustained and gradual reduction in symptoms of depression, and consequently a reduction in, and then cessation of, medication. On follow-up a year later, she remains medication-free.”

How To Get Started

Not everyone lives near to the sea or to a pool, for many these may also not be accessible for other reasons. So how do you get started? A great way to start is with a cold shower or bath. A top tip is to have your normal shower, then at the end just slowly, turn it a bit colder. This way you have control, it’s a little less shocking and you can start building your resilience that way. In a bath, you can have your bath as normal, and as you drain the water just hose yourself down with the shower head on cold. Even just a cold splash of water to the face will work as a starting point – just start playing with it and seeing how it feels.

Recommended Temperature & Time

You want to look at a pool that’s under about 15 degrees. The general rule is that you should stay in the water for as many minutes as it’s cold. For instance, if the pool is 14 degrees, it’s recommended you stay for 14 minutes. It takes a bit of time to get warm afterwards, but do not turn the hot shower on straight away, just let yourself ease into feeling warm afterwards.

Post Swim High

It does feel great in your body once you come out. This is known as the ‘postswim high’ triggered by the release of beta-endorphins. Let us know how you go, if you do decide to jump into the ocean or jump into a pool, we’d love to see, and good luck.

Wednesdays 7, 14, 21 & 28 July: Zoom Portraiture @ Dulwich Art Group & School

2pm - 5pm. This is now a hybrid session with 15 artists allowed into the studio and also cameras for artists attending through Zoom. Paint a clothed model with a focus on the portrait over two three hour sessions. We give you a wide view and a closer portrait view so you can work out the framing for yourself. The model will at times be engaged in conversation in order to bring some animation to the face.

www.dulwichartgroup.co.uk

Wednesdays 7, 14, 21 & 28 July: After school art class for children aged 5-12 years old

3.45pm-5pm. &ART Clubs offer children aged 5-12 years a creative space in which to explore their world. The Scout Hut, 212 Bellenden Road, Peckham. SE15 4BY. (Other days are available).

www.andart.london.

Wednesday 7 July: Swifts in the City

6:30pm - 7:30pm. Swifts are supremely aerial birds. They travel from Africa to breed during the summer months, and have been sharing our buildings with us since Roman times. But swifts, like many migrating birds, are disappearing. From 1995, British swifts have declined by more than half. Find more about the national campaign to save the swifts: www.swiftconservation.org Steven also helped Bell House with building swift boxes in the garden! We have seven boxes which we hope will attract swifts to Bell House. For full details on tickets go to

www.bellhouse.co.uk.

Wednesday 7 July: Goose Green Coffee Morning

Outdoors 11:30am - 1pm. Coffee Morning Talk by John Birkett RSPB Croydon Local Group. What is happening to our birds? Email office@stjohnseastdulwich.org for more details Come and join us in St John’s churchyard for coffee, cake and chat. A great opportunity to connect with your local community and meet others. All welcome! St John’s East Dulwich, 62A

East Dulwich Road, East Dulwich SE22 9AT.

Weather permitting (on Zoom if raining).

Thursday 8 July: Art Down Under from the Convict Years to the Modern Era

8pm - 9pm. World War I was a watershed in Australian history - no longer subservient to Europe, artists found their own language to depict their unique landscape and culture.

www.theartssocietydulwich.org.uk.

Monday 12 July: Dulwich WI Monthly Meeting

7:30pm - 9:30pm. We meet on the second Monday of each month - currently on Zoom - but usually at Dulwich Hamlet FC Clubhouse Bar.

https://dulwichwi.com.

Wednesday 14 July: Goose Green Coffee Morning

Outdoors 11:30am - 1pm - Come and join us in St John’s churchyard for coffee, cake and chat. A great opportunity to connect with your local community and meet others.

All welcome! St John’s East Dulwich, 62A East Dulwich Road, East Dulwich SE22 9AT.

Weather permitting (on Zoom if raining)

Thursday 15 July: Filmmaking 101: Producing with Sarah Beardsall

7pm - 9pm. What does a producer actually do?

What makes a good script? Why is editing so important? Over the course of this year, Bell House Films will answer these questions and many more with its series of ‘Filmmaking 101’ events. Every month, an industry professional will host an online tutorial, where they will delve into the fundamentals of a specific filmmaking discipline. Fifth tutorial: Producing Sarah Beardsall will be looking at what it takes to produce a short film, from fund-raising and script development to post production and festivals, while also sharing her vast experience as a TV producer and casting director. Sarah is a volunteer at Bell House and a founder member of the Bell House Film Committee. Who is this for? For anyone and everyone with an interest in film, ‘Filmmaking 101’ is for you. You don’t need experience, you don’t need kit, you just need to bring your creativity and your curiosity.

About Sarah Beardsall

With Dominic Minghella, Sarah founded Island Pictures, whose productions include ‘Knightfall’ Series One for A&E Studios/History and ‘The Scapegoat’, directed by Charles Sturridge, starring Matthew Rhys, Andrew Scott and Sheridan Smith, which was commissioned for ITV and selected for Dinard and Chicago Film Festivals. She is a freelance producer on the long-running Saturday night drama ‘Casualty’ for the BBC., a volunteer at Bell House and a founder member of the Bell House Film Committee. For full details including a great offer which ends on the 15th July go to:

www.bellhouse.co.uk. 28