Sports writer goes inside the world of swimming in ice-cold water with 'The Plunge'

With Phoenix's triple-digit high temperatures firmly upon us, taking a swim in ice-cold water may sound appealing. If so, does Chris Ballard have something for you.

Ballard has been a senior writer at Sports Illustrated for two decades; he’s also an author. His new book is called "The Plunge: Maverick Swimmers, an Unlikely Quest and the Transformative Power of Cold Water."

In it, he meets people who do cold plunges, and those who swim distances in freezing water. And, he not only reports their stories — he becomes a participant.

Full conversation

MARK BRODIE: Chris, what first got you interested in looking into this world, and I wonder if it’s maybe a bigger world than you thought it was?

CHRIS BALLARD: To the latter question, yes. It was a whole alternate universe I didn’t know existed. So part of my interest was professional curiosity. You know, I’ve spent the last, you know, few decades writing about sports, but often I’m interested in the people behind the sports, and often I’m interested in more esoteric sports where you might be asking, "Why is someone running an ultramarathon, right? Like why would someone do that to their bodies?" Usually, there’s a, a fascinating reason behind that.

So part of it was seeing this this world of people who are not only going to cold water for wellness trends or for health benefits, which are there, but also swimming in it. And then personally, I was in my late 40s and I had always loved, loved, loved basketball. I spent 20 years covering basketball for Sports Illustrated, and personally, I’d hit a point where I couldn’t really play anymore. And I’d had a hip replacement, and it was sucking away my identity, my sense of self, my stress relief, so many things I got from it.

And so I’d heard from an NBA trainer, he’s like, "The thing that all these athletes are doing now is intense cold, where they alternate between like a 39-degree plunge tub and hot water or a sauna." And I was like, hey, if it works for them, you know, if it was good enough for Steph Curry and and LeBron, it’s good enough for me to try to stay on the court in my weekend warrior aspect. So those two things were what drove me into it.

MARK BRODIE: So did you find that it had that, those kinds of effects for you, like were you able to get back on the court or at least maybe not be quite so sore as you had been feeling?

CHRIS BALLARD: Yeah. It’s you think of it almost like a a vascular pump because when you go into hot, whether it’s a sauna or hot water or, you know, a hot tub, essentially all the blood goes out to your skin because it’s trying to shed heat. It’s called vasodilation. So that happens first.

But then when you go immediately into cold after that, your body’s like, "Oh boy, we got to bring all the blood to the core. We got to protect the heart." So instead of going out to the to the skin, it comes all the way away from the skin to the heart, and that works, think of it almost like cycling through if you’re cleaning, like an oil change, in some ways, like you’re just cleaning out your system that way.

So they’ve seen in studies that this is going to help with cellular repair, and you, you do feel it. I was able to get back on the court and, I got to be honest, you know, that sort of thudding, it’s called delayed onset muscle soreness, that goes away as well. So you sleep better, you rest better.

MARK BRODIE: So you found all sorts of different reasons for the people who who do this not because they’re trying to recover from injuries or, you know, trying to get back on the court or on the field more quickly. There are all sorts of reasons, it seems like, why people choose to do this.

CHRIS BALLARD: Yeah, I think the one that was most compelling to me was a mental health aspect. And so if you think about it from a physiological standpoint, it does make sense. When you get into cold water, your body goes into fight or flight. It sees this as a threat, and so it tries to prepare you for this threat by boosting your levels of dopamine and adrenaline.

And so the side benefit to that is that you feel amazing. It’s the same receptors in your head as an opioid. And so you’re ready, and you also you really can’t think about whatever is swirling around your head, the intrusive thoughts, then, you know, you’re worried about this, you’re worried about that. When you’re in that cold water, you’re really only present in that moment.

So there’s that aspect, and then if you do it with other people, that’s where I found a lot of swimmers and plungers around the world, they were finding these communities. And often, you know, if people are lonely, they’re scrolling social media, here is something where really the barrier entry is just like show up on Saturday at, you know, 8 a.m.

MARK BRODIE: Well, so those kinds of things, sort of the calm, the mental health aspect, the doing hard things together, it strikes me that that's not necessarily that dissimilar from, you know, you mentioned why people might run an ultra-marathon or do other extreme sports. It seems like those are some of the answers you hear for those kinds of events also.

CHRIS BALLARD: For sure. There's, I mean, there's an element of this, you know, I got into the extreme element of ice swimming, which is 41 degrees or lower water and you're only wearing a silicone cap, goggles, and a Speedo.

And so there's people who come to this partly to test themselves, to find out that line and that's, I think what appeals to people who might do an ultra marathon as well. Like, you know, what are my limits? What do I find when I push my limits? So there's that aspect.

But I think the difference here that you find is you really, you rely on other people. If you go out for a run and let's say you conk out 14 miles into your run, you know, you just walk. But if you're out in very cold water and swimming with a group of other people, you need each other because if you start to get very cold or, you know, you get disoriented, whatever it is, there's that communal element to this that is really powerful and it's one of those things that's hard to explain.

And so myself in reporting the book, of course, I had to start doing this, otherwise a reader isn't going to be able to really understand it. And so in doing it, I did start to feel this like amazing, wow, I met these people, you know, two hours ago and suddenly I have this bond with them.

MARK BRODIE: What was it like for you to start and to sort of know that you have to kind of trust these, these people that you met, you know, maybe less than, less than a few minutes ago, you know, if something goes sideways, these are the people who are going to help you and possibly save your life?

CHRIS BALLARD: Exactly. And that's, one of the things that I heard from the people who do the really intense ice swimming where they swim something called an ice mile, and that's when you're, it's just what it sounds like you're trying to swim a mile in, in water that is near freezing, in this case, 41 °F or lower, is they said a lot of them are caretakers in their day to day life, whether it's a family member or an elderly parent or maybe it's their job.

And one of the things they appreciate about this is you put in a position where you need others to take care of you. You know, there's some people who are like, I can do this on my own. I'm self-reliant. I'm independent, and this forces you outside of that in a way that if done safely is healthy as well.

And so that is very appealing, and I think especially in our day to day life, we don't have many opportunities where we have to rely on each other because everything is so easy.

MARK BRODIE: Well, and to your point from earlier, this is also like, yes, I'm sure that there are things you can do to prepare and precautions you can take and, and things like that, but at the end of the day, like, you have to actually get into the water and do it.

CHRIS BALLARD: For sure. And to me, this was really profound with the Paralympians. So there's an actual sport called ice swimming, and they've got a shot at making the Winter Olympics. It's a great visual sport, as you can imagine, and there are current Olympians who are now competing in it.

And in talking to these Paralympians, one of the things they said, you know, the water is 38 degrees or whatever it is, is they're like, part of why we do this is because 99% of the population won't. It's not that they can't. It's that they won't, and we can. So it gave them this thing that they could do. Because really, like your body will adapt to this kind of cold water within a week.

MARK BRODIE: OK, so take me through your mindset when you are standing on the edge of the water, the first time you're gonna do one of these things. Like, what do you think, what are you feeling?

CHRIS BALLARD: [LAUGHING Why did I decide to do this?

MARK BRODIE: That sounds about right.

CHRIS BALLARD:It's usually the, the first thing I could, I could have been courtside at the Lakers game writing about, you know, so there's a, there's an element of that.

And then secondarily, though, by the time you're there, by the time you've, you know, in this case, when I, my first real-time swimming was at the U.S. Nationals and I'm standing on the edge of a pool and the pool is 38 degrees, but there's hundreds of people around me. There's a live stream. You really can't back out.

So at that point, you got to go in and you are up until the moment that you actually get in and do it, you're like, I'm not going to be able to do this. And then when you get out, you know, 2 minutes later or whatever your swim was, you are so proud and, and it's remarkable how much we underestimate ourselves.

I was so not only proud but just surprised that I was able to do it and that was also gratifying.

MARK BRODIE: All right. That is Chris Ballard, journalist and author. His new book is called "The Plunge: Maverick Swimmers, an Unlikely Quest, and the Transformative Power of Cold Water." Chris, really good to talk to you. Thank you.

CHRIS BALLARD: Hey, thanks so much.

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