Cold plunging seems like a new rite of passage: shirtless finance bros plunging into converted chest freezers, suburban moms sprinting into Rubbermaid bins at dawn, and influencers hash tagging “resilience” while visibly fighting for breath. On TikTok, #coldplunge has more than a billion views. LeBron James does it. So does Hugh Jackman. Everyone is doing it.

People swear it heals inflammation, boosts mood, builds discipline, maybe even slows aging. But is any of this real? Or are we just looking for something else to flex online?

ALSO RELATED: Annoyingly, Cold Plunges Might Actually Be Good for You

So What Is Cold Plunge, Anyway?

A cold plunge is exactly what it sounds like: sitting in painfully cold water on purpose. The practice predates TikTok by a few thousand years. Hippocrates u

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