FAQ

Looking for more information about winter swimming before giving it a try? Here are our answers to some frequently asked questions.

Who can go winter swimming?
Winter swimming is suitable for anyone who does not suffer from heart problems, untreated high blood pressure or asthma. If you have heart problems, high blood pressure or asthma, we recommend consulting with your doctor before trying winter swimming.

If you are pregnant, please talk to your gynecologist before you attempt winter swimming. There seems to be no consensus in the winter swimming world as to whether or not it is safe to swim during pregnancy. However, most doctors we have spoken to advise against it. If you are pregnant and would still like to enjoy the community aspect of our winter swimming group, you are more than welcome to come with us to the lake and share a soup and/or cup of tea with us afterwards.

Do I need prior experience to attend a weekly swim?
Our weekly swims are for everyone. Know your limits, don’t push yourself and make sure you’re staying safe at all times. If this means just putting your big toe into the water, that is fine by us. Our weekly swims are for having fun. Getting the mental and physical health benefits of cold water and spending time outdoors with lovely people. We all look out for each other.

How long should I stay in the water?
Listen to your body and only stay in the water as long as you feel safe and well. There is a commonly used rule of thumb which says that the water temperature (in °C) indicates the number of minutes one can stay in the water. For example, you could aim to spend 8 minutes in water of 8° C. We would rather recommend using this as an upper limit, especially for beginners as the water gets colder. It is important not to overdo it, especially if you are new to winter swimming. For most people, the bigger challenge is not the swimming itself, but warming up afterwards.

How long you can stay in the water depends on your physical condition and your winter swimming experience. When your body starts shivering or your swimming movements become slow and strenuous it is high time to leave the water.

To enjoy the positive effects of winter swimming, it is not a matter of staying in the water as long as possible. For that, 30 seconds to four minutes is enough. Anything longer than that will not have a significant effect on improving your health, but of course it can still be fun. :-)

How often should I go winter swimming?
Experienced winter swimmers recommend swimming at least once or twice a week.

How should I breathe?
A key element of winter swimming is training yourself to exhale slowly. Ideally, you would begin with this before you even get into the water. Breathing out slowly calms your nervous system and can help to mitigate the cold-water shock effect, including the gasp reflex.

Winter swimming is first and foremost a mental, rather than a physical challenge. If you believe that you and your body are strong enough, you can calmly enjoy swimming in cold water.

Should I enter the water slowly or quickly?
In order for your body to get used to the cold and for you to control your breathing, you should enter the water slowly.

What happens to the body during a cold swim?
Different body reflexes and reactions come together:

First, the cold shock reaction leads to an activation of the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight), especially in inexperienced winter swimmers, which results in a faster heartbeat, higher blood pressure and faster breathing due to the release of stress hormones such as adrenaline. In particular, it can also lead to so-called snap breathing, a sharp snap-like inhalation. More experience, mental preparation and a conscious slow exhalation decrease the shock reaction. Winter swimming becomes more meditative and calmer over time.

Secondly, the cold causes the vessels of the skin and extremities to constrict, while the blood vessels inside the body dilate. This ensures blood circulation and heat retention in vital organs such as the heart, lungs, brain, etc. This reaction is essential for survival. On the other hand, over time, it causes the arms and legs to no longer "work" as usual and swimming becomes slower and more effortful. If you notice that this is happening, it is high time to get out of the water.

Another effect of the cold is the release of so-called happiness hormones or endorphins such as dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin, which explains the mood-lifting effect of winter swimming.

Last but not least, winter swimming allows us to take advantage of the diving reflex. This is an ancient vegetative reflex that all mammals have when they dip their heads in cold water. The diving reflex leads to an activation of the parasympathetic nervous system (rest, digest & heal). As a result, the heartbeat slows down, the breathing rate becomes calmer and we can relax despite the cold. To activate the diving reflex, many winter swimmers recommend splashing cold water on their faces.

Do I need to warm up before going into the water?
This isn’t essential, but most people find it easier to get into cold water after a warm-up. You could try jogging, skipping, or doing some push-ups before going winter swimming.

Should I put my head under water as well?
Whether or not you want to put your head under water is up to you. It is well known that we lose a large part of our body heat through the head, which is why many of us - especially those with long hair - do not wet our heads and wear a cap while swimming. However, to activate the diving reflex (see above), it is refreshing to at least dip your face in the cold water.

How should I warm up after swimming?
Intuitively, many new winter swimmers would like to get right under a hot shower after swimming, or even better, go to the sauna. However, one should be careful with this, as too strong a temperature change is an additional strain on the circulation. We recommend warming up slowly, by putting on warm clothes (upper body first if possible) and drinking a hot tea or soup. Exercise can also help - however, especially if you are still outside in the cold, it often has less of a "warming up" effect than you might think.

It is normal that a few minutes after swimming you suddenly feel colder than during the swim. This is known as the "after drop". The sudden cold sensation has to do with the fact that after swimming, when it gets a little warmer again, the vessels in the arms and legs open up again and the blood that has cooled down there mixes again with the warm blood in the torso. This causes the core temperature of the body to drop even further at first before it rises again.

I shiver a lot after swimming - is that bad?
Shivering after swimming is a natural reaction of the body to produce heat, so it is not a bad thing. However, the more you go winter swimming the less you shiver after the swim.

Can I go swimming when I'm on my period?
Basically, you can go winter swimming even when you are menstruating. It may simply be that you feel the cold more intensely and perhaps stay in the water for less time. However, it varies from woman to woman and other factors besides your period play an important role in the sensation of cold, e.g., whether you have slept enough, what time of day you go swimming, etc. As with winter swimming in general, it is important to pay close attention to your body signals. If your body is telling you "no", then of course do without, but from a pure medical point of view it is no contraindication.

How can I prepare for winter swimming?
Take a cold shower. In addition to swimming in the lake, we recommend that you take cold showers every day. If cold showers are new to you, start with a warm shower and then slowly switch to cold. Instead of showering off your whole body cold, you can start gradually (this is how my grandfather used to do it every morning): right leg, left leg, right arm, left arm and finally the whole body. Initially you might stay in the cold shower for 30 sec. Try to increase to 1 - 5 minutes. Important: Again, exhale long while standing under the cold shower.

Precautions
Regardless of whether the water is hot or cold, as a general rule you should not swim alone. And if you do, we recommend that you take a floatin aid with you, such as an inflatable Dry Bag or Restube.

Will I lose weight with winter swimming?
To produce heat, the body needs a lot of energy – i.e. burns many calories. However, cold swimming can also create quite a big appetite, so if weight loss is your goal, you have to be careful not to overcompensate the calorie burn by eating twice as much afterwards.

Do you practice the Wim Hof method?
While some of our winter swimming hosts have been trained in the Wim Hof method, we don’t follow a specific “style” of winter swimming or cold training. We encourage a diversity of methods and approaches to befriending the cold.

Winter swimming has been practiced for centuries in various countries and cultures. Even Goethe is said to have chopped up the ice of the Ilm to bathe in it. In addition to the well-known Wim Hof method, the gentler Kneipp method is still very popular, and cold showers are also recommended in Kundalini Yoga, for example.

What requirements do you have for your swimming coaches?
Our swim hosts do not receive any special training from us. Some of them have however on an optional basis done life guarding or cold training courses. The minimum requirement of a swim host is that they must have done at least one full season of winter swimming before becoming a host themselves. We are currently setting up training workshops for our swim coaches, especially in the area of safety and drowning prevention. The majority of our trainers have already completed a first workshop on this topic.

Important: All participants swim at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety at all times. The swim coaches are there to provide a friendly and welcoming environment. For this reason, we ask new swimmers to sign a liability waiver form before their first participation.

Water temperature Lake Lucerne
On the following website you can see the weather temperature of Lake Lucerne for the next days.