Stress has become the background noise of modern life. We carry it in our shoulders, our sleep patterns, our racing thoughts. Most of us accept it as inevitable—something to be managed, medicated, or simply endured. But what if the answer isn't another app, another pill, or another productivity hack? What if it's as simple as three minutes in cold water?
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thank you for joining me today for another episode of the healthy AF podcast with me is Wyatt Ying Wyatt thanks for joining me today thank you so much for having me excited to be here Wyatt is the founder of ice barel you've probably seen uh him on Instagram seen seen his product on Instagram which is an incredible and I think very portable very uh compact way to get an an ice your ice Plunge in your your ice therapy and cold plune therapy in and uh happy to have Wyatt join us to kind of share what led him to that and and what's going on with uh C plunge and Ice Sparrow specifically in the future so Wyatt um we uh I was happy to hear your story he about here get a little more about you at the uh all Health Summit in Nashville just a few weeks ago and I
Nashville just a few weeks ago and I wanted to make sure I had you on cuz um your story is really compelling and what motivates you to get to move into uh coal plunge before we get into that let's just let's talk about why coal plunge uh is important why why do people because we everybody's hearing about it they're seeing people talk about seeing people post about coold plunge but they may not realize the the real benefits the physical benefits that they can have and how that would what that would mean to their you know their life their everyday life yeah uh great question cold therapy is super fascinating and there's so much science and research uh coming out now uh proving and showing things that we've known for so long uh so it's really cool to see society as a whole start adapting this I remember back in the early days when I started using cold therapy for myself it was uh it wasn't widely practiced nobody really knew about the
practiced nobody really knew about the benefits and then there was a couple of us like crazy people you know just cold plunging every day um but it's exciting I mean research is showing us that it boosts your mood and energy levels uh like nothing else it's a great way to just reset the nervous system exercise the nervous system um a lot of us think about like working out and exercising our minds and our bodies but to work out our nervous system has tremendous benefits um I mean the short-term benefits of cold therapy is a reduction of inflammation pain uh consistent and regular ice baths help improve uh mood energy levels and can also improve symptoms of anxiety and depression over time uh long-term use of cold therapy is now showing uh that it can support um and start aiding and helping certain cognitive decline and uh degenerative diseases so there's just a myriad of benefits to cold therapy and it's really cool to see uh how widely adopted it's
cool to see uh how widely adopted it's becoming one thing that I love about cold therapy is how quantifiable it is right it's not like something that a pill that you take or a supplement you're wondering is this working like you take an ice bath it's Sensational you feel it it completely changes your state of being and your mind right it's just a very quantifiable practice um to help you in your journey of living a more meaningful life absolutely yeah you do notice it right away I mean it's like if you needed if you thought you needed a cup of coffee to wake you up in the morning and you start with a cal plunge I mean talking about waking up your nervous system your autonomic nervous systems like okay we're going now you know 100% And can really replace that need I think for the people have for for some sort of like uh you know it doesn't have to but it can replace that need for some sort of uh like nutritional stimulant of you know where you have a very natural effect on your nervous system like you said let's talk about the the mood
said let's talk about the the mood benefits because that's something a lot of people don't think realize the uh the impact of yeah I mean I think about it which we've heard this like quote before that there's like two things that you can control your attitude and your effort and the first one is your attitude and that kind of comes back to your mood I remember early on when I started ice before I started ice Barrel I really struggled with my mood and my attitude and and a lot of that was like rooted in anxiety and some of depression and the ability to reset my mood get present in the moment uh get all those great beta endorphins that are firing in the brain um like was a tremendous help in overcoming my struggles with anxiety uh so it's just so important like when your attitude is right in any situation even the challenging situations can become um maybe not enjoyable to solve but when your attitude and your perspective is right they become more simple and um ice barel
they become more simple and um ice barel has been just instrumental for me to improve my attitude my mood towards myself towards my family my kids show up more present and patient as a father I mean attitude is everything at the end of the day for sure and as you mentioned there's cognitive Improvement I mean I think that stimulates the the um the nervous system your nervous system OB connects at at the brain right so you're see you're say you're seeing research that shows Improvement in like long-term cognitive Improvement for with as has to do with age yeah absolutely um I I mean a lot of the research is still fairly new there was this fascinating study where they were using cold therapy on flies out in Europe and they were expanding the fly's lifespans by like 50% and I'm not saying that happens with humans but what I am saying is there's like a lot of positive research around how cold therapy is positively affecting cognitive decline over time and aiding
cognitive decline over time and aiding in uh dementia and things like that sure absolutely it makes sense I mean you're stimulating the nervous system again uh the brain being would me at the center of that so as well as the the impact on on mood it would stimate your memory as well yeah absolutely I would also say like your vagus nerve right the root of it is right in the base of your neck and this there's few ways to stimulate the Vegas nerve cold therapy being an extremely effective way uh to directly stimulate the vus nerve uh which controls all of the autonomic response in the body right it touches every organ for sure R from the brain to the gut exactly so you're you're really effectively stimulating every organ if you think of it that way yeah um yeah includ and the gut being which people just don't think about uh as being part of their their nervous their connected to their nervous system but it it really is when endorphins are created many endorphins are created in the gut and then take to the brain for that that
and then take to the brain for that that mood you're talking about through the Vegas nerve um yeah with one big connected electrical device yeah and so you're stimulating with a CO therapy obviously stimulating that um that circuitry uh and then of course we've all heard you know about Brown fat so maybe you could speak to how that works for resilience maybe body heat what have you I mean you live in a cold State up there in Ohio right yeah it definitely it gets really cold in the winter and then really hot in the summer uh it's interesting I mean cold therapy helps the production of brown fat in the body that's the the good fat that keeps us warm gives us energy uh and yeah it's great it starts working in converting the white fat to the brown fat and producing more Brown fat in the body and it's interesting because there's certain places on the body where we store more Brown fat and so making sure we can submerge right down to our neck so we can get our back and our slats and
can get our back and our slats and things like that and then at the same time it's also boosting the metabolism a lot of people we hear all the time from our customers they take an ice bath and they they come out and they're hungry right because it starts activating the uh the metabolism as well so it's a great way um is just to add in if anyone's on a weight loss Journey it's a just a great tool I'm not saying it's the Cure but it's a great tool to add into um your tool belt for sure yeah it's not something you have to you would say you you know with workouts you want to space out so you recover from them or whatever is you're doing like that's not something that that requires or would affect you know negatively impact that recovery to actually speed up the recovery between workhouse because it reduces inflammation right so you see some yeah are you hearing back from people regarding joint pain joint issues or just general kind of achiness as well yeah yeah absolutely I mean so with when you go into an ice bath your body starts doing basso constriction which is right
doing basso constriction which is right it's it's starting to pump blood through the body so it helps with improving circulation whenever we add more blood that's more oxygen into the body right that immediately starts reducing inflammation and relieving pain so it's a great way whether it's joint pain or muscle pain it's a great way to soothe those pain and to get blood flow going we hear a lot of people I believe they're called rain Nots where they get them in their hands and their feet and they just their hands and feet are just cold all the time it's so interesting as soon as they start practicing cold therapy uh they start producing more circulation in their feet and in their hands and then the circulation improves there and they start recovering from uh their cold and hands um just routinely I it's it's great too because you don't have to start at like 39 degrees you can start at like 60 degrees which is tolerable for most people it doesn't have to be a miserable experience especially if you're just getting started uh just you don't even have to
started uh just you don't even have to add ice just fill it up with the garden hose get your barrel full jump in get cold and then uh as you build up a tolerance to it start creeping down the degrees adding a bag of ice then maybe two bags of ice um and you can just get kind of get comfortable with the practice gotcha gotcha yeah that's great and there just thinking about the cold Brown fat guys so the the brown fat me generally means has more mitochondria in it I believe is what makes it come brown one of the things that makes it brown so that would when I stimulate heat right in the winter when you're if some people just tend to be cold to the winter would allow you to be more resilient to the cold because that's that that bat's more metabolically active right and it's more 100% uh kids have way more Brown fat than adults do oh yeah it's super fascinating and you see like kids always run outside without a coat it's not because they're not thinking of it their tolerance to cold is actually a lot higher than ours is
is actually a lot higher than ours is correct oh yeah and then if you go into maybe an older person like if you go into your parents home or you go into an older Elderly Care place and they've got the heat cranked up in the summer or they've just at least got it you know in the spring and they still have the Heat going you're like why is it so warm in here is their resilience to the cold their their Brown fat gets lost over time especially since most of us live in a very temperature controlled environment most of the time to create that exposure that kind of stimulus that we have insulated ourselves from you know out of survival and comfort but to expose yourself to that and to get that benefit I think um you know vital for optimal heal uh no so let's explain to people how your ice Barrel works there's several you know I guess products on the market around coal plunging so and coal therapy so if you could just explain your barrel uh and and kind of the the benefits of that yeah um I mean it's super simple the idea was
um I mean it's super simple the idea was let's create a product that's accessible and effective for everybody so what we started off doing was we created the ice Barrel which is sounds just like what it is it's a barrel shape made from llddp which is a very highgrade non-toxic BPA free uh plastic it's the same type of plastic they actually use and when they clamp a baby's umbilical cord right they use lldpe so we use one that is 100% recycled for our black barrels which is super cool so we're not just going out and creating a bunch of waste we're actually like pulling waste and creating a new product and then when you're done with that you can fully recycle it it's super simple you fill it up with water and then you add ice and then you just jump in for anywhere between two to six minutes and take an ice bath it's really simple the thing that I love most about the ice barel is it was intentionally designed to keep the body in the upright position it's
it's it's counterintuitive to put the body in a fight ORF flight response and then to lie on your back it's not comfortable and it's like the opposite of what nature requires of us when we go into the fight ORF flight response so I created the product to keep the spine straight to keep you engaged so you can meditate focused uh and stay in the most comfortable position while you're in an uncomfortable environment so keeping the body upright is super important H I had thought of that yeah you're just stimulating the sympathetic nervous system that by a flight response so you're you would would make sense you would be kind of upright ready to move or see what's coming at you or you would be vertical right 100% like think reclining like you're G to take a nap yeah right laying on your back is the most vulnerable position in nature you don't the only time you lay in cold and in water on your back is when you're taking a hot Epson Sal bath you know what I mean like you don't do it in cold water you don't do it when you're in the fight or flight response so uh um yeah it ice taking an ice bath
so uh um yeah it ice taking an ice bath using the ice Barrel is super simple uh we have a whole maintenance kit you can keep the water clean from anywhere between four to eight weeks depending on use and uh we have a really great drainage system on the bottom of it you just connect a standard garden hose and then you can go water your grass your flower bed recycle the water whatever you want to do you if if you're using an apartment complex you can drain it right into your bathtub or your sink right you don't have to flood your neighbor below you so there's a lot of thoughtfulness in the design of the product and the use case in different environments both urban and rural wow okay and you said you have a way to sort of clean the water that's being stored in there for up to 48 weeks yeah correct yeah we have a just an incredible non-toxic uh silver copper uh water stabilizer uh that you can add to the water to preserve the life of it wow great so no need for a filter basically you're saying you don't yeah so this I get into this quite a bit people ask there's a difference between
people ask there's a difference between sanitizing water and filtering water you can filter dirty water all day long right um but you have to tackle the sanitation piece how can I keep this water clean so today we focused on sanitation how can we keep the water clean um so you don't have to drain it every couple of days or weeks so our water stabilizer has done that it keeps the water clear uh and sanitize right keeps it clean uh when it comes to filtering uh we're just a couple months out from launching our state-of - the-art Chiller filtration system that's actually affordable wow yeah so we're super excited about that and that that will also have a filter inside of it as well so using the products together the water stabilizer with the filter uh it'll create I mean it'll L even lengthen the life of the the water in the barrel so I was going to ask about you know what what's what's next down the line for ice bro but you just filled it so yeah yeah I I mean people have been
yeah yeah I I mean people have been asking for the chiller for a long time and it was something that I was very thoughtful with I've been building it for the last two years um I didn't want to do like in my opinion like I think it's silly you see these companies taking aquarium or hydroponic water chillers out of China and then they're putting a different shell on them and calling them um cold therapy water chiller and they're not like at the end of the day there's so much wrong with that idea I wanted to create something from the ground up that was sustainable uh that would actually work be tested and certified for cold therapy and that's what we did and I'm extremely proud of it as well and since we didn't just like you know white label it from China uh we were able to control the supply chain and the cost and we can bring a product to Market that's affordable that we've used utilized a US Workforce to build uh and design and at an affordable cost to the consumer from the very beginning even the mission here at ice barel our mission statement is
at ice barel our mission statement is our mission is to create accessible and effective cold Therapy Solutions to help you get colder and feel better that word accessible isn't just easy to get into or easy to move around it's easy on the budget right you look at a lot of these other cold plunging options in there thousands and thousands of tens over some of them are over $ 10, 000 it's like that's not accessible like our our vision for the company is to share the power of cold with everybody everywhere so we need to create products that are accessible to these different marketplaces so that's how we think about all product Innovation we have a handful of other products that are coming out as well throughout the year just to continue that which we're really excited about we just launched our ice block molds uh if you're on social media or on our website you probably have seen it those are so cool those are uh silicone steel reinforce ice block molds that you put in your freezer and it'll make a 7 PB block of ice wow it lasts so much longer
block of ice wow it lasts so much longer than the traditional Cube dice so we've done a lot of tests and we're so proud of the this product like if you like the traditional ice bath and you like adding ice to it and you don't want like a water chiller that just circulates cold water but you want the ice in the ice bath it is a great product to keep the ice um lasting in the barrel much longer than just traditional crushed ice oh wow that's great well so you know with this Chiller you said you're a couple months out from launch yeah we're going to pre-launch uh I'm getting I'm I'm spilling all the information we're going to pre-launch towards the end of the year okay yeah it'll be like a we're g we're I guess it'll be a launch I say pre-launch it'll be like a pre-sale launch at the end of the year cool yeah cool very good that's amazing so how how so you got a little kind of an add-on to your existing design your existing Barrel yeah so you'll be able to yeah you'll be a able to retrofit the chiller onto essentially anything you could you
onto essentially anything you could do it in your bathtub even if you want to just get started in cold therapy uh it will retrofit right onto the existing ice barrel uh it'll be on every every barrel that gets manufactured will have all the fittings already ready to go just for quick hookups okay so it's an add-on so if someone had an ice bro already they could just yep you just get the chiller you're good to go tack it right on there okay okay how how cold will it maintain just with a chiller let's say if you didn't add ice and you put the chiller on what are we talking yeah I mean you depending on the like depending on the climate and where you're at and right uh I mean it'll take it down to 39 degrees oh awesome and fast and it will do it fast too right yeah and so with that and that with the filtration of course you still treat the water with the silver or copper but you have a filtration additionally so you're talking about extending the life of that water as well I would assume oh 100% yeah absolutely absolutely that's fantastic very
absolutely that's fantastic very exciting and so I mean just thinking about I mean your price point would still be lower than the next I would think the next oh yeah yeah absolutely yeah especially for your people who already have one uh they're just thinking about to add-on that's amazing that's great yeah I mean I'm a huge advocate for I mean our products are manufactured in the US um that's awesome and our our design on the chiller we did it all here in the US and I mean it's just like when you can control the supply chain and you're not at the mercy of manufactur things just mercy of yeah exactly yeah you can just do you can do much greater work and for a longer and more sustainable time love that so I know you're in Ohio as you're lot of manufacturing up there as well it is yeah like 90% of it yeah gotcha that's awesome right in the Heartland right right there that's right yeah Midwest coming out of Ohio yeah
yeah Midwest coming out of Ohio yeah exactly exactly I mean Rogue uh is up there I mean they this great uh production of American production coming out of Ohio that's awesome what a great culture and it's great that you're doing that with for the us because I mean that's really what we're what we need to come back to like said that's real sustainability not shipping things across the world yeah absolutely yeah manufacturer in country 100% yeah that's that's true sustainability because any cost is going back into your own country correct I it's just just all the way around it's better uh wow that's fantastic Wyatt um well definitely well I think everybody would be looking forward to that as well that Innovation man I I really appreciate you sharing that with us I know it's probably like a sneak thing you're not really letting out because I hav't heard much about that at all but I really want to get into your story uh what led you to icebo because I
story uh what led you to icebo because I know this is not something You' been this is a fairly you know thing new thing for most people over the last four or five years uh at most uh but what led you to this and when when did you make that transition okay so it was I I made the transition at the end of 2017 but there was a lot that happened before that like I mentioned earlier in the podcast I struggled horribly with anxiety and depression um I had a very survivalism this corporate ladder I was selling corporate Jets I was helping uh people just buy and sell their Jets and it was a very niche market and uh very it wasn't it's not a super common industry although it's large uh but like the corporate jet brokerage world is extremely competitive very cut throw you have a great deal one day and then it falls apart by the next day and then it it's just like it's just the
then it it's just like it's just the wild west uh for sure and it's not regulated by the way which is wild like if you think about it these airplanes are crossing different countries and borders like who regulates those transactions it's the the lawyers and the buyers and sellers like those are the people that put the deals together so you're dealing with like just a very different clientele and whoever has the loudest bark and the most money wins um and it was just like it did not help my that industry did not help my anx anxiety although like there were parts of it that I was really good at uh just because I I grew up always having to like really grind and like hustle and um so like sales and then getting into luxury sales like before that I was selling art and sculptures uh which is also another story um but I I was just good at the sales piece and building
good at the sales piece and building those relationships um but it was just like it was just too much um I also got into some real estate at the time so I was just like climbing the ladder as fast as I could um and I I hit this like burnout point in my early 20s where the anxiety was peaked I was at the end of my rope and it sounds kind of dramatic but it also was dramatic like it was very hard on my wife and I um and we had uh a new baby at the time and I just I was not showing up how I wanted to as a man for myself for my wife and I got to this I I just got to this point where I I needed something else and right around that time I walked into the gym I was extremely sick I had gotten back from Mexico um and I was really sick from that trip and I thought if I could just get my blood moving like I I'll feel better and I walked into this gym and this guy told me how awful I looked and like you could see it on my face like I
like you could see it on my face like I I looked awful I looked like I had anxiety someone who knew you I'm assume no they did not know me oh no so it wasn't like they were comparing it to what you they usually see you as it just you just walked in and you looked so bad that some stranger told you you look yeah like I look sick you know it's like I I look sick and this guy was like like caring enough to be like dude you don't look well you need to go do an a cold shower and a breathing exercise because I would say like I didn't look like I looked like I had anxiety I looked nervous and I look you know that anxious like energy I was just like admitting that in life um so I was reluctant and I was a little offended but I went home and I took the cold shower and I felt so good after that cold shower I felt so present in the moment I wasn't ruminating about the past or the future I wasn't I was just in the present moment and it I I always
in the present moment and it I I always liken it to that you know when you get a head cold and you're like sick for five to seven days and then you start feeling better and you're like oh I forgot what it felt like to feel good like it feels good to feel good it was that moment I was like oh my word the present moment feels right and feels good and so I just kept coming back to the cold showers and over time um my wife was the first to call it out she's like you're so much more patient in life um and I was like I feel more patient and like my like I said earlier my attitude just started improving tremendously now it wasn't like my anxiety just dissipated like it was still a journey but it gave me a tool that was quantifiable and over time like I don't say for years now I haven't struggled with anxiety uh now maybe there's moments where I might feel anxious about something right but like the the lifestyle of living in anxiety and and even depression like
anxiety and and even depression like that has been years and years it feels like another lifetime ago and the number one thing I attribute it to is just consistency in the cold it gave me a mental and emotional resiliency it helped me improve my mood and my attitude so I kind of jump like so I'm jumping around here but I I just had this life-changing effect from cold therapy and I realized the trajectory that I was on and the life that I was creating wasn't the kind of sustainability and emotional wellness and support that I needed in life so I told my wife that like I'm gonna go share the power of cold and create this company I threw in the towel on Aviation I walked away from some deals I was working on like it was a big moment of cutting the parachute CT and just jumping and then building the airplane as as I was flying it you know like it was that it was very much that and that would now at the time we were living in just outside of Denver
living in just outside of Denver Colorado uh and where I was born and raised in Colorado love love the mountains but in order to sustainably build the business both personally and um and then also for the company itself like we had to get to a place where manufacturing was a lot stronger and affordable and there's very little manufacturing happening uh at scale in Colorado so it was just important to get out here to Ohio so I picked up my family and we moved across the country my wife was eight months pregnant so like we invested everything into ice Barrel like yeah I went I basically at the time I went broke doing it I took all of our life savings dumped it into the company and uh it was extremely scary uh plus all the personal and emotional investment as well like like just Pro tip here I do not recommend moving your wife across country at eight
moving your wife across country at eight months pregnant I think not a great idea no there there was a lot of investment in this um yeah but we we made it through and uh I'm just extremely like blessed and humbled by how the company has grown and how fast it's grown we we have roughly like 20 full-time employees uh plus a ton of uh contractors and we calculated by the time an ice barel gets made to the time it gets delivered to the customer there's like 75 people overall from accounting and everything that like that flows through and we're manufacturing about 500 ice barrels a week like it's just it's incredible wow yeah that's a pretty good clip there for a that's for a project that you pulled the rip corn on and jumped I mean that's amazing yeah was 2000 when did you actually uh do that make that leap yeah so into 2007 was like getting the company set up and
was like getting the company set up and getting things organized 2018 was our product Innovation year once we had a viable product 2019 really started cranking on sales moved to Ohio 2020 hit it was actually good for the business and we just grew exponentially 2021 we 10x the business which was wild 2022 we 5x the business and then I mean all of what we did in 2022 we've already done and more just this year alone so I mean it has just been like exponential growth I keep telling everybody a month feels like a quarter and a quarter feels like a year like it's just crazy that's amazing yeah yeah would imagine with everybody staying home and people were either people were thinking about their health or they were thinking about I mean I saw two types of people there were people thinking about their health and doing more and fixing up their homes and spending more time on their health or there were people who just were ordering more door Dash and eating more pizza and ice cream and not going anywhere so and it sounds like the people who were were
it sounds like the people who were were focused on their health and and realizing okay working from home I'm going to be more you know doing more here let's make this much more of a enjoyable environment they they found your product and that was a real benefit for your your company I mean that's fantastic I mean great timing for you yeah I mean it's I think a lot of people also started taking their health really seriously exactly and they wanted to figure out um what what's the term uh like a proactive approach to their health like instead of how do I get better yeah exactly like how do I avoid getting sick you know how can I boost my immune system so yeah it was tremendous yeah there's I mean there's the the cold we didn't even mention this with the cold shock there's cold shock proteins right that get released into your system that that really create that resilience and immune boost I mean uh if if anyone saw that that Disney production with Chris himsworth
Disney production with Chris himsworth when he did uh it it was called Limitless and he's out there in the cold they kind of got into the benefits of the he's surfing in like Iceland or something or Greenland and he's out in the cold but they got into the benefits of that and all the longevity benefits it's it's really uh again something that were this not part of most people's routine and yes EAS added it's easily put into your routine and the benefits are exponential but you're not going to you can't replace it like you cannot replace there's no substitute for cold therapy in other areas over life it's not exercise is going to replace coold therapy heat isn't the opposite it's good to combine with it but doesn't replace what coold therapy does and so yeah that's it's that's fantastic I think your timing that's was is pretty amazing I'm I'm
that's was is pretty amazing I'm I'm very happy for you that you had those kind of that kind of growth because I I would imagine like you said at first moving pregnant white taking the risk with life savings moving to a new state doing something you'd never done before trying to produce a product I mean you talking about stress man it wasn't easy um and also like the other part which I think I I just laugh at it now but we had crazy resistance from some of the larger voices that were already kind of dabbling in cold therapy at the time so a lot of people that I kind of like looked up to that maybe had like fed cold therapy they didn't like the idea of anybody creating any products in this space and again at the time that I started there was only a company out of Australia that was doing some like B2B sales around ice baths everybody else was just using the standard horse trough so so it was like oh really so basically just people dumping ice in a horse Tross which I've
dumping ice in a horse Tross which I've done it doesn't it's not great in the summer in Tennessee I can tell you that yeah you got about 10 minutes yeah there you go yeah that's uh okay so and they were critical of a product made that easier yeah hyper critical actually and so it was hard to overcome like there was just in the beginning there was very very little support but and that's not uncommon I think when you're innovating a new space but then as the company and the brand started growing those so same people then became some of our biggest cheerleaders uh and Advocates uh which was crazy to see coming around full circle but um I'm just I'm I am a big advocate for like resistance in life like it just makes us so much stronger and I kept thinking at the time like every time somebody would say something negative or there would be some kind of doubt creeping in it just fueled my Innovation how can I make the this product so that they fall in love with it like if I can win them I can win
it like if I can win them I can win anybody and so that like heavily drove me and pushed me in the Innovation and like I mean like there were just so many moments where it was just like a punch in the gut and having to like just you know pick ourselves back up and and keep going and keep telling my wife one day this is gonna work out like I promise those can be tough conversations I I know especially you're having kids and everything else they just already feel there's a vulnerability there but that's that's awesome you guys came out on the other side I mean that that had to be tough to have people you would hope would endorse you who are all about what you're trying to make it easier for more people but more accessible like you said and to have those people come out and be critical I I can't imagine that was kind of a slap just the opposite effect you were expecting exactly wow wow well you've definitely come out on the other side uh with like you said
the other side uh with like you said with production 10 Xing and then five times a year after that and that's that's amazing uh wow and that is some resilience to come up from the ground up was something that you'd never you gotone from a cold shower to creating a product yeah and a cold shower doesn't compare I doesn't even I mean I can't especially even in Tennessee you know I can't get for get about it in the summer the the tap Waters maybe maybe in the high in the low 60s right yeah and in the winter it might get down in the 50s at the coldest you can't get below 54 I think the recommended amount why isn't the recommended level is to be below 54 degrees for effect yeah so it it also I would yes directionally yes uh some climates though like an example would be C some people's physiology is different in hotter climates so they can actually get those same benefits at around 60 ° where other people um yeah they need to
where other people um yeah they need to drive the temperature down a little bit more but like people's like natural body temperatures are higher like in the South and in like Florida and so like 60 degrees in Florida probably feels like 50 degrees here in Ohio you know what I mean for sure so yeah but directionally yeah that's correct okay but you're saying the effect could be relative to what the person's used to yeah we just say under 60 ° get under 60 ° and that's a great starting point and as you build up a tolerance try to get it at under 50 ° gotcha under 50 is the goal yeah to get those long those all of the effects all the benefits yeah correct so you're really lucky you hear people say wait till you get that shiver so he's like you're trying to lower your Core Body temp yeah correct soon as you start shivering that's a great indicator that it's time to end the session um okay and that's a little bit different for everybody there are some people that have really good um mind over matter and they'll stay off shivering for probably longer than they
shivering for probably longer than they should so it's not about fighting it just kind of surrender to the water ice water discriminates against no man it's cold right let it be cold respect it and let the body do what it naturally wants to do and when that shiver takes place don't try and fight it just like that's the time to end the session what do you usually recommend as far as I know most people you know you want to start at like okay try to get 30 seconds then 2 minutes but what is the typical time frame of a goal to You' say for daily use would be ideal for most people yeah it's there's probably a lot of varying opinions in this an example would be even like Dr huberman says you need like 12 minutes in the cold a week to get benefits which is not very much right that's less than two minutes a day five days a week um so yeah I mean anywhere from two to three minutes uh I personally take my ice baths in the evening uh I've been doing a lot of contrast therapy so I'll
doing a lot of contrast therapy so I'll go into the sauna and then the ice bath and I'll do rounds of that um I mean for me a three to four minute ice bath after a sauna session is is like a solid Place uh but there were times uh especially early on where I would do like the 11 12 minute ice baths and um I actually documented my first 100 days of ice baths in a barrel and I started and it was when I started documenting it it was in the winter time and so like it was like breaking up the ice and yeah it's pretty wild wow so I knew you documented like your effect what you were feeling from it the the benefit I filmed it and uh yeah I videoed the whole thing um it was super interesting it's crazy to look back on too I'm sure yeah I'm sure there's some some good data in there uh that's that's fantastic so but so ideally said three to five minutes for most people to get the generally speaking get the most the benefit I hear
speaking get the most the benefit I hear a lot of people do it say they do it in the morning and it kind of helps them wake up and get going it's 100% I've done that as well I was definitely part of the 5 AM club for a long time I have three kids now so like any sleep I can get is great I get it yeah we have four for yeah you get it mine are older of one young one still who's not not as young as probably yours but I get it like that sleep become very precious oh yeah we're definitely at the stage where sleep is a valued commodity in our house MH so I'm no longer part of the 5: 00 a. m. club but uh the morning ice bath is a great way to start the day yeah yeah and if it's three to five minutes I mean come on that's like it takes a long to brew coffee so I think that's a good play uh fantastic W is there anything else that you want to share with us about your compy I know you told us what you got coming down the pipe but um you know your story's really uh
you know your story's really uh compelling because it's it's you've you've taken what was your as they say taken your mess and made your success you've taken a point of of stress and how you managed it and you've you've brought it you've you expanded upon it you made it more efficient and more accessible and then brought it to more people as a solution and I think that's I mean that's the ideal business story yeah it's it's pretty wild I I didn't see the uh like looking back I definitely can see that when I was in the thick of it right I didn't know which end was up um yeah I would just encourage everyone to go to the website uh sign up for email list we have if you can if you find the email list on the website you can sign up and then you can check a box to get access to early drops on some of these new products which is really exciting and we're like it's very true that only this specific list gets access to some of these new products so uh to start so
these new products so uh to start so jump on that list uh check out ice barrel. com if you want to see the community and how people have responded to ice Barrel go over to Instagram there's so many cool videos and pictures uh and you can just see everything we're up to uh we're gonna have a huge Presence at the CrossFit games this year that's just coming up in six weeks so come if you're going to be at the CrossFit Games come and visit icebo we would love to connect with you that's awesome that's great great place for it I A lot of people are going to watch that after BL through uh the cross games are going to be to fight over your barrels oh man well americanmade product uh built out of your your need to manage stress and and I can't I mean I can't imagine a better business success story but happy for you and your family on a personal level um and I think your your product is uh pretty pretty amazing and looking forward to uh that Innovation you got coming down the pike uh so again
you got coming down the pike uh so again ice check out ice barrel. com get on the mailing list could uh ice Barrow on Instagram and and see the stories because that really is that is compelling that and it's always great to have a community built around this kind of healthy activity right uh so I it's awesome well I appreciate your time today and um you're sharing your story with us uh I really um and again it was great to have you down maybe we we get another uh all Health Summit down here in in Nashville next year we love to have you back it' be great to have you down here again yeah it' be great thank you so much zanen for having me excited to be here awesome have a great
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Wyatt Ewing didn't set out to revolutionize cold therapy. He was drowning in a high-stress sales career, battling anxiety and depression, searching for something—anything—that would help him feel grounded again. What he found changed everything. Not just for him, but for the thousands of people who now step into an Ice Barrel each day.
Cold therapy operates on a principle that seems counterintuitive: controlled stress creates resilience. When you immerse yourself in cold water, your body initiates a cascade of physiological responses. Your sympathetic nervous system activates. Norepinephrine floods your bloodstream. Your heart rate spikes, then settles into a focused rhythm.
This isn't punishment. It's adaptation. Your body learns to regulate under pressure. What begins as acute stress becomes a training ground for emotional resilience. The anxiety you feel in the ice becomes a template for managing the anxiety you feel everywhere else.
"Cold therapy taught me that I could handle more than I thought. If I can control my breath in ice water, I can control my reaction to anything."
The mental clarity that follows a cold plunge isn't just subjective. Research shows that cold exposure increases levels of brown adipose tissue—metabolically active fat that generates heat and improves glucose metabolism. This isn't about aesthetics. It's about energy regulation, insulin sensitivity, and cellular health.
Joint inflammation decreases. Recovery accelerates. Sleep quality improves. These aren't separate benefits—they're interconnected responses to a single powerful stimulus. Your body, given the right challenge, remembers how to heal itself.
Wyatt's insight wasn't just physiological—it was practical. Cold plunges existed, but they were expensive, cumbersome, or inaccessible. Ice Barrel changed that. Compact enough for a balcony. Durable enough for daily use. Simple enough that you'd actually do it.
The design reflects the philosophy: wellness shouldn't require a mansion or a membership. It should fit into your life as it actually is—not as you wish it were. The barrel sits there, waiting. No excuses. No complexity. Just cold water and a decision.
"I wanted something that people would actually use. Not another piece of wellness equipment that collects dust in the garage." — Wyatt Ewing
The pandemic could have destroyed Ice Barrel. Instead, it amplified what people were already discovering: that resilience isn't built in comfort. While the world shut down, people were seeking tools to manage their mental health without leaving home. Ice Barrel became that tool.
Wyatt's journey—from stressed-out salesman to entrepreneur—mirrors the transformation his customers experience. Both required stepping into discomfort. Both required trusting that the body knows more than the mind gives it credit for. Both required showing up, even when every instinct says to stay warm.
"The cold doesn't care about your excuses. It teaches you to be present, to breathe, to trust yourself. That's what I needed. That's what we all need." — Wyatt Ewing
Start with cold showers. Before investing in equipment, build the habit. Thirty seconds at the end of your shower. Focus on your breath. Notice what happens when you lean into discomfort instead of avoiding it.
Use cold therapy as a transition ritual. Wyatt used ice baths to reset between work stress and family time. The plunge becomes a boundary—a physical marker between one state and another.
Track your subjective experience, not just metrics. How's your mood? Your sleep? Your capacity to handle difficulty? These matter more than heart rate variability scores.
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