Lizzo is the latest celebrity to try a cold plunge

Lizzo is the latest celebrity to try a cold plunge

Just days before accepting her Emmy Award for Outstanding Competition Program for the Amazon series Lizzo's Watch Out fo the Big Grrrls, the singer shared a video of her cold plunge on TikTok.

In the clip, the "About Damn Time" singer submerges her body in a tub of water while wearing a matching white workout set. It was clearly a challenge based on the faces and sounds she makes while getting into the water. She stays in the small pool for three minutes and notices that the water is so cold that she feels numb. However, the cold is worth it to the star - who is now halfway to EGOT status - because it helps with her inflammation, according to text above the video. “My body feels better,” she adds.

Lizzo made the viral TikTok treadmill workout set to her own music

A cold plunge also helps her anxiety, she says in a subsequent TikTok that she posted after followers gave her a hard time about taking an ice bath without ice. In case you were skeptical about how cold Lizzo's plunge really was because the tub had no ice, she doesn't have time for stupid questions like that.

ICYMI, ice baths (aka cold plunges) have been having a moment lately. Countless celebrities have shared their love for this unique wellness activity. Lady Gaga, Madonna and Alyssa Milano have all tried them. Recently, Zac Efron revealed that an ice bath is one of his favorite activities of the day, and Kendall Jenner shared a clip of her taking a plunge in a recent Instagram post about self-love.

Cold diving may be all the rage right now, but the practice is ancient and, as Lizzo notes in her recent video, it offers many physical and mental benefits. Immersion in cold water really has an anti-inflammatory effect on muscles and joints, Joseph Ciotola, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, told Shape. Research shows that cold water lowers skin, core and muscle temperatures and causes vasoconstriction (narrowing of blood vessels). This can reduce inflammation caused by muscle damage.

There isn't a lot of scientific evidence to support this, but "there is some preliminary data to support [cold plunge's] mental health benefits," Thea Gallagher, Psy.D., clinical assistant professor at NYU Langone Health and co-host of the Mind in View podcast, previously told Shape. A 2021 study, for example, found people who swam in the sea during the winter felt less stressed than those who didn't, and further research found that taking an ice bath can release cortisol (a stress hormone), which may explain the practice's energizing effects. "Anecdotally, it's rejuvenating," Gallagher said, adding that people can "feel really good afterward."

Here you have it. As Lizzo and other celebrities have claimed, cold plunges can really benefit your body and mind, whether ice is involved or not.