Outdoor water temperatures from Autumn to late Spring are fairly cold in the UK. Some of you may be considering trying cold water immersion, some of you may have been swimming or dipping throughout the winter, and some of you may be planning on venturing back into the open water soon, but do you actually know what happens to your body when you enter cold water? Having this awareness, especially for new open water swimmers/cold water dippers, should make it a safer and more re

If you are starting your journey into open water swimming, there are several challenges to overcome that you do not experience when swimming in a heated indoor pool. Once you learn how to deal with this outdoor environment, most people prefer it to lap swimming in a chlorinated pool. Some of these challenges include acclimatising to colder water, perhaps swimming in a wetsuit, swimming in choppy water when it is windy, swimming directly into the sun in certain directions, not

Open water swimming is amazing and gives you a real sense of freedom, being in nature and not having to stop and turn every 25m. There is a lot of research telling us how exercising outdoors is good for our mental and physical wellbeing, and you get a different view of your surroundings from the water. Adapting to Open Water Swimming However, swimming outside is quite a different experience to swimming in a pool as there are many additional factors to get used to. For instanc

I wrote this article for the Outdoor Swimmer magazine in December 2024. Open water swim coach Marianne Johnson has recently launched a weekly open water swimming group for peri- and post-menopausal women. We caught up with Marianne to learn more about the effects of cold water, breathing techniques and contrast therapy on menopause symptoms.  Words: Marianne Johnson How did The Flushed Dippers come about? In 2023 I trained as a Menopause Wellbeing Practitioner. I’m also an  

We are designed as humans to breathe in and out of our nose most of the time during wakefulness and sleep. The nose performs many critical health functions, whereas the mouth serves no purpose in our daily breathing, except to act as a backup if the nose is congested, or during high intensity exercise (i.e. sprinting, jogging up a hill, etc.). With training, we can learn to breathe in and out through the nose during the day, whilst asleep and during sports up to a moderate in

Our breathing affects every physiological system in our body and is inextricably linked to our mental state. Therefore, our daily breathing patterns will have an impact on our body and mind during the peri to post menopause years, but most women are unaware of this. In fact, most people are unaware of how they breathe on a daily basis as it is an automatic function that we do without thinking. We take about 25,000 breaths each day and a large percentage of the population prob

This teaches you the correct tongue posture and why this is important for your health and craniofacial development.

In December 2022, I wrote an article for the Outdoor Swimmer magazine on the benefits of nose breathing for winter swimmers doing heads-up breaststroke: The mental and physical health benefits of cold water swimming are well known, but did you know we can also boost our health simply through the way we breathe? Many of us switch to heads-up breaststroke in the winter. This enables us to breathe in and out through our nose which is the optimal way for our health and during phy

In August 2021, I wrote an article for the Outdoor Swimmer magazine, explaining why swimmers should check how well they are breathing on land: Breathing efficiently is a key skill and common focus in swimming training, but is generally overlooked in our land-based lives. As swimmers, you may question why we need to look at our functional (daily) breathing on land, as it is an automatic, involuntary process like the heart beating, blood pressure regulation, and digestion. Howe