Jordan Ferrone Set a Goal: 100 Ice Baths Over 100 Days. A Year Later, He’s Still Going.

InsideHook’s Lauren Vinopal had a conversation with the cold plunge king, who started the ritual to improve his mental health.

Jordan Ferrone has battled depression since he was a teenager. He’s seen therapists and doctors, and been prescribed medication, but admittedly hasn’t really followed through. Part of the problem was that all of these interventions felt too passive for Ferrone, who grew up playing sports.

“I’m very competitive and stubborn in a sense — just not wanting to listen to other people,” Ferrone told me. “That’s gotten me in quite a bit of trouble in the past.”

When his daughter was born in 2016, he took a more active role in his mental health. He stumbled upon Wim Hof, a prominent proponent of ice baths. Busy raising an infant, Ferrone tried cold showers here and there, which helped. Unfortunately, like many people in the world, he started to struggle again during the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s when he knew he needed a hard reset. So he started doing ice baths.

Falling under the official banner of cryotherapy, ice baths typically take place in water that is 2 to 16 degrees Celsius (35 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit), and last for one to three minutes, though some take them for 15 minutes at a time. They  have been found to ease symptoms of anxiety and depression in multiple studies, by releasing endorphins and potentially increasing heart rate variability, which is linked with greater resilience to stress.

Photo Cred: insidehook.com

In December of 2022, Ferrone realized he had everything he needed to feel better in his Winnipeg backyard: “Mother Nature gives you all the cold you can handle.”

Over a year later, Ferrone continues to take daily ice baths outside in the freezing Canadian cold, documenting them on social media for upwards of 920,000 followers on Instagram and over two million on TikTok. But Ferrone never intended to go viral. Posting about his cold plunges was mainly a device to keep himself accountable. 

“In my first video I say I’m going to do an ice bath every day until the Detroit Lions win the Super Bowl,” Ferrone, who often wears a hat celebrating his team, said. “If you’re a Lions fan, you know that day will probably never come.”

In other words, Ferrone doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon. And while he’s cautious about preaching ice baths as a cure-all for complex mental health issues, committing to something challenging for over 365 days in a row has improved his life in a number of ways.