Dubai residents take the plunge with ice bath therapy – in pictures

While it seems a great way to keep cool in the summer, the main purpose of these icy dips is to complement breathing techniques

Benoit Demeulemeester, founder of CooloutBreathIn takes workshop participants through breathing exercises in Al Manara, Dubai, before they attempt ice bath therapy. All photographs Antonie Robertson / The National

At temperatures climb into the 40s, Benoit Demeulemeester fills tubs with 20-kilogram bags of ice, as workshop members watch on with trepidation.

Submerged up to his shoulders, Benoit Demeulemeester demonstrates the breathing exercises that accompany a plunge into the icy water.

A workshop participant settles in his icy bath – with plenty of ice at hand to replenish supplies. Employing techniques popularised by 'The Ice Man' Wim Hof, Benoit Demeulemeester says an icy dip combined with breathing exercises 'keeps one's body in optimal condition'.

Once participants are accustomed to being up to their shoulders in ice, they can progress to fully immersing themselves in the freezing water.

A thermometer shows that while the temperature may be rising past 40°C outside, in the tub it remains stubbornly below zero.

Benoit Demeulemeester dunks a bucket of ice over a regular participant at the end of his four-and-a-half minute second session in the ice bath.

Benoit Demeulemeester times a workshop member during his ice bath. The therapy is based on traditional breathing exercises practised by Tibetan Buddhist monks. Demeulemeester admits the icy element is 'the more crazy aspect of the system'.

Having completed his first plunge – and having managed to stay in the tub for three and a half minutes – a workshop participant re-emerges into the hot Dubai morning air.

Under the guidance of Benoit Demeulemeester, workshop participants take the plunge for a second time. Becoming accustomed to the shock of the cold and focusing on breathing techniques, some can spend five minutes in their icy oasis.

On a hot Saturday morning, with the temperature rising into the 40s, a delivery van pulls up at a villa in Dubai's Al Manara neighbourhood.

The doors of the refrigerated truck swing open and a two-man team heave 20-kilogram bags of ice over their shoulders.

This is destined for two large tubs that will be used as ice baths for a novel workshop that is not designed to keep participants cool, but to help them with their breathing.

"A lot of people think that the ice baths are the main thing, but the main point is actually the breathing," said Benoit Demeulemeester, founder of CooloutBreathIn and the host of the weekly breathwork workshop.

This method of breathing was made famous by Dutchman Wim Hof – known as The Ice Man for his feats of endurance against the cold.

"Wim Hof took that method from Tibet," Demeulemeester said. "It's an old technique of breathing to empower yourself.

"He changed it a little bit and he found out what it did to him and what it did to other people.

"Today, the Wim Hof method is mainly breathing and ice baths," Demeulemeester said.

"The breathing is the more important, while the ice baths are the more crazy aspect of the system."

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