Mark Hughes, the owner of One Life Live It, just set the Guinness world record for the biggest group ice bath in the world last Saturday, 20th January, by submerging an official whopping 509 people for three minutes in six-degree water, simultaneously reaching an equally record-breaking state of health and consciousness.
The humongous effort on Leighton Beach in Perth was arranged selflessly to raise the quality of the world’s rounded health. It was joined overseas on live stream from Sri Lanka, England, the USA and four other countries, all on the quest to maximise vitality. It was dubbed such a success for bringing worldwide attention to the benefits of ice bathing in mental and physical health that the 3rd Saturday of every January is now etched in the global calendar as International Ice Bath Day.
250 was the number of people required to set the bar for the biggest group ice bath.
With a final number of 509, they more than doubled their target as word got around about the ‘why’ behind the unheard-of event. No team member or sponsor behind this world record achievement wanted to miss the opportunity to be loud about the transformative benefits that ice baths/ cold water submerging has on both the body and the mind.
Mark shares,
“People who are struggling with anxiety and depression, but also people who are just stuck in life, see that the biggest single thing is the neurochemical reaction. The neurotransmitters that fire you up. Dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin are the biggest things that give you this feeling of intense well-being.
From tomorrow you can do something about it. If you try this, you will automatically; you don’t have a choice; you’ll get out and feel better.
Sex, alcohol and cocaine raise the body’s dopamine levels by about 2 times, around 200%. Then it goes down. In just a few minutes of being in an ice bath of around six or so degrees, not absolutely freezing, raises that dopamine level by 2.5 times a huge 250%. But it lasts for about four to five hours. So you get this lasting feeling of euphoria, which is great.”
Donations raised through the event are being donated to Beyond Blue, a charity close to the heart of thousands of Aussies who have faced the challenges brought by extreme stress, anxiety and depression. Numbers soon crept to over 600 excited and willing participants, to the point they had to turn people away or have them standing by on a last-minute waiting list in case anybody dropped out, as both ice and baths had already been scraped up in the area.
So far, they have raised $5,698. There is still time to donate to the cause here, where you can also congratulate the town directly.
“This isn’t a gimmick to get attention. This is to raise awareness about the health benefits gained with ice baths.”
The morning began at 8 am with a group yoga and breathwork session that placed just short of 1,000 attendees into a prepared and confident frame of mind for the day ahead.
“I looked around and everybody was laying or sitting down doing the breathwork.” Mark reminisces in awe. “When we got into the ice I was pretty taken aback by the energy and everything going on as the excitement… it was organised chaos. This amazing scene of everybody coming together, it was truly amazing.”
Hands, shoulders, knees, and toes were all securely submerged, immersed in an atmosphere brimming with euphoric energy as the clock ticked down to the final crucial seconds. Fueled by a collective determination to push personal boundaries, the smiles, confidence, hearts, and unity flourished amidst this journey, surpassing any comparable experience on record. The enduring glow of this transformative moment still envelops the area where a historic journey of self-discovery unfolded.
Freemantle town Mayor Hanna Fitzhardinge took her debut plunge in support of the touching community cause. It wowed the crowd, including herself, for managing to stay submerged for the entire time despite never having endured an ice bath before.
Mark and his team and One Life Live It often hold community ice baths at the farmers market in Perth, the results of which are what persuaded them to continue growing it. “We’ve had a lot of people that literally get out and they say I haven’t felt this good in like 10 years because I’m struggling with depression.”
He continues, “Ice baths are just an excellent way of sort of triggering someone to feel that.”
The challenge found strong backing from prominent sponsors, including the globally leading SUP brand Red Paddle Co and the national non-profit organisation Sea Gals, both share a deep ethical resonance with the core values driving Mark’s intentions. This genuine connection among the individuals representing these brands extends to their commitment to one another on a raw human level, their shared reverence for nature, and their personal dedication to pushing their personal boundaries and achieving optimal performance. This unintentional bond has organically fostered an unbreakable network of support and resources that millions worldwide are welcome to access with ease.
It is a health trend that’s been steamrolled in recent years. Mark reaches out,
“You get to a certain age; it usually seems to be in your mid-40s. That kind of classic midlife crisis where you’ve been doing the same job for so long, or you’re either not in the right relationship. You might have always wanted to travel the world but haven’t, all these sorts of things that you start realising as you get into your mid-40s especially. You start realising that your time is finite.
Some people don’t feel passionate about anything. They don’t have a real focus, and there are a lot of people who feel like they’re stuck and don’t know how to get out of that. We’ve got so many embedded patterns, but now, the beauty of it is that you can see the science that has come out in the last certainly 5 years but especially the last 2. That has helped push the popularity of ice baths.
You get into the ice, and your body goes through lots of different changes. But you get this massive firing of dopamine. It’s hard at first, but you have to work through it. You’re deliberately putting yourself into a stressful situation, and your body responds accordingly. Because you start controlling your breathing, you slow your heart rate, and your body starts relaxing more. When you get out, you’ve got these chemicals that come flying in that make you feel good, and that feeling lasts quite a while.”
Mark’s life work is devoted to the succession of others. He’s a trained XPT Performance Breathing Coach, an Oxygen Advantage Instructor, an Apnea International qualified Breath-hold for Survival instructor, and a qualified Ice Bath Coach, and to pop a few cherries on top of the cake, he’s completed numerous other well-researched practices including Wim-Hof, DMT, transformational and other more traditional yoga/pranayama breathing techniques.
His success with One Life Live It, where he holds retreats, workshops and profound experiences with disconnected groups and individuals, has seen hollowed shells overflow with fresh purpose that navigates them towards long-awaited sustainable freedom.
“My first ever client I had about three or four years ago was 19 and had been struggling for all her life. She was self-harming. The earliest memory she had, she was three years old. She has some vague memories of three from five. She had been struggling with this. So, she had no memory of ever feeling really good in life. For most of us, you could say well, when I was in my 20s and 30s or that period of my life, and so on. We at least can hang onto something that we can actually return to those feelings. We can dig in there and tap into that, but she’d never felt that good in her life. We focused alot on breath work, did a lot of coaching and then a lot of work that she’s doing on herself. That’s completely shifted now. So it’s incredible. It shifts people.
It’s addictive in a positive way. You feel so good and realise you have that strength of mind. Your body can do way more way more than you think you can.”
During the aftermath of his marriage and business breakdown, life left him faced towards a new depth of reality. “There was a red pill, blue pill situation and there was a serious consideration as to whether I wanted to hang around. It’s strange when I look at it and go, maybe that part of my life has enabled me to do what I’m doing now.”
The trail he left on the way back to the surface has remained engrained in time for others to follow, for each practice he commits to sharing passionately and proudly, has a hard part to play in him picking the pill that says ‘Carry on’. Life got better, and now, with a swell of a team by his side, Mark has made it into the history books for being the first person in history to set the Guinness World record for the biggest group ice bath. A record that brought international awareness to mental health in an era we need to witness compassion the most. This record boosted the health of every person involved in setting the title, from the people looking to the people who buy an ice bath after this or simply take a cold shower every day from now on. This is a unique record that Mark is hoping get’s broken by somebody new, as that means more and more awareness about ice baths and mental health will be being created.
“It’s not just a fun or gimmicky thing. Yes it’s a great fun day and we get to go in the cold water, but it’s all of that plus the fact that actually, the reason we’re doing this is because it works. We’re raising awareness of the health issues and mental health benefits. And this is this [setting the Guiness world record] is one of the best ways.”
New science shows us that the brain area called the anterior mid-cingulate cortex not only acts as a pillow for willpower but potentially the seat of the will to live. This brain area grows larger in size in people who challenge themselves to do things they do not want. (Within the boundaries of safety.) It’s larger in athletes and smaller in obese people, for example. If you force yourself to go for a run three times a week, if you’re on a diet and heavily resisting certain foods, if you hate the cold water but endure an ice bath, this area of the brain grows.
Neurochemically, especially if you are in an unmotivated place to jump into an ice bath or take a cold shower, the boost achieved by doing so proves to be a natural path to sustained health.
There is still an array of discoveries being made about the long-term effects of consistently cold water submerged on the body, including protective effects against traumatic brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Their collective aspiration to unite for this cause, shedding light on a poignant reality affecting many, is Nobel, inspiring and contagious. Are you up to the challenge of breaking the new world record?!
Let us know here!
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