I dipped one toe in the water and a sharp pain shot through my system. Knowing that I’d never be able to ease my way in, I quickly slid the rest of my body into the freezing cold water. I took slow, deep breaths — experts say this signals to your brain that “I’m okay” and prevents you from going into flight or flight mode. But as my mind ran circles around the physical sensations, I felt anything but okay.
Then a funny thing happened: a minute passed, and it felt ever so slightly easier to stay in the water. Thirty seconds later, I emerged with a strange and surprisingly pleasant feeling of calm. I had survived my first cold plunge — and was already wondering when I’d do it again.
Cold plunging is just one example of biohacking. A term borrowed from the “tech hacker” ethos, it’s the science of tweaking your physiology and nervous system for optimal performance. Some types of biohacking may seem extreme, exhibitionist even — like when someone plunges a syringe in their hand to inject themselves with a genome-altering substance. But there are also more subtle techniques that anyone can start using today; that I have incorporated into my routine to perform my role as CEO of Jotform to the best of my body’s ability — without losing my mind. Here is a closer look at some of those techniques, plus why I’ve become a believer in biohacking.
