Only Slate Plus members can gift Slate stories. Become a member to share 10 free articles a month. There’s a jewel box of a cove in the coastal Maine town where I live, and every day a small group of ...

Dr. Mark Harper recalls his first cold-water swim in the south of England 20 years ago. It was August, but the initial jolt from the plunge took his breath away. The shock to his system lasted a ...

In recent years, cold-water immersion, or cold plunging—the practice of briefly submerging the body, or parts of the body, in cold to icy water—has gained traction among open water swimmers and ice ...

Across the UK, a quiet shift in midlife exercise is underway. A decade ago, the cultural image of midlife fitness was the Lycra-clad cyclist speeding along suburban roads. Now, a different scene has ...