A young woman puts her health and happiness down to starting every day with a swim in a minus 4-degree lake, just in her swimsuit.
Elina Mäkinen, 27, has over a million social media followers who are intrigued by her mental grit and huge smile as she leaps into freezing water. She swims for between two and four minutes in the icy pools each day, with the backdrop of snow-covered Helsinki, Finland.
“Water is usually coldest at 0.2 degree Celsius [32.3 F] because the water can be minus degrees only if it is salted or flowing,” she said. “So basically the coldest point is after getting up when air is minus 20 degree Celsius [-4 F] or colder. … Sometimes it is a real struggle with the pain, but there’s still always the after-swim euphoria.”…