“How cold is the water?” This was a question I asked my cousin when our family was together at my sister’s house last year for Thanksgiving. My cousin responded, “Why? You gonna take a cold shower?” I said, “Yup.” The look on her face said it all…”Are you crazy?” You may be asking why anyone would want to take a cold shower. There are a lot of reasons to take a cold shower. Here are a few of the reasons I recommend you 5and2 guys and gals give them a shot.
Improves Your Immunity & Circulation
Our arteries more efficiently pump blood when exposed to cold water. You know what more efficiently pumped blood equals? That’s right, better heart health. Circulation tends to become a problem as we get older. One great way to combat that is a short cold shower. A few minutes of a cold shower each day could extend your life by years and also improve the quality.
Helps You Lose Weight
That’s right. It can even help you lose weight. Studies have shown that cold temperatures stimulate fat tissue in individuals resulting in weight loss. It takes a lot of time to change your diet. Even more time to exercise regularly. But it only takes a couple minutes a day to help reduce weight with cold showers, so why not?
It Can Make You Happier
It has been proven that taking cold showers helps to ease stress and relieve depression. Can you imagine how hard it is to focus on how sad you are about something with cold water running down your back? If you want a few minutes a day to forget some of your worries, then become extremely present by taking a cold shower. I can pretty much guarantee your worries will be secondary to the cold water you experience. But even more than that, cold showers have an anti-depressive effect and can give you that little boost you need to have a better day. There is also a bunch of science behind how cold showers help relieve stress and depression, but I don’t want to bore you with the details.
And Many More…
Cold showers provide tons of benefits. A few more include increasing your alertness (take a cold shower to wake you up in the morning); improved hair and skin (improves appearance and health); and can help speed up muscle recovery and soreness from exercise. Many, many benefits of cold showers, but what’s the goal?
The Goal
The goal is to take a three minute, cold shower each day. And I don’t mean a “kinda” cold shower. I mean a completely cold shower with the water put at the coldest level possible. Aim to take at least one of these each day. If you get more than one shower a day, then do it twice. It will only help.
How Do You Get Started?
I am not suggesting that you turn the cold water on and just hop in, though you can certainly do that. One easy way to do this is to start with a warm shower like you normally do. This opens your pores and allows you to clean your skin better. Once you are done cleaning yourself, then crank the shower down to a purely cold one. But don’t start day one with the full three minutes, because that may seem very tough.
For the first week, take a cold shower for 30 seconds. Once you finish week one, up the time to 60 seconds the next week. Each new week, increase the time by 30 seconds. Before you know it, you will be up to three minutes and it won’t seem that bad at all.
I tend to take a really warm, somewhat hot bath to relax me a bit and then jump out of the tub into a cold shower for three minutes. This works great for me. It could work for you too!!!
Is It Really That Bad?
It is not really that bad at all. It can be kinda tough for the first couple weeks, but cold showers end up feeling good. I look forward to my three minute cold shower each night. It can be a little tough at times as the temperature outside changes and the ground is colder. This makes the water a little colder, but it is tolerable and safe so push through it.
I take my cold showers at night. Once I get out of the shower, I immediately dry off and put my pajamas on. Once I am out of the bathroom and into bed, I have that feeling I remember having as a child when I came in from playing in the snow and was sitting on the couch nice and warm under a blanket. It is a great feeling. I look forward to it each night.
Final Thoughts
I know the concept of taking a cold shower can be scary. I have to admit, I was nervous at first too. And I thought it was crazy and a bit weird. But I have to tell you that I now enjoy them. I believe my body is receiving the benefits from it and my mind is as well. I feel that if I can force myself to stand under a cold shower when I really just want to be warm, then I can stand up to anything. This is a great confidence booster.
With the many, many benefits of cold showers, I strongly recommend you give them a shot. In the long run, the cumulative effect can add years to your life and even change the quality of the life you have and how you see it.
I challenge you to give the cold showers a shot. After you have done one week of three minute cold showers, tell me your experience. Maybe even take on a one month challenge to try this out. Let me know if you will continue them to help improve your life or if you feel it’s not worth it. What do you have to lose?
You may have noticed that I left all the science stuff out of the post. That is on purpose. I did not want to bore you with the tiny details that you will most likely forget and not care about to begin with. I wanted to focus on the benefits and help you see why cold showers are worth it.
Lastly, if you want a great waterproof timer to use in the shower, I recommend this one. I have been using it for a few months now and it is great.
Good luck!!!