Do you shower with cold water? Dare and revitalize your body

This morning I have taken a cold shower. I’ve felt the drive it takes to choose cold waterI have felt it on the skin and I have been psyched that it is pleasant.

I have dried myself hard with the towel, I have felt the even more pleasant reaction of the heat and energy released by the bodythe deep breathing that it generates, and I have waited for a window of freshness and lucidity to open.

I hope this way of starting the day appeals to you because it produces many health benefits!

Is it good to shower with cold water?

Yes, but to benefit from this practice it is not worth doing it in any way. At first you have to train.

Just thinking about it makes us shiver, especially in winter. But this is precisely what it is about, coming to understand that even shivering can be great exercise: It is an accelerated muscle contraction in order to produce the greatest amount of heat possible in the body.

In order to make such a decision, which in principle goes backwards, we will need to know that this daily contact, if we train it, can be pleasant and healthy. It will not only provide us physical and mental well-beingbut the opportunity to train and improve all this on a daily basis.

Our objective will not really be to get to the annoying shivering, but to turn the cold bathroom into a natural and pleasant experience with hygienic and therapeutic possibilities.

The same water, with identical pressure and temperature, can be received annoyingly (like when someone throws cold water on you without telling you) or nicely (if you psych yourself up to enjoy it). The placebo effect and the production of neurotransmitters are very different.

The cold can be very pleasant after a sauna or an excursion in the summer sun; or even when getting out of the hot bath or having an ice cream on a sunny day.

But in order to enjoy a cold shower, either at home or under a waterfallor a refreshing dip in a mountain river, you need a proper mindset.

One cannot suddenly plunge into cold water or iceshowering in waterfalls in the middle of nature or walking barefoot through the snow.

Cold water, cold air and wind can work for us or against us. Everything will depend on our predisposition, experience and training.

You have to look at cold water with a lot of optimism, know its potential to expand consciousness and to wake up.

The benefits of a cold shower

Not only does it reveal to us the therapeutic application of cold water, but it also gives us the physical and psychological experience of our ability to react with cold water, to live with it and enjoy it. In other words, it teaches us and allows us empirically verify that our body knows how to react to cold water.

Main promoters of cold baths therapists in Europe were Vincent Priessnitz and Sebastian Kneipp. His bet was mainly for partial baths of feet, hands and arms, or for general rubbing, and always very brief. A few seconds are enough to provoke a general reaction.

It is said that Priessnitz did not admit patients if they did not present a good response to cold bathsince that was the therapeutic key, in the reaction of warmth and well-being that occurred after the hydrotherapy treatment.

In the bathroom of our house, decision, courage, will, illusion and above all optimism to choose cold waterfeel it and enjoy it, understanding that it is not only a hygienic necessity, but an opportunity to train the thermoregulatory and immune systems and to strengthen physically and mentally.

If we have not developed this decision-making capacity, we will always we can start training with the cold after using the hot one.

In other cultural or therapeutic traditions, the bath is presented as a cleansing and purification ritual. The samurai before and the Shinto monks today enjoy themselves under the waterfalls of cold water and thousands of pilgrims immerse themselves in the waters of the Ganges.

Boost your physical and mental health

Progressive training with cold water produces a overall strengthening to physical level: stimulates circulation, consumes calories, invigorates the nerves and strengthens the immune system.

Cold causes vasoconstrictionwith which the skin turns pale, but when removing it the skin reddens and there is a vasodilation locally. Also lowers heart rate and increases blood pressurewhich may decrease when vasodilation begins.

At first a cold stimulus causes a deep inhalationfollowed by a pause and then a large exhalation with accelerated respiratory movements.

The cold bath is the ideal preparation to improve physical performance, reaction and muscle coordination. Now, muscle tone increases with brief and repeated applications, but decreases with prolonged applications.

The cold excites the muscles and facilitates muscular activity. Prepares the muscles before exercise and promotes recovery from extreme exercise.

Besides improves the thermoregulatory system, which allows it to better adapt to the cold and heat of the environment. This increases tolerance to cold and weather changes are better resisted.

Relax the spasms in the digestive system and increases diuresis. In general the application of cold increases basal metabolism.

Brief applications of cold excite the nervous system. If they are very long produce anesthesia in the area of ​​application, reducing nerve capacity and skin reflexes.

It also tones and reaffirms on an emotional level and mental: it helps to wake up, to enjoy, to be more optimistic, to react and to recover the ability to live in the present.

Even, remove fears: the first, to cold water. The physical and psychological experience of living with and enjoying cold water teaches us to transform difficulties into challenges to overcome

help in appearance preventivebecause it improves chronic fatigue syndrome, replaces neuroleptics and sedatives, prepares the muscles before exercise and promotes recovery after an intense session, and prevents colds.

And above all, stands on the optimistic side of lifebecause you have to be to start enjoying the cold shower.

From there, with progressive training, showering with cold water has multiple benefits.

A brief but intense cold stimulus can bring multiple benefits. It is anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antispasmodic.

How to train yourself to shower with cold water

My main advice is, for those who are not trained, to practice the cold shower daily, but little by little: starting with the feet and then incorporating the arms, chest, back…. until you reach the general shower. And, above all, you have to look for a good heat reaction, drying quickly and warming up at the end.

Begin little by little:

Take a hot shower and at the end direct the cold water for a few seconds at your feet. The hot pre-shower lasts from 1 to 3 minutes. The full cold shower is held for 1 to 3 seconds depending on the workout; in summer it can be enjoyed for 15-30 seconds. The following days add arms, chest and back until the full shower. Then dry off quickly and vigorously. To increase the calorific effect of rubbing you can use a linen towel. It is important that you immediately bundle up well.

As for the temperatureshot water should not exceed 38ºC and cold water should be 18ºC or less.

The cold application should be shorter than the heat application, usually no more than 15 seconds. To the extent that the muscle is cooled, a more lasting effect is produced.

shower in a waterfall

Why not? Once trained, you can extend the cold shower and even test the effect under a waterfall. The first few times it can be done with clothes and a hat in order to ease the pressure and soften the reaction.

You can do it with the kids, posing it as if it were a fun game and a challenge. For the effect to be positive, the child has to enjoy the bath and the reaction.

After applying cold you have to allow the organism to react by regulating the temperature and producing a pleasant sensation of heat. If it does not, the application of cold should be suspended, as it could further weaken the body.