nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Cold showers - terrifying

Voodoomelon

So after an evening of watching videos and reading up on the benefits of cold showers last night, I gave it a go this morning.

For those not in the know, they improve circulation, eradicate skin dryness, improve hair and skin softness, combat depression and anxiety, massively improve alertness, can contribute to fat loss, testosterone increases etc etc etc.

The idea is also to take you out of your comfort zone, actively force yourself to do something that is really difficult to accomplish at the very start of your day. We're talking 3-5 minute jaunts here, and just cold. No starting hot and giving a blast of cold at the end. There's a great TED talk on the topic too.

Holy Jesus is all I can say! I rolled out of a warm bed, ran the shower cold, looked at myself in the mirror still nearly asleep and asked "what the f*** are you at?". I stepped in and nearly had a heart attack! I couldn't breathe, starting gasping for air, cold water hitting my skin like it was burning, my body was panicking and all i felt was fear. I only managed a minute max and it was awful, genuinely terrifying and uncomfortable but what a feeling afterwards! It puts you on a high for the rest of the day, coupled with crazy warmth and ludicrously soft skin.

Anyone else perform this torture?

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Child Item

Comments

CelticRambler

Winterlong wrote: »

After handling that stuff you need to have a cold shower as if you have a hot one the small glass particles can get in to open pores. This according to the lads I worked with.

Sounds about right. I gave the same advice to an underling last week about not using hot water to rinse potentially toxic liquids off his hands/arms (opens the pores and can boost evaporation, so you get to breath in the poison aswell)

valoren

I do it every day.
The colder the water, the better I say.
I rarely get ill and only a sniffle when I do.
I haven't missed a day off work since 2002.

Sham Squire

Loving the cold showers. Trick is to persevere. The first one gave me a shake ache. By the 4th day I was loving them. One problem i find is they don't get me as clean as a hot shower so I have hot showers for cleanliness and cold ones for pleasure/health.
I'd also recommend (and the same goes for swimming in the Irish sea) introducing your body to the cold water slowly. Splash some on the back of your neck and chest before getting in. Hold your wrists under the cold shower before getting in. There is a danger of shock (and potential heart issues that go with that if your old or have a pre existing condition) so you shouldn't do as the OP did and get out of bed and walk straight under a cold shower, unless maybe you're a healthy 22 year old who enjoys masochism. For the rest of us, go slowly. And persevere. It can sometimes be the highlight of my day now

Sham Squire

valoren wrote: »

I do it every day.
The colder the water, the better I say.
I rarely get ill and only a sniffle when I do.
I haven't missed a day off work since 2002.

I started doing them in January and, disappointingly, the cold water has only been getting warmer since then. This week might be good but I fear that the summer ones won't even feel cold to me due to starting during such a cold time of year.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

valoren wrote: »

I do it every day.
The colder the water, the better I say.
I rarely get ill and only a sniffle when I do.
I haven't missed a day off work since 2002.

And I don't do cold showers, and didn't when I worked, and went over 20 years without a sick day.

osarusan

And I haven't washed myself in months and I'm sick all the time!

wakka12

Realistically the cold shower will make no real difference to your physical or mental well being, and if it does its probably a placebo effect. Enjoy the luxuries of a hot shower, billions of humans before our time never had such a luxury so why not make the most of it

Maximus Alexander

I had a hot shower this morning but I pretended it was cold and now I feel great.

BnB

I just tried to watch the Ted talk on cold showers just now. I lasted about 3 or 4 minutes into it. What a great big steaming pile of poop. He is basically trying to equate his failure to take cold showers with his failure to start a business. What a pile of over-thinking garbage.

I work hard. The main thing that motivates me to do so, is so that I can have nice things for my family and myself. A few nights out every so often. Maybe even a holiday. A nice comfortable house.... etc... And one small (but not insignificant) part of that is.... A great big pile of nice steaming hot water to have a comfortable shower.

There is absolutely no benefit whatsoever in taking a cold shower in the morning instead of a hot one. It is the equivalent of sticking your finger in an electrical socket every morning. Yes - It will give you a shock, and maybe even an adrenaline rush for a minute, but ultimately, it is just completely and utterly useless unnecessary pain.

However, there are loads of things that you can do in your life that might be a bit difficult but that will actually give you some benefits. e.g. Take some exercise. Don't eat that frozen pizza. Don't stay up till 2 o clock in the morning fannying about on the internet. Go to bed on time and get up fresh for work/school or whatever the following day.... The list in endless.

So, why cause yourself completely unnecessary pain, when there are so many things you could do instead that would actually be of benefit to you.

Boom_Bap

Cold showers are awesome. I know nothing of health benefits but from time to time I'll have one.
At the weekend I was staying in a hotel so was using the sauna a bit, they had a cold shower outside it and ice flakes that you could apply to your skin afterwards. It was glorious.

I'd say whoever uses the shower in work after me gets a fright the odd time as I have it so cold.

One of the best experiences of my life was last summer, I filled up the water tank in a camper van with ice cold water from the Alps. This is the water that supplies the shower in the camper, I showered with it and I've never felt so refreshed or awake in all my life.

Shenshen

Sham Squire wrote: »

I started doing them in January and, disappointingly, the cold water has only been getting warmer since then. This week might be good but I fear that the summer ones won't even feel cold to me due to starting during such a cold time of year.

That's when you move on to having cold baths, obviously.

Wanderer78

A critical part of my sauna survival guide!

Your Face

I enjoy them.
I'm always too warm.

Widdershins

Same principle behind people going for a swim in the sea in Winter. I used to deliberately take cold showers in the Summer but a cold swim never appealed to me.

As BnB said there are sensible ways to get the blood moving.

[Deleted User]

I would go to work stinking if there was no hot water

CelticRambler

Sham Squire wrote: »

Loving the cold showers. ... It can sometimes be the highlight of my day now

:eek: Jayyyyyzzz. I can't imagine my life ever getting so dreary that a cold shower is the highlight of the day ... :pac:

Mountainsandh

Bear Cube wrote: »

There is scientific evidence supporting the claim that exposure to cold water is good for health and increases testosterone levels in men.

Personally I think it is good for mental health as well. Staying within your confort zone is a great strategy if you want to become depressed. Cold showers are revitalising and make you more alert, not too mentiom make you feel alive.

People need to realise that emotions and feelings such as fear, anxiety and discomfort are good for you in limited amounts. You are supposed to feel these emotions. When you try to block them depression and chronic anxiety often ensues.

Surely we all still have a degree of fear, anxiety and discomfort in our lives, without having to resort to taking cold showers to create the emotions !

whoopsadoodles

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Surely we all still have a degree of fear, anxiety and discomfort in our lives, without having to resort to taking cold showers to create the emotions !

If you have a shower curtain there's the added anxiety and fear of the possibility of a serial killer hiding behind it every time you wash. Hot shower or cold.

Maximus Alexander

whoopsadoodles wrote: »

If you have a shower curtain there's the added anxiety and fear of the possibility of a serial killer hiding behind it every time you wash. Hot shower or cold.

Or if you have hot press near the bathroom, leave the door slightly ajar with some coats and things hanging on the back of it so that every time you leave the bathroom you'll be briefly convinced that you can see something lurking in there, shrouded in shadows.

Mountainsandh

whoopsadoodles wrote: »

If you have a shower curtain there's the added anxiety and fear of the possibility of a serial killer hiding behind it every time you wash. Hot shower or cold.

I experience fear at the thought of running out of hot water, and anxiety as the boiler is nearly empty and it gets nearly tepid. :P

ScumLord

I've had cold showers, but only when there was no choice. I did have broken heating in my house during that really cold winter when it was -10 outside. The shower was hot but I had to step out into a freezing room.

What surprised me was how quickly my body could acclimatise to it. after a few seconds of towel drying I could walk around in the buff, and while I could feel the cold it was no worse than a chill.

Dylan Shrilling Worshiper wrote: »

Actually, if you lived beyond 5 years of age, your life expectancy in the British Isles in 1000AD was over 70.

Really? Men can barely reach that age now. Everything I can find says you were doing good if you hit fifty.

Sham Squire

Shenshen wrote: »

That's when you move on to having cold baths, obviously.

Ice baths maybe?

Sham Squire

wakka12 wrote: »

Realistically the cold shower will make no real difference to your physical or mental well being, and if it does its probably a placebo effect. Enjoy the luxuries of a hot shower, billions of humans before our time never had such a luxury so why not make the most of it

Thanks for this well researched and factual post. Can you post all the research you've done and link it please?

Sham Squire

CelticRambler wrote: »

:eek: Jayyyyyzzz. I can't imagine my life ever getting so dreary that a cold shower is the highlight of the day ... :pac:

Underestimating the pleasure of the cold shower and overestimating the dreariness of my life

Junkyard Tom

Hmmm...

LOL, cold shower 'therapy'? It's probably a bit like those mad bastard monks who whack themselves with thorny branches - it's essentially self-harming to release endorphins and have a quasi-spiritual experience. Fucking hippy nonsense.

Journal of Scientific Studies of Science

[Deleted User]

The reason people feel great after having a cold shower is because the cold shower is over. I'd be delighted about that too if I was inclined to punish myself with cold showers.

Cupcake_Crisis

It was like -8° this morning. Who needs a cold shower...

ford2600

Candie wrote: »

The reason people feel great after having a cold shower is because the cold shower is over. I'd be delighted about that too if I was inclined to punish myself with cold showers.

I'd imagine there is a bit more to it than that.

In order to evolve, we needed to have a system to deal with thermal threats both hot and cold. Our core body functions in heart/liver etc only operate within a very small range of temepature; yet humans can thrive in deserts to artic landscapes.

Feeling cold isn't the same as being cold. We have sensors on skin which monitor temperature and on sensing a thermal challenge (such as 6/7C water on skin) feeling cold is a negative feedback to the hypothalamus to motivate to do something in order to protect core temperature.

In reality a couple of litres of cold water hitting our skin briefly for a few minutes isn't a threat; do the maths on the thermal energy required to change the temperature of an 80kg person at 37C by 1 degree.

Our responses are typically
*behavioral (get out of shower, wear something warmer, curl up, jump up and down)
*physiological; constriction of blood flow to skin, shivering and the really cool on brown fat activation (our own inbuilt radiator)

Like any other human system we can improve them by training be in endurance, strength etc by a progressive overload on system. I regularly do 20 min sea swims all year round, many other guys/ladies do much more.

As a general note we have become complete pussies in the western world; there is always
*something to eat
* somewhere to sit
*a thermostat handy.

We are built to endure hardship, I'm not sure why there is resistance to the idea that brief cold exposure can make one feel good given how exercise (which in the moment when doing hiit or strength training at 1RM for example is pretty horrible) yet almost universally excepted as a good thing. Ditto fasting.

Cold showers are only the start...
http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2016/jan/07/cryophile-winter-swimmers-club-in-pictures

Maximus Alexander

ford2600 wrote: »

In reality a couple of litres of cold water hitting our skin briefly for a few minutes isn't a threat; do the maths on the thermal energy required to change the temperature of an 80kg person at 37C by 1 degree.

Can confirm. Go for a run on a muggy summers' day. Hop into a cold shower to cool off afterwards. Stand there for ten minutes. Get out; proceed to start sweating again immediately. FML.

ford2600

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Can confirm. Go for a run on a muggy summers' day. Hop into a cold shower to cool off afterwards. Stand there for ten minutes. Get out; proceed to start sweating again immediately. FML.

Actually the power output of our cooling system is pretty impressive; the energy lost due the cooling effect of evaporation from skin is huge; a much more powerful system than our heating one.

Child Item