The Art of Manliness, benefits of cold showers

[778 neighbour of some guy]

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[grannyfranny100]

Cold showers sound good for women, too. Maybe I can work up to them with the warm cool approach. Thanks.

[conk]

I have read extensively about the many benefits of this therapy, however it is EXTREMELY difficult to do. I cannot do it without screaming out loud. Haha.

Good video, however he barely mentioned one of the most beneficial aspects, detoxification. Alternating hot for a minute, then cold for a minute, minimum 7 cycles, helps greatly in detoxification of the body.

He did emphasize perhaps the greatest benefit, that of increased vascular health. The push and pull from the hot and cold really provides a great workout for the veins and arteries.

[angelfire]

Until two years ago, I always had an ice cold shower before the hot and I can honestly say I felt amazing afterwards - totally invigorated and much warmer than after a normal hot shower.
Must make a return to that habit.

[DeDukshyn]

I went to some natural hot springs in the mountains somewhere ... let's see, I think this would have been somewhere Silver Star mountain near Vernon B.C. Anyway, it was all outdoors. They had a "hot" pool, a "really hot" pool, and a small lap pool that was heated to just about 5C - not much above freezing.

I asked what the cold lap pool was for. The response was, "you should start out in the warm pool, move to the hot pool (it was really hot) for a few minutes, then go walk to the far end of the lap pool, swim across and then jump back into the warm pool" (the hot one would feel way too hot afterwards).

Only two people were brave enough to try, myself and one of my friends. When you first jump into the cold cool, you lose your breath and your body wants to immediately curl into a ball, making swimming pretty friggin hard to do, but the incredibly intense cold was a strong motivator to make that work - it was like overcoming something huge with sheer willpower.

Climbing back into the warm pool after was like heaven - few words can describe how good that felt. The whole experience was incredibly exhilarating, and energizing in way that you can't experience except by doing something like that or maybe an extreme sport of something.

That experience got me to liking the occasional "cold / hot" shower. It really is rejuvenating!


Edit: Just to note - it was in the middle of winter. It's not always so cold in Canada that you can "heat" a pool to 5C. lol. Just thought I'd clarify that. ;)

[sigma6]

Until two years ago, I always had an ice cold shower before the hot and I can honestly say I felt amazing afterwards - totally invigorated and much warmer than after a normal hot shower.
Must make a return to that habit.

I go hot and finish cold... I think that is hard enough! although the body adapts, and it is refreshing... and counter intuitive, but I do hot to cold in the fall/winter, stepping out, you are warmer in the winter. The Eskimos do it, and the Tibetan monks totally do it... hacking the human body... (that's the new term apparently :p )

[Anchor]

LOL - Some years ago I tried to convince people it was a good idea ...

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?4165-Cold-showers-

There were a few takers on that thread, but not many :)