Any testimonials on this topic?
Cold Showers - Their Worldly and Spiritual Benefits
- Thread starter Robin Williams
- Start date
Any testimonials on this topic?
I sometimes finish my showers with cold water for an energy boost.
I've also tried cold water swimming with my friends. It can be pretty relaxing actually, but below 10°C you have to be careful. Once when it was around 5°C in the water I stayed too long and it took me half the day to warm back up afterwards.
I've also tried cold water swimming with my friends. It can be pretty relaxing actually, but below 10°C you have to be careful. Once when it was around 5°C in the water I stayed too long and it took me half the day to warm back up afterwards.
I tried it for a while. You definitely get an energy boost from the cold water, but the idea that it somehow boosts your T and makes you ripped seems like bro science at it's best.
Dr. Eric (((BERG))).
Cold showers are the quintessential self improvement meme. All it does is give you more energy and a higher cortisol level.
They also become a mess when you take into account the temperature of your city.
To top it off, they became popular because of a James Bond film.
Are you sure Berg is Jewish? I believe this name has also been used by Christian families in Germany and Scandinavia.
For what it's worth, I do believe Dr. Berg has some helpful content out there and my dad swears by his methods. Unfortunately, Dr. Berg is also a crazy Scientologist. His own son despises him and claimed that he has huge profit margins on his products so he can donate millions to the "church" of Scientology.
Don't hate on Dr. Berg bro
He's a solid dude that gives great medical advice for natural cures and rebodies that work.
He also is against the jab
Not at all. The name is just funny to me. Probably more so than to others because of an inside joke.
JR5
Other Christian
Like others, I tried it for awhile. It works. I mean, not to get shredded or whatever, but it wakes you up and makes you more alert for the rest of the day. If you can beat a small early challenge, maybe it makes it easier to beat other challenges in your day.
The problem with it is it's just not fun and you have to psych yourself up for it and force yourself. Like anything where you have to psych yourself up and force yourself, eventually you lose the willpower to continue doing it. At least that's how it was for me and how it seems to be for those upthread.
The problem with it is it's just not fun and you have to psych yourself up for it and force yourself. Like anything where you have to psych yourself up and force yourself, eventually you lose the willpower to continue doing it. At least that's how it was for me and how it seems to be for those upthread.
My tips for cold showers:
1. Get into it is by just agreeing to start by just turning the shower on to hot, but force yourself to stand in the stream for the the first 10-20 seconds while it warms up. Where I live the cold water is about 50f, so pretty cold.
2. Take a full breath in before you turn on the shower so that you don't gasp for air. You're already holding your breath.
3. After several days of this I just didn't even feel the need to take "hot" showers and could easily take full lukewarm/cool showers no problem.
4. Don't take cold showers in the evening if you need to clean then. Cold showers will raise your cortisol, raise your body temperature, and prevent good sleep.
1. Get into it is by just agreeing to start by just turning the shower on to hot, but force yourself to stand in the stream for the the first 10-20 seconds while it warms up. Where I live the cold water is about 50f, so pretty cold.
2. Take a full breath in before you turn on the shower so that you don't gasp for air. You're already holding your breath.
3. After several days of this I just didn't even feel the need to take "hot" showers and could easily take full lukewarm/cool showers no problem.
4. Don't take cold showers in the evening if you need to clean then. Cold showers will raise your cortisol, raise your body temperature, and prevent good sleep.
Alternative is the Scottish Shower ( I believe it stems from one of Fleming's Bond books) - finish off a normal shower by 30s-1min cold or as long as you can stand it. I've found that certain parts/muscles - where there is tightness - don't see to have issues with it and almost seem to embrace it.
Another variation is to finish off from hot - cold - hot -cold for a few minutes - apparently an inflammation reducer.
Cold water swimming is def a mood booster - living in Scotland, near the North Sea - it's certainly not Hawaii even in Summer. Even a relatively quick dip (or just lower body) creates a surprisingly noticeable buzz for quite a while afterwards. Easy to get too cold though - as a poster above has experienced - always wear a warm hat - come out WELL before you think you should; drink a flask of tea/coffee and immediately change into warm clothing.
I do believe the bro-science about Test boosting etc is indeed bro-science though.
Another variation is to finish off from hot - cold - hot -cold for a few minutes - apparently an inflammation reducer.
Cold water swimming is def a mood booster - living in Scotland, near the North Sea - it's certainly not Hawaii even in Summer. Even a relatively quick dip (or just lower body) creates a surprisingly noticeable buzz for quite a while afterwards. Easy to get too cold though - as a poster above has experienced - always wear a warm hat - come out WELL before you think you should; drink a flask of tea/coffee and immediately change into warm clothing.
I do believe the bro-science about Test boosting etc is indeed bro-science though.
I do the alternating hot and cold water shower. It forces blood flow into areas where you direct the flow for healing. Dr. Christopher and Dr. Schulze, both pioneering natural healers advocate hot/cold showers. The routine is first, thirty seconds of hot water, as hot as you can take it. Then switch to cold water (maximum cold) for twenty seconds. Repeat for 6-10 cycles.
Found the Exoduser - iykyk
That being said I do them sometimes when I really need the shock in the morning.
That being said I do them sometimes when I really need the shock in the morning.
I have always taken long hot showers. I used to get out feeling very relaxed and “soft” like a wet noodle. I still take long hot showers but a couple years ago I started finishing as cold as the tap will get for a minute or two. It’s so refreshing, doesn’t matter if it’s - 30 degrees outside I still do it. The other day I forget to finish cold and I felt shitty so I got back in for a cold shot.
For about the last 8-9 years since 2014-2015, I finish up every hot shower with cold for a few minutes. It's just second nature at this point.
Makes you feel alive, inspires you to deal with adversity, toughens you up, etc. It's good for circulation and helps your body to heal from ailments more readily. If I get sick with a cold, which is not often, I am able to recover from it quickly.
I'm convinced it's a good practice.
Makes you feel alive, inspires you to deal with adversity, toughens you up, etc. It's good for circulation and helps your body to heal from ailments more readily. If I get sick with a cold, which is not often, I am able to recover from it quickly.
I'm convinced it's a good practice.
There's two aspects to this, first it improves blood circulation, and second, it stimulates the production of dark or brown fat, which also increases your metabolism and helps you burn fat reserves more efficiently, so you lose weight once the winter cycle is complete:
A new study published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports has found evidence that exposure to cold temperatures could transform the type of fat we form in our bodies, and even potentially help us burn off excess body fat.
For the research, scientists differentiated stem cells (which can become other types of cells) to become fat cells at both normal body temperature and at a slightly cooler temperature. They found that at the lower temperatures, the cells formed a kind of fat known as brown fat, which causes bodies to burn more calories to keep warm and burn off excess body fat.
People always have some layer of fat in their bodies. Adults have mostly white fat, which serves as a sort of solid, inert way of storing energy. White fat is what makes up dangerous excess body fat. Brown fat, on the other hand, is used to rev up the metabolism to keep us warm — it's how babies regulate their body temperature, since they don't have the muscles to shiver themselves warm yet.
“Cold exposure increases the amount of brown fat that is present in the body,” says Cannon, who has published research on brown fat and its health benefits.
So while the body’s first response to cold is to shiver, it eventually makes and activates enough brown fat to take over those heat-producing responsibilities, she explains. In either case, your body is burning extra calories in response to cold. That can even translate to some body-weight benefits. As long as you’re not overeating to make up for the extra energy your cold-exposed body is using up, you can expect to lose some weight in response to cold, Cannon says. (How much depends on the person.)
There may be some additional metabolic benefits. Among people with higher levels of brown fat, “we see better insulin sensitivity, lower levels of circulating fatty acids and also lower levels of triglycerides,” says Sven Enerbäck, a professor of cell biology at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg whose research suggests that people’s stores of brown fat change (and mostly decline) as they age.
Enerbäck says the healthy metabolic shifts associated with brown fat are in some ways just the opposite of what happens in people with type 2 diabetes. There’s some excitement among scientists that cold exposure and brown-fat genesis could be used to counteract or prevent diabetes, obesity and other metabolic disorders.
Benefits of swimming in colder water:
- Exposure to cold temperatures causes stem cells to form brown fat instead of white fat, according to a new study.
- Brown fat causes our bodies to burn extra calories to keep warm — so if we can produce brown instead of white fat, that could help us burn off excess body fat.
- This adds to the body of knowledge demonstrating that exposure to the cold might have real health benefits.
A new study published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports has found evidence that exposure to cold temperatures could transform the type of fat we form in our bodies, and even potentially help us burn off excess body fat.
For the research, scientists differentiated stem cells (which can become other types of cells) to become fat cells at both normal body temperature and at a slightly cooler temperature. They found that at the lower temperatures, the cells formed a kind of fat known as brown fat, which causes bodies to burn more calories to keep warm and burn off excess body fat.
People always have some layer of fat in their bodies. Adults have mostly white fat, which serves as a sort of solid, inert way of storing energy. White fat is what makes up dangerous excess body fat. Brown fat, on the other hand, is used to rev up the metabolism to keep us warm — it's how babies regulate their body temperature, since they don't have the muscles to shiver themselves warm yet.
“Cold exposure increases the amount of brown fat that is present in the body,” says Cannon, who has published research on brown fat and its health benefits.
So while the body’s first response to cold is to shiver, it eventually makes and activates enough brown fat to take over those heat-producing responsibilities, she explains. In either case, your body is burning extra calories in response to cold. That can even translate to some body-weight benefits. As long as you’re not overeating to make up for the extra energy your cold-exposed body is using up, you can expect to lose some weight in response to cold, Cannon says. (How much depends on the person.)
There may be some additional metabolic benefits. Among people with higher levels of brown fat, “we see better insulin sensitivity, lower levels of circulating fatty acids and also lower levels of triglycerides,” says Sven Enerbäck, a professor of cell biology at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg whose research suggests that people’s stores of brown fat change (and mostly decline) as they age.
Enerbäck says the healthy metabolic shifts associated with brown fat are in some ways just the opposite of what happens in people with type 2 diabetes. There’s some excitement among scientists that cold exposure and brown-fat genesis could be used to counteract or prevent diabetes, obesity and other metabolic disorders.
Benefits of swimming in colder water:
Summary
The Scandinavian winter-swimming culture combines brief dips in cold water with hot sauna sessions, with conceivable effects on body temperature. We study thermogenic brown adipose tissue (BAT) in experienced winter-swimming men performing this activity 2–3 times per week. Our data suggest a lower thermal comfort state in the winter swimmers compared with controls, with a lower core temperature and absence of BAT activity. In response to cold, we observe greater increases in cold-induced thermogenesis and supraclavicular skin temperature in the winter swimmers, whereas BAT glucose uptake and muscle activity increase similarly to those of the controls. All subjects demonstrate nocturnal reduction in supraclavicular skin temperature, whereas a distinct peak occurs at 4:30–5:30 a.m. in the winter swimmers. Our data leverage understanding of BAT in adult human thermoregulation, suggest both heat and cold acclimation in winter swimmers, and propose winter swimming as a potential strategy for increasing energy expenditure.Graphical abstract