The Benefits of Hot and Cold Showers
The only time I enjoy a cold shower is when the temperature of my house is hotter than the water in my shower. Or if I’ve been doing yard work on a hot day, my allergies are killer, and a cold shower helps mellow out the itch that grass gives me. Here I am though, claiming the importance of hot/cold showers. I just gave myself a dose of hydrotherapy this morning, needless to say, I’m feeling awake!
On a more serious note though, there are so many benefits to taking hot/cold showers!
- Improved circulation
- Decreased swelling and inflammation
- Increased range of motion
- Reduced muscle soreness
- Improvement in muscle strains
- Helps flush out waste in the body
- Good for your skin
- Increased energy and mental awareness
- Better mood
You may have noticed that fighting depression, and increasing brain health, has become a slight obsession of mine. Sounds like hot and cold showers are great for brain and body! #winwin
How Does It Work?
When you transition from a hot to cold shower, your body turns to survival mode. Just like hiking in freezing weather, when you get cold, what’s the first thing your body does? It shuts down blood flow to your extremities and focuses all the energy on keeping your organs and brain functioning, keeping you alive. Turning back to warm water helps to get your blood flowing again, by taking all the blood that was sent to your core and pushing it back out to the rest of your body. It basically creates a “pumping” system.
- Hot – Increases blood flow. Helps muscles to relax and causes connective tissues to become more flexible. This may help with arthritis, strains, sprains or muscle spasms. Immediate effects of heat include reduced stiffness, pain, and muscle spasms.
- Cold – Reduces blood flow. Cold is usually the first thing recommended with an injury. This helps reduce swelling, but also inflammation.
Just in case you were wondering, because I had to look it up myself, what is the difference between swelling and inflammation??? Inflammation is a chemical response by the body. Your body sends white blood cells to a particular area to protect your body from a foreign substance. This protective process can actually cause pain, and if it’s a continual problem can even wear down cartilage at the end of bones! Swelling, can be caused by inflammation. It can also occur other ways, like crazy elevation gain on a hike, or in an airplane. Now we know. 😉
Ready to try it? Let’s get started!
(First and foremost, please talk with your doctor about this, especially if you have any substantial health problems, or have a recent injury.)
Step 1: Get nice and cozy in your hot shower, if it is hotter than a hot tub, that’s probably too hot. Give it about 5 minutes of enjoying the heat before moving onto step 2.
Step 2: You have two options here, you can either slowly transition the water from hot to really cold, or you can make the change drastically. You want to stay under that cold shower for a minimum of 30 seconds. Get your head cold, your face, your armpits, really cool that body down.
Step 3: Go ahead and get that body warmed up again for about 3-5 minutes.
Step 4: You can get out now if you’d like or if you’d like to really get your blood flowing you can repeat the process a few more times, try for 20 minutes. You could even end on a cold note, just depends on the immediate benefit you’re looking for.
Does this process remind you of anything? The first thing that came to my mind when I learned about hot/cold showers was going to the pool. Did you ever go swimming and then go get in the hot tub, then jump back into what felt like an ice cold pool? #cannonballmaster Oh memories. It’s funny to think about how many things we did as children that were actually good for our health. Maybe all the stress of work, sitting around, and not playing in the pool is what’s making us so old?
If you are struggling with depression or anxiety big time, you can even take a couple of showers a day. Try taking a morning shower to help wake you up and then an evening shower to help calm you down. It’s weird how that works, the cold gives you shocking wake up, but at the same time the hot gets your circulation flowing. Taking a cold shower also lowers your body temperature helping slow you down at night when you are getting ready for bed. I don’t know about you but I sleep my best when the room temperature is a little cooler.
Are you ready to take the plunge???