But ultimately I stopped. Partly because my hair never washed right in the cold water, but mostly because the showers were making me grumpy & irritable for the rest of the day. I didn't enjoy that feeling, I didn't particularly enjoy the showers, and I didn't notice any productivity or health benefit.
I first heard about cold showers from Joel Runyon, so I'll give him a link [1]. But it quickly went from blogs about "here's a self-motivation idea I'm trying" to "here is my TEDx talk and Cold Shower Therapy™ email course and download the Cold Shower Therapy™ app on the App Store".
Cold showers are great and, as someone who's suffered from depression in the past, I go into each day thinking, "what's the worst that could happen"?*
*I realise that sounds flippant, but it's true...
Glad you tried it. For my part - I tried to build tools that helped people take action (rather than just read it and think "hey, that's a cool idea"). Pretty much all of them were free if that helps at all.
If the "tm" thing bothered ya, I apologize. Let's call that symptoms of a hangover from a trademark related lawsuit (story coming soon).
Let me know if you want to do pushups in the park anytime soon :)
I just use a house and spray nozzle off the back-yard tap ( winter in Ireland is quite mild! ) and the main benefit I feel is the warmth when entering the house afterwards, rather than the typical step-out-of-shower chill.
After a couple of weeks it becomes a routine and normal showers now feel weak and insufficiently cleansing.
I haven't noticed any particular health benefits, still susceptible to colds and flu.
But I haven't really seen it helping to get rid of belly fat; it helps sore muscles recovery after/during workout significantly though. For belly fat I still need to do all the aerobic exercises and proper diet until 6-pack shows up.
As winter ended in New England I wanted to up the stakes a bit. Where my wife and I live there is a lovely little waterfall where we go swimming in the summer. Decided to start swimming in Mid March while taking the dog on a walk next to it while she was gone on a trip. Max time in the water at first was maybe 90 seconds but doing it almost everyday since (combined with the changing of the seasons) means now I can stay in as long as I want without discomfort: on the order of 5 minutes.[1]
Side bonus: it has reset my internal thermometer for what is "cold". Most cold snaps are now, by comparison, "ehh this isn't so bad."
3 mins after stepping out of a cold shower I'm usually feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, as if I had just kicked some disgusting dog off my porch. (/s)
Nah, down there in the equatorial tropics, the only things that get much below 20°C are those in fridges or freezers. The aircons don't go below 16°C.
I've only been to such hot countries on vacation, and I think if asked, most people would confirm that they mostly don't use the hot water, except perhaps to sanitize hands with soap.
I didn't notice the difference and the cold showers are not something I could get used to. Guess it's different for each person.
Even if you do it for longer time, you can still catch horrible cold - I got deep sinusitis knocking me out for a month and am still have some mild symptoms (it was a combination of a bacterial infection, another virus and cold showers prior to catching it). Be careful!
If fixing diet and exercise are number 1 and number 2 to being a happier human. I'd put fixing the person you're dating at number 3, the people you're friends with at number 4, and the temperatures of the showers you take at number 5. A+ / 5 star - would have my cofounder challenge me again.