I Took Freezing Cold Showers for the Last 60 Days, Here’s What Happened

How I Decided to Take Cold Showers

As a lover of long hot showers I never thought I’d be writing this article, but in late January I had a conversation with my friend Tom who is super into fitness. He’s a former college athlete, teaches CrossFit in his free time, is pretty jacked. We did a triathlon last summer that he finished in a way better time than I did.

Tom mentioned that he had been taking cold showers and it was helping his muscles recover faster from his workouts. He was less fatigued, experienced less soreness, and was overall recovering faster.

I read a lot of health/fitness websites and blogs so I was aware of this concept but had never really thought about doing it before. I know that it’s only now being studied but that there are many anecdotal stories of benefits. However, Tom is awesome, if he can do I should do it, I thought. I was working out pretty hard at the time, and love to challenge myself so decided on the spot that I’d try it and find out for myself if there was anything to it. I picked 60 days because it seemed longer than some fly by night attempt but not so long that I wasn’t going to make it if I hated it.

What’s With Cold Showers?

Cold showers have been getting attention recently due to Wim Hof, a dutch athlete who sustains crazy cold temperatures and makes a lot of claims about what it does for him. I looked up some information on him before trying it myself. Here he is chilling in the Artic:

Let’s just say I wasn’t convinced/inspired by all the photos of him in the Artic but decided to go ahead anyway.

Basically, it’s what you think; you take a shower with the water as ice cold as it can get for some period of time that you decide. You may or may not turn it to warm afterwards or you may do this after doing a warm shower. Either way, that’s what we’re talking about.

Benefits of Cold Showers

If you’re not familar with the benefits, they are listed all over the web. Even WebMD has some information on them here. The purported benefits include:

·Reduced Inflammation and Faster Muscle Recovery — this is the crux of what I was looking for.

·Improved Mental Health and Focus — I definitely wouldn’t complain about these if they happened.

·Boosted Immunity and Metabolism — These sound fantastic.

·Others such as tighter skin and smoother hair — I was not as interested in these.

My Cold Shower Experience

I wasn’t really sure what this would be like. I was thinking something like the ice bucket challenge but for multiple minutes.

Day 1: Day 1 was a total failure. I wasn’t mentally prepared. I just didn’t have the right thoughts going to get it done and never tried. I just looked at the cold dial the whole time thinking I’d change it to cold any minute, but I never did. Fail.

Day 2: Day 2, which will be henceforth known as Day 1, was my first day. I woke up ready to go and jumped right in. What I can say is that stepping into the ice cold shower literally took my breath away. As in, you need to force yourself to think about breathing and take in air. I kept trying to hold my breath which just made it all worse. I struggled through about 2 mins and got major brain freeze before turning it to warm.

Day 2: Day two I started focusing the water on specific areas of my body for about 30 seconds a piece. This was the hardest day by far because I knew what it was like from day 1 and was dreading it all night. I pushed through it though and it even seemed easier than I thought it would be.

Rest of Week 1: After 3 days I was shocked to find that I sort of enjoyed it. The initial shock was far less jarring and the only time I need to steady and slow my breathing is when I put my face in. During this time I began timing myself and extended cold showers up to 5 minutes which is what I maintained for the rest of the time.

Month 1: Month 1 completed without fanfare. There was one day I didn’t shower at all, but every other morning I got my time in and turned it to warm for a few minutes at the end. I was in the Colorado Rockies for a while where the groundwater was ridiculously cold, but I actually found I liked those days better than being in the Denver Metro area where it was slightly less cold.

Days 30–60: Over the last month, I kept at it and I started experimenting with not turning it to warm at the end of the cold, instead washing up during the 5 minutes and then just shutting off the water and getting out. Surprisingly, I wasn’t cold when I did this. My body adjusted and I actually felt warm getting out of the shower. Day 60 was today which has lead to this post.

Takeaways

So did I get the benefits I was hoping for? It was a bit of mixed bag.

·Reduced Inflammation and Faster Muscle Recovery: There is no question that I noticed this. Muscle soreness was reduced after workouts and recovery time seemed faster. Even some things like turf toe and a chronically sore hip feel better for the whole day after getting the ice water treatment. Verdict: Yes

·Improved Mental Health and Focus: This really did put a spring in my step and help me focus in the morning in ways I haven’t been able to do before. I didn’t notice any change to happiness, but I’m pretty happy to begin with. The focus change was immediate from stepping out of the shower. Any tiredness or grogginess was immediately washed away. This incuded some “Nyquil Hangover” during the period I had a cold. Normally that would last a few hours for me, but it was quickly wiped away by the cold shower. Verdict: Partially Yes

·Boosted Immunity and Metabolism: The first month was great; I felt strong and had lots of energy. During the second month however I had a string of colds that didn’t go away for about 3.5 weeks. I kept cold showering through that period but I had two distinct nasty colds one after another and had basically no energy during that time. I can’t really draw solid conclusions from that. I don’t claim the colds were due to the showers, but I did get two colds while doing this so my immunity system didn’t seem stronger. Verdict: No

·Tighter skin and smoother hair: I haven’t yet observed these but as I said at the start I wasn’t really looking for these so didn’t track them carefully. Verdict: No

·There were other benefits I hadn’t counted out: My sleep improved noticeably to the point where I was sleeping like a log and getting out of the morning shower refreshed and alert. Secondly, I had a boost in confidence. I found myself taking on and completing things I’d left undone at work or home. I started to feel like if I could conquer the fear and uncomfortableness of cold showers, I could conquer most any of the little trivial things I postpone or avoid in my daily life. This was a huge unexpected benefit and is the core reason I may continue with this. It would be easy to quit, but there’s something to Marcus Aurelius (Great Medium post with some Marcus Aurelius quotes found here) and working through hard things to be able to work through hard things. Verdict: Awesome bonuses!

Final Thoughts

Will I continue? I’m continuing right now while I decide what I do next but I haven’t made a long term decision yet. Doing this through the two colds I had was not fun at all and I wouldn’t recommend it or do it again, but assuming I’m healthy, I’m leaning toward keeping it going. I should have a decision shortly and will post the what and why when I do.

Do you want to try cold showers? Does the thought make you cringe? Have you tried it and noticed similar or different results? I’d love to hear. If you do try it based on this article please share your experience.