I've tried this twice in my life in the US. Both times I came down with fever. In India, you really want cold showers during the summer.
Taking Cold Showers
41–50 of 123 posts
Re: Taking Cold Showers
#42Sounds a lot like Kneipp's idea ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kneipp - was pretty popular in Germany when I grew up). Having been forced to take a week of cold showers due to a malfunctioning heater I can't say it made me any stronger. It just made me feel pissed off and not properly clean.
Precisely. I was raised on 'Kneipp Kur' showers and I still do it every day. The thing is, its a lot more effective, if you taking changing temperatures. Hence, I shower hot first to get clean and then cold at the end. Makes you feel awake and also you won't freeze when you get out of the shower ;-)
Re: Taking Cold Showers
#43Good luck getting a clean shave under those conditions. It sometimes amazes me what people think constitutes adversarial conditions, and testing oneself. Reaching down and turning a knob, then telling yourself that you're building character? Odd. By the way, I loved the comments. They read like something I would have written as a twelve year old. "I'm like a Navy SEAL because I beat myself up every day with a cold sh…
Good luck getting a clean shave under those conditions.
It works great when shaving with obsidian chips. I like yak butter as a shave lotion: let it ferment just a bit for a subtle scent and extra moisturizing.
Re: Taking Cold Showers
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I taught a course on the Psychology of Personal Change in college and there are papers that suggest that willpower resembles a muscle - in that it can degrade over time. But there are also other studies that suggest it can also be built up over time - like a muscle. Would you say that doing pushups in the morning is a bad thing? Yes, you're more tired later in the day, but if you keep doing it, you'll get stronger an…
Yep. Of course there's no particular reason to think that the muscle analogy needs to be accurate either way, though.
Well, actually there is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion
Re: Taking Cold Showers
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you like to share some specific reasons why people shouldn't engage in cold showers? Or are you just going to make a personal attack that doesn't relate to anything I said?
Would you like to share some specific reasons why people shouldn't engage in cold showers? Would you like to share some sort of science proving that taking a cold shower has some health benefit over talking a hot shower?
I never suggested that there was scientific evidence that taking showers has health benefits. I simply indicated that I've started taking cold showers, that I'm getting value out of doing so and that perhaps readers should try taking a cold shower and seeing if it also gives them value.
I've linked to another blog post that suggests there are health benefits - I encourage you to read it, perhaps look for others and form your own opinion.
Re: Taking Cold Showers
#46Good luck getting a clean shave under those conditions. It sometimes amazes me what people think constitutes adversarial conditions, and testing oneself. Reaching down and turning a knob, then telling yourself that you're building character? Odd. By the way, I loved the comments. They read like something I would have written as a twelve year old. "I'm like a Navy SEAL because I beat myself up every day with a cold sh…
>our bodies are probably designed to buck up and shower in less-than-ideal conditions. By this argument, our bodies are designed to die of smallpox.
Yes, of course there are exceptions to every generality. Man also isn't conditioned to sit at a desk for 8 hours a day or eat highly processed foods on a consistent basis. This doesn't disprove his point that exposing yourself to a little bit of the natural environment is probably a good thing.
Re: Taking Cold Showers
#47Coincidentially I had just taken a cold shower before reading this. But then, it's 95 degrees out; it's 75 with high humidity in the earth-sheltered house, and in these conditions a spring-fed shower is very welcome.
I'll bet this guy is going from an aggressively airconditioned room to a cold shower. No wonder it's unpleasant.
Re: Taking Cold Showers
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Taking a cold shower lowers your body temperature, then your hypothalamus kicks in to compensate. You get out of your cold shower, and your body heats up. If you take a warm shower, you end up cooling down after the shower.
Not my experience. Sometimes I take a cold bath (ice is involved) after running. With enough ice, I feel quite cold for many hours after getting out -- to the point where I get out an extra down comforter to sleep with, and am still cold.
That means you have lowered your core temperature and your body is simply unable to respond to that coldness quickly. It's vital that you feel cold at that point. Quick cold showers are just "tricking" your body.
Re: Taking Cold Showers
#49If you're having problems loading, here's the google cache http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2N7uwSF...
Thanks. I wish people would learn how to cache their own blogs so we don't have to depend on Google.
Re: Taking Cold Showers
#50Every time I take a cold shower, I get a raging boner. Is there any physical basis for this, or is it a purely a mental thing?
Increased blood circulation in response to the cold could be a factor.