Cold showers, BRRRR. No one likes discomfort, especially early in the morning, which is exactly what makes cold showers great. With science backed benefits like elevated dopamine, better circulation, and enhanced mood, this chilly but refreshing habit holds the potential to change your whole day.
“How so?” you may ask. Here are 5 reasons to add cold showers into your morning routine.
Kick Your Body Into Gear
Cold showers in the morning work to energize the mind and body, and as a result kickstart your day. By embracing discomfort, you actively choose delayed gratification. Meaning, rather than slowly starting the morning with a warm or hot shower, you shock the body. This requires discipline, something many people seem to have forgotten.
Discipline requires mental fortitude, and a will to overcome temporary hedonism. However, like all facets of effort, it is rewarding. After just 1-2 minutes of cold exposure in the morning, dopamine levels spike and can stay above baseline for up to 6 hours! This means greater motivation throughout the day, improved mood and a desire to seize the day!
Less Stress
Cold showers are an excellent way to boost confidence and eliminate negative thought patterns. When a stressful day arrives, it is often that we mindlessly go through the day, our attention paid solely on the events ahead. Our inability to stay present in each moment only fuels this stress, creating feedback conducive to further angst. Cold showers break this loop, and thrusts you into the present.
Cold exposure has been shown to release endorphins, the body’s natural pain relievers. These wonderful chemical signalers work to lower the release of cortisol, the stress hormone. For men, lower cortisol means higher testosterone, leading to increased recovery and confidence.
Increase Metabolism
Cold exposure lowers your core temperature, meaning your body is constantly expending energy to heat it up. As a result, you are expending more calories in an attempt to maintain homeostasis.
Cold exposure also directly increases brown adipose tissue. Compared to white, brown fat stores increase heat production more effectively, thereby making your metabolism more effective. In practice, frequent cold exposure creates more brown fat as an adaptive measure. More cold exposure results in more brown fat, so better metabolism and better at staying warm in cold environments. A higher proportion of brown fat demonstrates greater ability in clearing glucose from your bloodstream, increasing insulin sensitivity as well. Higher insulin sensitivity means a lower risk of diabetes and obesity, and obviously better weight regulation.
One piece of practical advise with the cold showers. Andrew Huberman, an associate professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford, recommends letting cold water hit the back of your neck for greater brown fat stores. He explains this and other tips with Dr. Susanna Søberg:
Numerous Health Benefits
Cold showers have great mental impacts, drive neurochemical levels up and lowering stress concurrently. Additionally, the practice possesses a multitude of physiological benefits.
Cold showers have been shown to increase circulation, due to blood flow increase in an attempt to maintain body temperature. Better circulation means good heart health, faster healing, and proper waste management.
Exposure to cold daily also works to lower inflammation. After stepping out of the shower, the body rapidly warms back up, causing oxygenated blood to flow back into various tissues. This flow can lessen present inflammation, meaning greater muscle recovery. This is why cold exposure is often a great means of recovery for athletes. Other excellent forms are ice baths and cryotherapy.
Immune response is bolstered in the presence of cold also. When we shiver, it causes an autonomic response, which indirectly leads to increased immune system activity. Voluntary exposure can mean greater tolerance to stress and respiratory infections.
Mental Strength
The last reason to start taking cold showers is more much direct. While cold showers do offer a number of great physical benefits, they are more for building strength and resilience than anything.
These days, pleasure is sought out more than anything. Nowadays, degeneracy promotes hook up culture, fast food, and “dopamine hits.” Your phone provides endless stimulation and entertainment, when it could be used as a tool for productivity. Diets include processed sugar, artificial ingredients and fats by the kilo. Almost every facet of daily life has become fashioned around the desire for temporary pleasure, and more importantly, around the neglect of pain.
Cold showers do suck. They aren’t fun initially. It will be a hard habit to instill. They will test your mental fortitude, and they will punish those who are weak. But that’s what makes them great. It’s a simple 1-3 minute daily habit, and yet offers so much promise. An opportunity to stop caving to weak thoughts. An opportunity to level up your discipline. An opportunity to become mentally strong.
Here’s a great TED talk by Joel Runyon about his experience with cold showers and what they did for him: