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The Radical Benefits Of Cold Water Therapy For Men

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I attribute cold showers to many of my successes in life. The uncomfortable act of forcing your body to withstand the freezing cold temperature of the water gushing out of your shower as the faucet is turned as far to the ‘cold’ side as possible is not only invigorating, but also provides many health and well-being benefits for men.

A few years ago the only time I’d experienced the uncomfortable feeling of a cold shower was when our hot water system was not functioning, however today it is a habit I perform daily.

After you finish reading this post I challenge you to take a cold shower… no excuses, no bullshit. It’ll change your life. Let’s take a look at some of those benefits of cold showering that I alluded to earlier:

Improved Hair & Skin

Warm showers, although enjoyable and relaxing, offer no tangible benefits to our hair and skin—unlike cold showers. The cold water from your shower will result in the tightening of pores and cuticles, which aids in detoxification (as bad toxins are essentially squeezed of out your skin during this process). During a cold shower our hair cuticles are also closed, resulting in stronger hair.

Increased Testosterone

With an increase in testosterone levels, cold showers can turn you from a weak little boy into a man. In 1993 a study was conducted by the Thrombosis Research Institution of England which identified a correlation between individuals who take cold showers regularly and higher testosterone levels.
Although this rise in testosterone may not equate to instant increases in lean muscle mass, I can certainly attest to cold showers increasing both libido and overall energy levels.

Aids Post Exercise Recovery

Exposure to cold water and ice are known to reduce soreness and increase muscular recovery after strenuous exercise. This is why many elite athletes take ice baths. The logistics and process of setting up an ice bath is a handful—instead opting to take a more convenient cold shower will provide a similar boost in the recovery process after exercise.

Relief of Depression

The Department of Radiation Oncology at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine performed a study that suggests regular cold showers assist in battling depression. The “blue spot” of the brain is said to be stimulated by cold water therapy. This is due to noradrenaline, a chemical in the brain that has been linked to the mitigation of depression.

Increase in Discipline

There is no greater discipline-builder than the cold shower. Our body can withstand the cold water without a problem, but the mind will quickly want to abort and get you out of there. If you start your day with a 3-5 minute cold shower, I guarantee you that you will not be making excuses or delaying other tasks you have been avoiding undertaking. Instead, you’ll be setting the tone for a successful day.

Insane Levels of Energy & Invigoration

After stepping out of the shower you’ll feel like you’ve just ingested a double-shot espresso. Regardless of how lethargic you’re feeling in the morning, the moment that ice cold water hits your skin your heart and breathing while dramatically increase. As your body attempts to adapt to the situation at hand you’re left feeling completely energized.

Your Mission

Don’t take things to the extreme right off the starting line. If you’re jumping straight into an ice bath or a 10-minute freezing cold shower, I suspect you’ll become overwhelmed and disregard the whole cold showering ideology. Instead, I challenge you to slowly start to turn that faucet in your shower further towards the cold side. Alternatively you can jump straight into contrast showering – alternating between hot and cold water for 20 second intervals to condition yourself.

Yes, initially you’ll squirm, whimper, and experience erratic breathing, but after a few weeks of consistent cold showers they’ll begin to become relaxing, invigorating, and will leave you in a zen-like state.

Read More: 5 Easy Ways To Boost Your Testosterone

114 thoughts on “The Radical Benefits Of Cold Water Therapy For Men”

    2. When I spend all day with sleet driving into my face, or wake up to -20 with every window in the house frosted over, I give the cold shower a miss for that day.

  2. Matt Forney said something about this. I did it for a while and then kinda forgot. I forget why I forgot.
    But I did feel sharper.

  3. YES! Cold showers ftw! My cold tolerance has improved so much! I walk around comfortably in 40 degree weather. In fact, I won’t throw on a jacket unless it is in the 30s. Everyone is walking around with multiple layers lol and it feels really good. My skin and hair have definitely improved, and nothing is better than hitting a cold shower pre- and post- workout.

      1. Sometimes haha! Cold showers take like 5 minutes or less and will get you mentally focused and ready to kill the weights. Hot showers drain you of energy.

        1. I try to improve my health, but I won’t go that far, lol. Plus, it seems the energy you spend showering could be used for exercising, but whatever works.

  4. Our society has become really gross because men spend all their time eating sugary foods, shopping, and watching porn.
    We need more ascetic practice. That’s what separates the men from the boys.

        1. I tell you what, you come over with those sexy knee high boots and nothing else. I’ll bring the oil and the video camera, we gonna make a movie. I’m going to make you a star!

      3. except the damage to your dopamine regulation long-term and all the deleterious effects that stem from it.
        With the epidemic level of sluttery in 2014, there is no excuse to jerk off. The supply of whores demanding you use their orifices has never been so overabundant.
        Porno is for the desperately incompetent or the pathologically lazy.

        1. So if I shag a bitch instead that does no damage to my dopamine regulation? Your argument lacks sense my friend.

        2. Sluttery doesn’t mean free sex for everyone, it means the opposite – lots sex for alphas at the expense of salt of the earth guys/betas, and a lot more incel losers in the sexual market place.

        3. Yes anything done to excess will do so. But we all know what fapping entails, and it ‘s freebase cocaine compared to splitting some whore in two.

        4. True. But knowing what base creatures women have become makes them easy to manipulate. Just be the biggest piece of shit you can be and whores will start rolling in.
          Not for everyone of course, some people just don’t want to go down that path. For those men, there are whorehouses. 25 euros later and you leave the place a new man.
          This is a degenerate discussion to be having in the first place but this is the world we live in.
          If we can stamp out the beta phaggotry in men everywhere, we might finally get a world in which these whores will have to pay for their poor choices.

      4. If you’ve already figured out game and have no problem getting pussy, porn is fine…otherwise I would avoid it like the plague.

  5. I did it for about 4-5 months. I did certainly feel a lot better after taking the shower. Personally, however, I have a problem with a nearly perenially tense upper back, and cold showers tend to make this worse in the morning. I’m going to find a solution to the upper back tension and make another crack at the cold shower habit.

  6. I wish this site had more interesting fitness-related articles like this…brown fat vs. white fat is interesting.

  7. You are late to the party. Matt Forney wrote an article about this months ago. I tried it out. The most notable change from hot to cold showers is that my skin wasn’t as dry as before.
    Just some heads up for the newbies to cold showers.
    1)It will take about 5-6 days before you will adjust completely to the cold water.
    2) It is not as horrible as it seems at first.
    3) You are not going to freeze to death or get anywhere close to hypothermia. You are not in danger. Just really unconformable.

    2. I generraly hate the cold, be it water, wind watever makes me sick I hate it. I think I will take a pass on the cold showers at least untill the spring comes along.

    3. I do this everyday and it works, it just takes some time to get used to. And if you keep doing it, it’s no big deal.

    1. Yea thats another thing. They always say wash your hands with hot, soapy water. Maybe the solution is to take a cold shower in the morning without soaping, and then a warm, soapy shower at night to clean up after the day.

      1. I was going to post that hot water’s recommended because hot temperatures kill bacteria while cold water just sends it into hibernation, but after a short Google it appears this may not be the case and just another wives’ tale – the temperatures at which bacteria start dying off are (a) not achieved by hot water heaters and (b) are too hot for a human being to withstand.
        Even the CDC doesn’t recommend hot water – just that you scrub for 20 seconds and do a thorough job on your hands – i.e. that you spend time, not heat. The FDA still requires elevated water temperatures, but it’s basically a policy due to inertia rather than peer-reviewed science.
        Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com.au/news/energy/2013/12/131213-washing-hands-hot-water-wastes-energy-health/

        1. you had to use Google to find out that the temperatures reached during a hot shower aren’t high enough to kill bacteria ? LOL

      2. Yes, hot water is much better for cleaning. I like taking a hot shower first to clean up, and then switching to cold water to for some invigoration. I wonder, does this approach have the same benefits as a straight cold shower?
        Also, this:

  9. I tried cold showers once. Its so jarring. On the other hand, I love cold weather and will go out in winter in a Tshirt, walk barefoot in the snow, etc.

    1. Ya know what, Im going to try cold showers when I wake up. No soap. Just a minute or two of freezing my ass off. Sets the tone for the day as you said and will wake me up better. Then, when its time to actually wash up at night or after work: warm shower.

      2. I have no problem you have your faith. Did a study few years ago in a German company; many German males came to work in USA, with full hair and thin healthy frame, in less than 3 years, all gained 50 pounds and lost 30% of their hair, not a coincidence other than consuming tap water with fluoride added.

        1. For the more science inclined, sodium fluoride (the stuff they put in the water) is an endocrine distruptor, which in turn can cause hypothyroidism, which in turn causes lethargy, fatigue, cold-intolerance, weakness, hair loss, and reproductive failure. All the studies done saying fluoride is positive for teeth and bones actually use the more naturally occurring calcium fluoride.
          To be fair though, Seel, I’m sure the HFCS and GMO tainted food supply in the US also had something to do with it.

        3. Very few municipalities use Sodium Fluoride, they usually use other chemicals with fluoride in it that are cheaper and easier to handle. Smarter countries than our own have realized the mistake and removed it.

        4. I would definitely like to check this out. The thing is, fluoride has only recently been added to water supplies (post 50’s) yet there were always bald people around. Are there more bald people now than previously? (taking population expansion into account)

      1. Boron triiodide is a chemical compound of boron and iodine with chemical formula BI3. It has a trigonal planar molecular geometry. It is a crystalline solid, which reacts vigorously with water to form boric acid. Boric acid is often used as an antiseptic, insecticide or flame retardant. oO Tamarind might be a tad safer.

        1. Yeah, not in that form!
          Iodide, being a halogen, helps compete with fluoride a bit in the body.
          But boric acid is great for sensitive teeth too. Extensive animal research on increasing bone mineral density – and amazing results in women with osteoporosis: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=boron+supplementation
          Also used to detox fluoride in skeletal fluorosis. There’s a good Chinese study, but I can’t find the like 🙁
          Tamarind, eh?

        2. Im not convinced that iodine effectively competes with fluoride–fluoride is so much more reactive. However iodine will increase your production of thyroid hormones in my case a few mgs of potassium iodide increased my T4 20%

      2. Boron is relatively inert but reacts vigorously with Fluoride and in a very favorable ratio. Its interesting that many people are finding Boron helps with arthritis.

    3. Adding fluoride to the water has got to be thee dumbest idea. I mean there was a time that they used it to treat hyperthyroidism because of its known ability to slow thyroid function.

      1. It is added to reduce cavities. Although I agree tax dollars should not be spent on it, I would pay the approx $1 a year it costs to have my water contain trace amount of floride to prevent tooth decay and cavities.

        1. I think you have a right to ingest it if you so desire, and everyone obviously can buy and use toothpaste which they can spit out after they use it. The big problem is the government is medicating undiagnosed unconsenting people in a manner not consistent with the drugs proper use (every fluoride containing product you use will say to spit it out). The majority of fluoride is actually absorbed during bathing, so just drinking bottled water isnt even an option to avoid it.

        2. If you don’t source your bottled water, you could be getting it there as well. Some brands are simply filtered municipal water, labeled “spring”.

  12. dude, a hot shower while shaving with a Merkur double edge razor, Astra blades, and Body Shop shave cream outweighs anything listed above. Follow with a bomb ass aftershave, reap poosay.

  13. Only idiots live in the cold and would forsake a hot shower. Would rather be wrinkled and ugly while living in CA with hot showers.

  15. This article is just pure speculation, almost no scientific reference anywhere. Broscience to its finest. I’ll stick to my hot showers thanks.

      1. Yes, and the conclusion of the study was: “In conclusion, wider and more rigorous studies would be needed to test the validity of the hypothesis.”

    2. This article is mainly a quick introduction into cold therapy. Cold water immersion is part of hydrotherapy and cryotherapy, which have been around for centuries and still used today.

        1. You know what has never been subjected to a randomized double-blind placebo controlled trial? Parachutes! Do they really help in deceleration during gravity challenge? I nominate you to lead the control group. Praise Science!

        4. Oh look, it’s the bald guy that needs scientific evidence that pooping is in fact a healthy process.

    3. Sounds like you never tried a cold shower because you lack the discipline to do so. Do you even lift, bro? What do you think the ice baths in professional athletes’ locker rooms are for? Fancy displays of machoism? No, those things fucking work. There are dedicated sport medicine doctors on staff administering those ice baths for a reason.

  16. I have limited experience with cold showers. Victor Pride’s blog convinced me to give them a try for building up self-discipline. From my experience, the first couple of minutes were a shock to my skin, especially on my back and balls. I had to ease into the water stream. My breathing was faster and deeper, and it was hard to not let out vocal exclamations. Then the water didn’t feel as cold and my body felt warmer. It’s like jumping into a cold pool. At first the water is too cold, but then it quickly becomes unnoticeable. The showers only lasted about 5 minutes. Afterward, I felt more invigorated and had a better mode, but there was “downstairs” shrinkage. This was during the late summer when the mornings were still warm outside. I stopped when the outside morning temperatures dropped because I wasn’t sure if I could tolerate it. However, I’m thinking of trying a cold shower today when the outside temperature is below freezing just to see if the water is noticeably colder and to test my tolerance level.

  17. Been doing this for a couple of months now, author didn’t mention the benefits to the immune system, this is a great thing to do for every reason ( except for comfort, but you’ll get used to it). I’m not sure if you should do it if you live in a very cold place though.

  18. Use hot water to get clean and cold water to reinvigorate. Shower daily! Shave with a straight razor to save money and get a closer shave. Wear clean pressed clothes that fit you and work out at least an hour a day. There’s very few things more pathetic than some fat sloppy beta fuck who smells like shit and sweat. Don’t be a metro fag but take pride in the way you look and smell.

  19. They used to treat sexacholics with cold water baths. If you take only cold showers you kill your fire literally. Also if keep yourself too clean you feminise yourself.
    The proper way of doing it is as the Russians do it. You take a hot relaxing bath and then you do the cold one.

  20. I rather do the hot/cold shower method. I start of with very hot water, get steam everywhere like in the sauna, and finish with cold water. I find it much better then just starting off with cold.

  21. Agree about the positive effects of cold showers but immidiately stopped reading the article after I read “detoxification”. On a site which is supposed to be dedicated to truth and reality, are we really gonna keep pushing the myth of “toxins” like some Whole Foods addicted women?
    Toxins exist, but you usually use their specific name when talking about them. Ethanol, mercury, heavy metals, the different poisons etc. “Toxins” used as a catchall term for “stuff that’s probably bad” don’t really exist, because no one can ever actually specify what “stuff that’s probably bad for you” they are actually talking about

    1. I’ve read about this idea, that toxins do not exist. Seems there’s an article floating around Facebook right now talking about “How to get Healthy and why Toxins don’t exist”.
      I’d think it’s bullshit, and can be disproven by practical observations, so I have some questions for you.
      Why do regular meth/bad drug users have boils on their skin? What’s coming out of it?
      Why does your body have night sweats when you quit smoking?
      Do you think the only purpose of sweat is to cool down the body?
      Why is sweat so full of bacteria/waste?
      Do you think that you, or anyone on earth, has a complete 100% understanding of how the human body works yet?
      When a person stops a bad habit like eating crap food or drinking, smoking, or drug abuse, often times they will piss, sweat, shit, or vomit in high amounts. This is because the body is removing stuff it doesn’t like.
      Also, if you read about food grade hydrogen peroxide and the people who dilute it into bath water, you will find that certain people can visibly see green/brown nastiness excreting from their skin into the tub.
      So, for practical reasons, I think it’s safe to say due to observable evidence that the body can and does purify itself through the skin.

      1. Been studying this for over 10 years and YES… Cleansing in a balanced way is the best thing ever you can do for your health!

  24. Anything that takes you past your comfort (retard) zone is beneficial to yourself if it in fact means you can make greater distinctions in life, the danger with having cold showers and similar activities is not to do them for masochism or autoerotic reasons. Doing these type of activities are a double edged sword, they can lead you to a life of weirdness and detachment.

      1. i can answer that, and i’m not even that extreme in my practices. i just do five hard workouts a week and refuse to eat the donuts in the office, and even that inspires mistrust and fear in many of the other office drones. don’t even get me started on my not gaming, learning foreign languages, etc. such is life in the US in 2014.

        1. Oh, so his point was being seen as “weird” in modern society is much better than the alternative.

        2. something like that, i think. for example, that simpsons episode where they recruit homer as an astronaut because regular astronauts are seen as highly motivated, intelligent, overachievers and “most americans hate people like that.”

  25. DISCIPLINE is the most important benefit of all those that you mentioned. It is truly about self control and self discipline. It’s just you and the cold water. There’s nobody else who is “forcing” you to do this. If you have the discipline to take cold showers, you have the discipline to do anything in life and succeed at it.
    Now I don’t turn the water all the way cold because I live in northern Europe. It’s below freezing where I live now. Turning the water all the way cold means showing in something like 7-8 degree celsius water (46 degrees F). I turn it so that the water is around 10-15 degrees C. After a year of doing this I have gotten used to it. I don’t look forward to taking cold showers. It’s not comfortable. But I do it anyway because I know that I’m doing something that 99.99% of men in industrialized societies cannot do and will not do. And that makes me feel good.
    Keep doing what the vast majority of people out there will not do because they lack the self-discipline to do so, and you will succeed in life.

  26. When I visited the Philippines, all they had was one knob for the shower. Cold water on/off. The first initial squirt was like jumping into a pool. Your balls shribble up and you squeal like a little girl. A couple of minutes later you adjust and get used to it.

  28. I wonder if we could ease into it by just using cold water right before we left the shower & made that time frame longer and longer until we’re good to go all the way.

  29. I tried this after getting into the habit of swimming in the sea during the summer. After a while it really feels good and energizing. I’m trying to work out why stopped.
    Turkish baths are interesting too, as a way of alternating between extremes of hot and cold

  31. This works because cold activates Brown Adipose tissue, the monster converter of thyroid hormones(not the liver and kidneys that you will read in most texts) . This is why testosterone levels in Nordic men are highest in winter. Mice that have their BAT removed become fat. Of course this assumes someone isn’t hypothyroid or isn’t missing other key nutrients that are necessary for BAT to function.

  32. How cold? Here in Anchorage the winter tap water temperature is about 34°F and my room temp is 55.

  33. I’ve noticed that riding my motorcycle to work on cold days, while painfully cold, has an amazing, energizing effect afterward, so I do it as often as I can. I’ll give this a shot, as well.

  34. I always do cold showers and our water comes from a groundwell, but then again I live in blistering northern Brazil so hot showers are sorta retarded (and expensive).
    Nothing gets me off a doozy mood better than a excellent cold water shower.

  35. Well written. I’ve researched this topic, tried getting a cold shower, and I felt refreshed. Hot showers are for little boys but cold showers make the man!

  36. Great. Those cold showers are tough. I’ve opted for year round sea swimming. At a certain point it would be hard to call it swimming. I try to do it two or three times a week. Bearing in mind weather conditions and safety. Wonderfully invigorating and great for the circulation too.

  38. Ted talk did a thing on this topic , that was my introduction. It was the middle of summer when I saw the talk and was inspired to try this. You’ll find out how insane you are , and how much balls you have if you can keep it up through the winter months . Haven’t punk’ed out yet

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