Cold showers are a good way to help reduce inflammation and soreness after workouts. There are also many other benefits besides reducing inflammation. Cold exposure by shower or bath has been shown to decrease muscle soreness and can speed up recovery. This is also called cold water immersion.
Benefits of cold Water Showers after Workouts
While it’s common for athletes to soak in ice baths after games to recover from inflammation, the average person can get the same benefits at home. Simply by taking a cold shower or bath post workout, you will want to gradually work up to while exposing yourself to colder temperatures.
If taking a cold shower start out taking a lukewarm shower for a couple of minutes and gradually make the colder water over time. It’s never recommended to just expose your body to cold water without adapting first.
Cryotherapy is another form of rehab where a person is exposed to cold air, they are in a chamber with their head exposed below -100 C for 3-4 minutes at a time.
cold showers or baths work by focusing on cooling down damaged nerve ending tissues. Cold exposure also increases circulation will helps speed up recovery. Even faster than rest alone, although rest is still important. Muscle soreness can occur after workouts anywhere from 1-4 days.
Other Benefits of Cold water Exposure
- Increase in Glutathione
- Helps Burn Fat
- May increase your body’s tolerance to stress and diseases
- Increases Focus
- Improves mood and may Help Treat Depression
- Keeps Skin and Hair Healthy
- Improves Circulation
Cold water shower are great for reducing inflammation and soreness, let’s look a little more in depth below.
How Cold Showers and Exposure Work
As mentioned previously, cold showers work by lowering the damaged tissue temperature and cooling it down by constricting the blood vessels. In one study, involving over 360 people in 17 trials shows that cold water immersion was effective in reducing soreness. It showed that it helped recovery from 1-4 days post-exercise was more effective than rest alone.
The study was done with water temperatures at 10-15 Degrees Celsius and each individual stayed for an average of 24 minutes. Some of the other studies involved contrast immersion. This is done by alternating between cold and hot water.
It’s believed that this type of treatment helps with detoxification and helps by cleaning out the Lymph System. It’s also thought that by some alternating water temperatures help transfer oxygen and nutrients into organs.
Cold Water Improves Circulation
Cold water exposure reduces soreness after intense workouts. As the cold hits your body it causes your blood to circulate at much faster speeds to keep your body at a stable temperature. The main benefits are from the constricting blood vessels in the body.
When you take cold showers on a normal basis it can improve your circulatory system. It is thought that the improvement in healthier skin is through improved circulation.
Cold water or ice exposure simply has healing effects on the body. Cold water treatment works in the same way as applying ice to an inflamed area or bruise. This works when the injury or area of the body is cooled down and quickly transporting warm oxygenated blood to the injury.
The History of Cold Water Exposure
Cold water exposure or “hydrotherapy has been around for centuries and in many different cultures. It’s believed that everyone from Native Indians, Russians and even Japanese would use cold water exposure for healing.
Vincenz Priessnitz was a farmer in Germany from 1820 started the new medical treatment called “Hydrotherapy”. This was just exposure to cold water for healing certain health ailments.
He claimed that he cured health from broken bones to ED(Erectile Dysfunction.) He turned his home into a place of healing, as the word spread people from every walk of life started under going his treatment.
Vincenz popular treat soon began to spread across Europe and soon into America in. The first Hydrotherapy center opened in the U.S in 1843. As doctors began to treat illness with more modern medicine, the facilities started to eventually close.
How Long Should I wait after Workouts before Taking a Cold Shower
It’s important for a cool down period after your workout while your body temperature is warm. It’s considered to wait at least 20 minutes to let your core body temperature cool down before jumping into cold water.
Why cold Shower may help with Weight Loss
Your body can store two types of fat, white and brown fat. White fat is stored when excess calories are consumed. Cold water exposure or therapy can boost your ability to burn more fat. Fat cells such as a type called brown fat can heat the body to help burn fat. “According to Gerrit Keferstein MD, says these fat cells are stored around the neck and shoulder area.”
Cold Water Therapy may Improve Mood
As mentioned earlier, used for hundreds of years in German and other cultures for cure, there was little proof or research. There are some studies that would suggest that one could benefit from cold showers.
One study implies that one with anxiety could benefit from cold exposure. In a French study, it compared using Paxil an SSRI to water baths. The study was done with people who suffered from generalized anxiety and was done over a course of 8 weeks.
237 people tried cold water therapy while and 120 tried the Paxil medication. The water therapy was done with the individuals doing daily bath visits with mineral water for 21 days.
Every day patients would take a bath immersed in 37 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes and then shower with a firm massage targeting points on the body for 3 minutes.
Finally, the lower parts of the body were massaged underwater for another 10 minutes. The results showed improvement in the scores, but with it being heavily more favored towards the water therapy. Remission and sustained rates were also higher than the drug treatment and were shown to have fewer side effects.
Try Giving Cold Water Therapy a Try
Cold water therapy has many benefits but you should consult with your doctor before trying if you have any kind of health issues. You should never take any advice off the internet and replace with your doctors. With that being said, cold showers are great for using after workouts to prevent muscle soreness and to help with recovery.
It’s the same reason why professional athletes take ice baths after games, to promote circulation to inflamed parts of the body. This is just a small amount of cold therapy benefits. If you want to learn more, there is a lot of studies being done on Wim Hof the “Ice Man”.