Having a cold shower after a workout offers plenty of health benefits you may still not know about. Learn what they are here!
In this article:
- Helps Relieve Sore Muscles
- Builds Up Your Tolerance And Improve Overall Health
- Improves Mental Alertness And Energy
- Boosts Anti-Depressant Hormones
- Can Kick-Start Metabolism And Improve Cardiovascular Health
- Helps Your Immune System
- Improves The Look Of Your Skin
- Best Of Both Worlds: Contrast Therapy
- Give Cold Showers A Try
Taking a Cold Shower After Workouts? Don’t Give It the Cold Shoulder!
1. Helps Relieve Sore Muscles
Muscle pain can be one of the side effects of an intense workout. Hot showers can help generate a smooth blood flow throughout your body. They also help relax your muscles and provide a lot of relief from fatigue.
Cold showers have been said to provide inflamed muscles with even more immediate benefits. The shock of the cold water hitting your skin constricts your blood vessels, preventing your muscle tissue from collecting fluid, lactic acid, and other waste that causes swelling.
This causes a slowed heart rate, allowing your muscles to remain cooler as your body works to regulate your body temperature. This can lead to a less painful post-workout recovery and speed up the muscle recovery process.
2. Builds Up Your Tolerance And Improve Overall Health
Exposing yourself to a cold shower after a workout can increase your body’s ability to deal with stress. The mental endurance you build up from the experience allows your body to become better at dealing with other temperature extremes.
Building up your mental and physical toughness can help you power through tougher workouts or other challenges in your life. Many find themselves better able to deal with outside stressors after working cold showers into their post-workout routine.
An overabundance of uric acid in your body can be signs of issues with your kidneys, liver, or other parts of your body. Cold showers help lower uric acid levels in the body and can make you less likely to develop a variety of diseases. They also increase production of glutathione, the top antioxidant in your body responsible for keeping other antioxidants performing at a high level.
3. Improves Mental Alertness And Energy
Norepinephrine is a hormone your body produces that puts you in a mentally calm state, positively affecting your current mood. Cold showers increase the amount produced after a workout, helping improve your awareness and focus.
Many who’ve tried cold showers after a workout report having increased energy levels, like they’ve had a caffeine drink. That can help you finish up any other tasks you need to do once you’re refreshed from your cold shower.
4. Boosts Anti-Depressant Hormones
Studies have shown that old showers and other forms of cold therapy boost the levels of endorphins and noradrenaline in your body. The higher amounts of endorphins leave you feeling happier and more motivated. Noradrenaline helps you feel more alert and aware of what’s going on around you. The combined effect can help keep you feeling good about yourself long after the workout is over.
5. Can Kick-Start Metabolism And Improve Cardiovascular Health
Many people drink cold water before, during and after a workout as a way of forcing their body to work harder to keep their temperatures level. Cold showers perform much the same benefit by increasing your body’s blood flow to vital organs for extra protection and to warm your body up.
This can help you burn calories by increasing the rate of your body’s metabolism. Better calorie-burning efficiency allows you to see better gains from your workout efforts. The increased circulation helps arteries pump blood in a more efficient manner and helps elevate your overall cardiovascular health.
6. Helps Your Immune System
One study performed in England showed an increase in the production of disease-fighting white blood cells when athletes took cold showers after a workout instead of hot ones. Cold showers also help your lymphatic system get rid of waste in your cells, which can improve your body’s disease-fighting responses.
7. Improves The Look Of Your Skin
Hot showers can strip your skin of oils and other nutrients designed to keep it looking refreshed and moisturized. The constriction caused by cold water hitting your skin helps prevent these vital elements from being removed. That leaves your skin more glowing and improves the overall texture.
Best Of Both Worlds: Contrast Therapy
We’ve gone over the many benefits provided by a cold shower. Those who may not be ready to make a full leap can combine the benefits found from both hot and cold showers. Hot showers can help you find relief from migraines, lift your anxiety, and relieve your body of tension.
Try alternating between cycles of cold and hot shower blasts. Start off with cold water for one minute, then switch to hot for another. Alternate between the two at least five or six times. This method provides many of the benefits of cold shower therapy, including slowing down your heart rate and reducing lactate levels in your bloodstream.
Give Cold Showers A Try
You can improve your health and reduce some of the painfulness of getting sore muscles to recover after a rigorous workout session with cold showers. Make sure you consult a physician about the effects this might have on your own health. You’ll want to be sure you don’t have any health conditions exacerbated by a cold shower after a workout.
Let this infographic be your guide. Download it now and use it as a reference later.
Who knows, you may find yourself taking things to new heights by trying out a cold bath! Now THAT’S for the truly hardcore!
Do you want to try taking a cold shower after a workout? Share your experience in the comments section below after you try it!
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