I’ve taken a cold shower every day for the last 6 weeks. My thoughts on cold water exposure.

 Alright y’all, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard at least once or twice about the cold water exposure hype. That, or my algorithm is extremely tailored to health and wellness and I’m the one living under a rock. A crunchy-ish health rock. Either one is extremely possible.

Either way, if you haven’t heard about it before now, you’re about to. I’ve been taking a three minute cold shower every day for the last six weeks and I’m ready to give you my thoughts on the trend.

First things first though - what’s the process and what do the experts say?

Because I don’t have access to an actual cold plunge (YET), I’ve taken the advice of bio hacker Gary Brecka and started with cold showers instead. I turn the water on as cold as it goes, start my timer, take a deep breath, and then step under the water. I spend ten deep breaths per side and continue this spin until my timer goes off three minutes later. The key is to get as much of your skin exposed to the cold water as possible in that time.

So…what’s the point? Why expose yourself to such an uncomfortable experience?

Natural health experts have been boasting the benefits for years, ranging from increased circulation, faster muscle recovery, deeper sleep, improved mood, and more. When the cold water hits your skin, the first thing that happens is what’s called a vasospasm. This means your arteries are going to narrow and your body is going to push all of the blood and oxygen into your core and up to your brain to protect itself. The extra oxygen to your brain causes a release of endorphins in the body, and the extra blood to your core supports all of your major organ function. The cold water also causes a release of a cold shock protein from your liver, which helps remove free radicals from the blood and increases muscle repair.

There’s a lot more science behind this than what I’m able to explain to you, but hopefully you get the gist with my description.

So after listening to Brecka on the Joe Rogan podcast, I decided to give it a try. Here’s what I found:

1) The first day was by far the most difficult.

I think it was a combination of the fact that I had mentally worked myself into a “this is going to suck” attitude, and that I was exposing my body to something it had never experienced before. Either way, it wasn’t enjoyable the first time around. I only did a one minute shower, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a difficult time catching my breath during the entire 60 seconds.

The cold water did in fact shock me (SHOCKER) and it took most of my will power to stay in there the full time limit. Thankfully, I was smart enough to have Jake time me that first try and I knew he wasn’t going to let me give up without a fight.

That being said, as much as that first day sucked, I had made a commitment to myself to get to the three minute time limit. And the second day wasn’t so bad. And the third day was a little easier. And then I started staying in a little longer. And slowly but surely, it actually became an activity I looked forward to, because I really only felt cold that first 20 seconds or so. Challenging yourself has benefits, in more ways than one.

2) My muscle recovery has improved exponentially.

It’s not a secret that I work out often, and when I do it’s usually lifting weights. In the past, I would get really sore after a hard lift, and it would take a solid 48 hours for that soreness to go away. Jake always tells me to stretch more and I am admittedly terrible at taking this advice.

The cold showers have made this issue almost nonexistent. The muscle tightness is manageable, and my recovery time is down to 24 hours maximum. I’ve also seen improvement in my old lady “aches and pains.” That is - less back, hip and knee pain, which is saying something after breaking a knee cap a mere 6 weeks ago.

It’s important to note that there is increasing evidence to support doing your cold exposure either BEFORE your workout, or later in the day, but not immediately after. Because I workout first thing in the morning, I usually wait to do mine until evening. Which brings me to my next point:

3) While some people think doing it in the evening is counterproductive, I actually find it helps me sleep better.

I think the time of day tends to be a personal preference, but I know some who say it wakes them up so much that they have to do it in the morning. For me it actually has the opposite effect. I like to get out and wrap up in something warm and cozy before crawling into bed. And dang does that feel good.

I also find that I sleep so much deeper at night. I’m usually a restless sleeper, my mind is always working and I’m usually listening for kids or husbands or sounds through the night. While I still don’t get uninterrupted sleep (hello four kids), this sure has improved my quality of sleep.

4) One word: ENDORPHINS

It’s wild to me that a situation that makes us so uncomfortable will release such a rush of endorphins afterwards, but it really does. As Brecka says, “aging is the aggressive pursuit of comfort, meaning the faster we pursue comfort, the faster we age.” Sorry folks, looks like discomfort is the way to go.

You know how you dread working out, but you do it because you know you won’t regret it after? The cold shower is kind of the same thing. I do still kind of dread it, but I mostly make myself do it because I know I’m going to be glad I did when it’s over. I always feel so good and calm and less stressed when I get out.

There are other benefits of cold water exposure: the main ones being potential fat loss and lower risk of disease. I can’t attest to the fat loss - currently growing a human - but I do hope that the disease portion is accurate. In a world full of toxins, I’ll do anything I can to reduce the effects on my body because I’d sure love to be around for a long time to annoy Jake and raise his four minis.

My take on cold water exposure: it sure doesn’t hurt anything, and I’d recommend giving it a try if you’re up for it. Send me a note if you have more questions, or go follow Gary Brecka on Instagram for more tidbits on how to do it and what it does for your body.