Fitness, Health, Leadership
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Cold showers are simple hacks that can tremendously impact our health performance.
This article is about my personal experience and reflects my personal transformation. A cold shower might be for everyone, but an awareness of their health benefits is worth mentioning.
Would you believe this too-good-to-be-true statement for an interesting experience?
I gained energetic alertness, improved mood, increased courage, improved immunity, reduced risk of depression, improved sleep, enhanced tolerance, fast recovery, reduced pain, reduced body fat, and even increased lean muscle, all with a natural hack based on a challenging habit.
From my experience, I believe that one of the best skills for entrepreneurs and leaders is to learn to tolerate cold exposure, starting with cold showers.
Yes, every morning and just before an important meeting or closing a new deal! If leaders or entrepreneurs can handle cold showers, then they can handle almost any other challenges in their life. I experienced it.
Let me share my personal experience.
Once upon a time, I felt like this dog in the attached photo.
I used to drink a lot of coffee with great enjoyment, especially in the mornings. With an epiphany, I replaced it with cold showers due to my intolerance to coffee in my unusual diet.
I talk about my unusual diet in another article. Even though some may consider it controversial, it has been one of the most critical bio-hacks in my life as covered in my recent book Simple & Powerful Life-Transforming Bio-Hacks.
Replacing coffee with cold showers resulted in more energy, more alertness, improved mood, increased courage, reduced body fat, and increased lean muscle.
Even more importantly and ironically, since I started cold showers over the last decade, I never had any cold, flu, or depression symptoms. Cold showers helped with my physical, mental, and emotional health and performance.
Perhaps it may not be fair to attribute not having a cold, flu, or depression symptoms to cold showers only as I had several immune-boosting, inflammation-preventing, optimal hormonal and neurotransmitter balancing bio-hacks, as mentioned in my books. But I firmly believe that cold showers and cold therapy (ice exposure) played an important role.
In this article I focus on cold showers. Making cold showers a habit is magical from multiple angles: simple, cheap, powerful, no side effects. What else could you ask?
My First Experience with a Cold shower
I never thought I was going to enjoy cold showers so much and replace my morning coffee with them. When I read the incredible benefits many years ago, initially, I thought it was just hype or exaggerated. However, I knew the importance of cold exposure on the brain from my studies in cognitive science.
It created some curiosity in me, though, as I kept seeing various articles and YouTube videos about the benefits of cold showers. After reading several testimonials, one day, I decided to take a cold shower myself. Oh, my good lord!
It was the worst experience I ever had. My body reacted badly. I thought I was dying. I knew it was my reptilian brain putting me in survival mode. However, knowing and doing are different things. As a trained cognitive scientist, I decided to tame this special part of my brain.
I watched several YouTube videos on how others did it. I learned a bit about the practical techniques, such as starting slowly with the legs and arms, then the head and the whole body. The techniques I learned helped me take cold showers a little easier. My pre-frontal cortex was slowly overriding the rebellious reptilian domain. It was a progressive victory.
However, what I learned about how to deal with the body’s response and the adaptation process was an eye-opener. Rather than approaching it scientifically, I preferred to learn it experimentally by leveraging the success of other people, such as Wim Hof.
Someone wise said that I wouldn’t die in a few minutes of cold showers, even though my body feels like it. It is a survival mechanism of the body to react that way. In a few minutes, the body would get used to it and would start feeling good. Even though I knew it, hearing from someone successful was more compelling and convincing.
My learning was spot-on. After 30 seconds, my body got used to it. The adverse reaction slowly turned positive. I started feeling better. The water seemed warmer after a while, even though I did not change the tap. The trick was to control my breathing. I kept breathing when the cold water was touching my whole body.
The best part was after the shower. It was a fantastic feeling. All lethargy and morning drowsiness disappeared in a few minutes. I felt as if I’d had three cups of strong espresso.
Not only was my energy level high, but also, my confidence increased incredibly. After 10 minutes, I noticed that my heart rate lowered considerably. Muscle soreness disappeared. It was a transformed state, like new born, altered state of mind, almost euphoric.
Nowadays, whenever I have a challenging day ahead, especially a difficult meeting or a complex lecture, I have a few minutes of a cold shower and feel ready for the challenges of the day.
When I take a cold shower 10 minutes before a public speaking commitment to a large group of a critical audience, e.g. group of opinionated academics debating in convoluted theoretical terms in industry summits, my courage increases, fear disappears, and my tolerance level skyrockets quickly.
Cold showers are so important in my life that, with no exaggeration, they helped me to become a better version of myself.
After making the cold showers a habit, my coffee intake and caffeine dependence in the mornings disappeared. This naturally improved the quality of my sleep as a good side effect.
Whenever I feel lower energy, tired, and lethargic for any reason, I just have three minutes of a cold shower and boost my mental, physical, and emotional energy rapidly. So far, I have not experienced any undesirable side effects of cold showers. Wish my cold shower experience was patentable, I could have been rich by now!
After reading about the benefits of cold showers, one day, I discovered that having cold and hot showers together half an hour before bed can reset the circadian rhythm.
This was beneficial information for me, as I frequently traveled over the Atlantic, and like many other travelers, I used Melatonin to overcome my jetlag issues.
Trying 30-second cold and 30-second hot showers alternately five to ten times half an hour before bed did wonder in resolving my jetlag issues. I’ve since stopped using melatonin, as it has side effects such as feeling drowsy the next day, especially if it is a cloudy winter day.
I also believe that cold showers increased my immunity. To re-iterate, therefore, I haven’t experienced any cold and flu symptoms for over two decades. I don’t take extra vitamin C or don’t get flu injections at all.
I read a lot about the thermal effect of ice water on body composition associated with burning fat without losing muscle. I won’t bore you with the science of thermal effect, but I can confirm that since I started the cold showers, exposed to myself colder study room and bedroom, and drank ice water, my body fat percentage dramatically reduced, and my lean muscle mass increased a bit.
To conclude, one of my biggest inspirational role models is the legend Wim Hof who broke several Guinness records in the field. He is not only a magical practitioner but also a science-focused collaborator sharing his knowledge with universities and research institutes.
As he did for millions of people, Wim Hof also inspired me to leverage the therapeutic effects of cold exposure.
Here is an informative video where you can see Wim and better understand the benefits of cold showers and cold therapy in dealing with many ailments and improving mental, physical, and emotional performance.
Here’s How I Formed an Endless Energy Source in Four Steps.
Here’s How to Start the Day with a Spark and Live a Joyful Life in Five Easy Steps.
Six Reasons I Feel Younger and Healthier as I Get Older.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
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Disclaimer: Please note that this post does not include health or professional advice. I shared my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only for information. If you have disease symptoms, please consult your healthcare professionals. Health is the responsibility of individuals.
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