17 Benefits of Cold Showers That Will give you superpowers

Ever felt the shock of sub-zero-like water in an otherwise hot shower? Don’t rush to blame your roommate next time! That icy blast could be just the wake-up call your body needs.

The benefits of cold showers are surprisingly impactful on your health and well-being. This isn’t just about surviving cold temperatures – it’s about unlocking cold shower benefits you didn’t know existed. In this piece, we’ll explore 16 reasons to brave the chill. Trust me, it’s worth growing the courage for this!

1) Cold Showers Build Strong Will Power

Thinking about a cold or hot shower to start your day? I’d strongly suggest a cold one. Trust me, at first, it takes a ton of willpower to step under that chilly water.

You might even feel like your blood vessels are freezing. But with time, braving a cold shower becomes a habit. It’s not just about your body; it’s about strengthening your mind too. This habit can give you the mental toughness to face other challenges throughout your day.

This is why it’s a staple of our 30 Day Self Improvement Bootcamp on Menprovement X.

2) They Improve Emotional Resilience

Do you get flustered, anxious, or pissed off easily?

Cold showers can help. Seriously, cold showers train your nervous system to be more resilient to stress.

As shown in this study, cold showers act as a small form of oxidative stress on your nervous system. And over time, the body adapts to this. Essentially, you will be a calm, cool, badass dude. The first time you step in that cold shower, you won’t be able to think straight, let alone breathe. But after a month, you will be thinking about your day in a Zen-like focus as the ice-cold water has no effect on your manliness. This will translate into everyday life as you brush off stressful bullshit that would typically ruin your mood.

“This can be viewed as an adaptation to repeated oxidative stress and is postulated as a mechanism for body hardening. Hardening is the exposure to a natural, e.g., thermal stimulus, resulting in increased tolerance to stress, e.g., diseases.”

Science Direct

Think about James Bond. In the books, James Bond always takes what is known as a Scottish Shower, where he starts off hot and finishes with ice-cold water. And he’s the calmest, coolest dude there is!

Additional Resources:

Winter Swimmers Show Increased Adaptation to Cold vs. Non-Winter Swimmers

3) They Reduce Stress

Diving a bit deeper, cold showers do more than just build mental fortitude. When you immerse yourself in cold water, a fascinating physiological process takes place. This process, known as cold water immersion, can actually help reduce your body’s stress levels.

Let’s break it down: when your body is exposed to cold, it reacts by reducing uric acid levels. Uric acid is a waste product in the blood that can cause gout and kidney stones if levels get too high. The cold exposure from a shower can lower these levels, promoting overall health.

But there’s more. Cold therapy, such as taking a cold shower, also stimulates the production of glutathione in your blood. Glutathione is often referred to as the body’s “master antioxidant.” It’s essential for dealing with stress and fighting off diseases.

So when you’re shivering in that cold shower, remember: you’re not just waking up your body, but you’re also helping your blood vessels and your overall health through cold therapy. It’s a powerful, holistic approach to wellness.

Additional Resources:

Uric Acid and Glutathione Levels During Short Term Whole Body Cold Exposure

4) Cold Showers Increase Alertness

Should you dare to take a cold shower, you’ll quickly find it hard to breathe. But don’t panic. This forced deep breathing, coupled with exposure to cold temperatures, significantly escalates your oxygen intake and heart rate, leading to a natural energy boost throughout the day.

This newfound alertness starkly contrasts the grogginess often observed in your warm shower-loving colleagues.

5) They’ll Improve Your Skin & Hair

If you are not motivated by feeling better, then be motivated by looking better.

One of the best ways to improve your skin (and hair) is by taking cold showers. Plus it’s free!

According to certified Dermatologist Jessica Krant, ice-cold water can help our skin by preventing it from losing too many natural oils. And your hair gets the same benefit.

Along with that, one of the benefits of cold showers is how they will help your hair appear shiny, strong & healthy by keeping the follicles flat and increasing their grip on the scalp. This is great news for any of you guys who are scared of losing your hair!

Additional Resources:

Cold Showers: One of The Best Anti-Aging Secrets

6) Stimulate Weight Loss

Another way cold showers will make you look better is by promoting fat loss.

Most people don’t know this, but there are two types of fat in your body. Brown fat & white fat. White fat is bad. It’s the body fat that we all hate so much. Brown fat is good. Its function is to generate heat and keep your body warm.

When you take a cold shower, brown fat is activated, resulting in an increase in energy and calories burned to keep your body warm. So much so that according to this study, cold temperatures can increase brown fat by 15X the normal amount, which can result in 9 pounds of weight loss per year.

Tim Ferris is also noted in his book, The Four Hour Body, that taking ice baths was an amazing way to promote weight loss. The next level for any cold shower veterans.

Additional Resources:

Cold Showers May be Secret to Burning Fat, Research Reveals

7) Cold Showers Increase Testosterone

One of the most notable cold shower benefits, especially for men, is the potential elevation in testosterone levels. While it’s challenging to measure the exact impact, studies, such as this one (link expired), have shown that even minimal heat can affect our DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis in the male testes.

A noteworthy tidbit: this is why our testes hang outside the body to maintain a cooler temperature. Given this information and the anecdotal evidence of Russian weightlifters enduring cold before competitions, there seems to be some merit to the testosterone boosting theory of cold showers

Additional Resources:

Cold Showers And Testosterone: The Theory of Cool Glands

8) They Boost Fertility

Here’s another interesting benefit of taking cold showers: they could increase your sperm count and enhance fertility. Hot baths have been established as a compelling male contraceptive. Surprisingly, men who took a half-hour hot bath every other day for three weeks found themselves infertile for the subsequent six months.

Furthermore, a study at UCSF showed that men who ceased taking regular hot baths experienced a sperm count surge of up to 491%. So while a hot shower won’t be as drastic on your sperm, it does have some impact. If you’re planning to conceive, your testes will thank you for choosing a cold shower

Additional Resources:

How to Increase Your Sperm Count

9) Cold Showers Improve Circulation

If the prospect of looking or feeling better doesn’t motivate you, the health benefits of cold showers might. They enhance circulation by driving blood to your organs to maintain their warmth.

This stimulation of the circulatory system is excellent for overall cardiovascular health, ensuring blood flow is efficient throughout your body.

10) Cold Showers Improve Immunity

One of the most important benefits of cold showers is the fact that they increase your immunity.

A study from England showed that regular cold showers increased the count of disease-fighting white blood cells compared to those taking hot showers. The hypothesis was that the body, in an attempt to warm itself during cold water immersion, increased its metabolic speed rate and activated the immune system. This activation led to a release of more white blood cells, thereby boosting your body’s disease-fighting capabilities.

On top of that, remember back to point #2 and how the cold water swimmers’ bodies were more adaptive to oxidative stress. (A.K.A, their bodies can take a hit)

Additional Resources:

Dr. Weil: Are Cold Showers Good For You?

11) And They Drain Your Lymphatic System

Cold water affects blood vessels and the lymphatic system. Blood vessels are tubes that carry blood and regulate body temperature. When you take a cold shower, blood vessels in your skin constrict, which keeps you warm. Alternating between hot and cold water helps to improve blood circulation and can even help with varicose veins.

Cold water also stimulates the lymphatic system, which removes waste and toxins from the body. By contracting and relaxing the lymph vessels, cold water can help flush out stagnant fluid and improve the immune system. So, taking cold showers can have benefits for the body, including regulating temperature, improving circulation, and promoting lymphatic drainage.

Learn more about this process below.

Additional Resources:

Hot and Cold Showers – Lymphatic Cleansing

12) Cold Showers Speed Up Muscle recovery

If you’re an athlete then you know that taking an ice bath after intense training is one of the best things you can do for muscle soreness (A 2009 study confirms this)

But you don’t need a high-tech training facility with cold water submersibles to be able to achieve these benefits. Just take a cold shower.

Although it won’t be as effective as a fully submerged ice bath, it will improve circulation, and help remove some lactic acid. Try alternating between very hot and very cold to let the blood come and go to the surface. Your muscle soreness will decrease, trust me.

13) Cold Showers Relieve Depression

One of the most noted benefits of taking cold showers is that they offer relief for symptoms of depression.

Cold showers stimulate what is known as “the blue spot,” which is the brain’s primary source of noradrenaline – a chemical that plays a role in alleviating depression.

Plus the mild electroshock delivered to the brain by the cold shower (you’ll know exactly what I mean) sends an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, which could result in an anti-depressive effect.  There is a high density of cold receptors in the skin, much more than there are for registering warmth.

And according to this study, it’s not all just hearsay.

At the end of every shower, I like to just let that cold water blast me on the top of the head for as long as I can take it. Talk about brain freeze.

Additional Resources:

A Guide to Hydrotherapy For Relieving Depression

14) They Wake You Up

Obviously, an ice-cold shower is going to get your ass up in the morning. We already talked about how they will scientifically increase your alertness, but science aside – if you have trouble getting up and pumped for the day, cold showers will change this.

Additional Resources:

Success Ritual #1: The Wake Up Shower

How to Have a Great Morning

15) And Then They Put You to Sleep

Ironically, while cold showers wake you up in the AM, cold therapy is one of the best ways to get an incredible night’s sleep.

Tim Ferriss talks about cold therapy in The Four Hour Body, by taking a 10-minute ice bath. And I quote him:

The result: it’s like getting hit with an elephant tranquilizer, even if the melatonin is omitted. Don’t expect it to be pleasant at first.

I agree with Tim’s findings. A cold shower at night puts me straight to bed.

Additional Resources:

11 Tricks For Getting a Great Nights Sleep

16) Energized Breathing

Step into a cold shower and the first thing you are going to do is take a big deep breath.

After that you will start panting and moving, your breathing will become deep and erratic.

You get a massive boost of energy from that increased breathing that cold shower forces you to do. The boost of energy can be a good alternative for a morning coffee that will kick your physiology into another gear.

17) Cold Showers Can Even Help With Opioid Addiction

Hydrotherapy has been prescribed as a part of addiction treatment since the 1930s and there are several reasons for that. Coldwater increases the levels of beta-endorphin, the hormone that binds to the opioid receptors of the brain, the same receptors that are affected by opioid drugs. Thus, even the heroin addiction symptoms and the withdrawals can be eased by the cold shower.

What Does Cold Shower Mean Sexually?

When it comes to the connection between cold showers and sexuality, a few things are worth noting:

How to Gain The Courage to Take Cold Showers

Okay, so you know by now that cold showers are awesome. Great.

Now good luck waking up tomorrow morning and taking one (regardless of how amped up you are now).

It’s hard to take the plunge.

So I think some words of encouragement are in order.

First: As Phil Drolet, of TheFeelGoodLifestyle says:

“What would the best version of you do?”

No one else is gonna push you into that shower (unless you have an asshole older brother). You just have to take the plunge. And every time you do it, it will get easier. If you want to be the best version of yourself, you have to step outside your comfort zone.

Second: As Michael Anderson, Author of The Experiment says:

“Turn it into an experiment”

The thought of taking cold showers every day for the rest of your life is daunting. Like making any other lifestyle change that your mind perceives as permanent. But Michael Anderson helps people overcome this daunting feeling, by having his clients turn things like this into an experiment.

So here’s your experiment.

All you have to do is take a cold shower tomorrow morning, and see how you feel. You can start hot, but end cold, for at least 1 minute. Then see how you feel. If you liked it, then do it again the next day and see how two days in a row made you feel.

It’s just an experiment, not a permanent life change.

Third: My advice

But whatever you do, don’t be too serious about it and have fun. If it’s gonna stress you out, then it’s not worth it. This is supposed to improve your life, not scare you to death.

Let’s wrap this chilly story up

So, my cold shower warriors, it seems there’s more to that chilly rinse than a mere wake-up call. From testosterone to fertility, circulation to immunity, the cold shower benefits are not only surprising but also scientifically proven.

Even if you’re a hot shower devotee, switching to the cold side even once in a while can give your body the kickstart it craves.

Stay frosty, my friend.