10 Benefits Of Taking Cold Showers
There is an audio version below.
There’s nothing quite like a nice, warm shower.
Am I right?
A hot shower relaxes you at the end of a busy day and warms you up on a cool morning.
Have you ever thought of the benefits of taking cold showers instead?
I really hadn’t considered this until I listened to an interview with Nick Loper on the latest episode of the Beyond The To Do List Podcast with Erik J. Fisher. In the interview, Nick talks about his recent lengthy streak of taking cold showers. He says cold showers have done wonders to wake him up and speed up his metabolism.
People often attribute cold showers to those who need to settle down (especially sexually). Maybe this is true, but Erik Fisher’s interview with Nick Loper made me think about some of the possible benefits of a cold shower besides the obvious. Here’s my list of benefits:
10 Benefits Of Taking Cold Showers
- Cold showers wake you up and help you be more productive throughout the day. As Nick Loper shared in the interview, a cold shower will get you going unlike a hot shower.
- Cold showers boost your metabolism. If you are looking for a way to burn more calories without doing a lot of work, you should consider taking cold showers. By taking a cold shower, your body naturally has to do more work to keep itself warm. This work means more calories burned even while you are sitting still. A cold shower may help you drop a few pounds or it may give you a bit more margin for that afternoon snack you are always craving.
- Cold showers reduce your water bill. You are less likely to stand under a cold shower for a long time. As a result, you won’t run your water as long and you will save money on your water bill. My teenage daughter is notorious for taking long showers, and I’ve noticed my water bills climbing the past year or so. I bet I could shorten her showers by shutting off the hot water during her showers.
- Cold showers reduce your heating bill. This goes hand in hand with benefit number three above. When you don’t need hot water, you don’t need propane, gas, or electric required to heat the water. Imagine the savings!
- Cold showers reduce the need to wipe the steam off your mirror. Doesn’t it get frustrating when the mirrors are all cloudy after you take a long, hot shower. The easiest way to avoid this problem is by taking cold showers. A cold shower guarantees you won’t have steam on your mirrors.
- Cold showers save time. It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re taking a hot shower. This isn’t the case when you take a cold shower. You will most likely take a faster shower which will free you up for other things in your day.
- Cold showers prepare you for the mission field. When you are in the mission field, your ability to take a hot shower is often very limited. I wrote about this in an earlier post.
- Cold showers prepare you for emergency situations. Last year, we lost power at our house for 84 hours when Super Storm Sandy blew through our area. This meant our hot water heater was off for an extended period of time. The hot water didn’t work, but the shower still worked. In order to get ready for work, I still needed to clean off with a shower. I would have been better equipped for this situation if I had practiced with cold showers before the emergency even happened.
- Cold showers cause you to be grateful. We take for granted all the luxuries we experience here in the United States. Cold showers have taught me to be thankful for the many blessings I have like a warm house, a soft bed, a refrigerator and pantry full of food, and clean water.
- Cold showers actually cool you off after a workout. Go running or biking. Do something to start sweating. After a hard workout, a hot shower doesn’t help you cool down. I have actually come out of a shower still sweating. This doesn’t happen thought when I take a cold shower.