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There’s a guy at my gym who goes in the steam room after every work out. He does the same thing Lefite mentioned. He sits in the steam room, jumps in a cold pool, then goes back in the steam room.
he said that this open and closes pores and also makes your muscles expand and contract and that it’s a very healthy thing for your skin as well as relaxing your muscles after a work out.
I’ve yet to try it though. 😯
Do I dare to comment on all of these posts? I suppose there will be someone out there who will refute everything I type, but I’m starting to become accustomed to the routine now.
1) A cold dousing can help with muscle soreness because it causes them to tense and squeeze out lactic acid, which is the catalyst of muscle burning and soreness.
2) Cold temperature will not cause an increase in circulation…unless left in contact with the body for a longer period of time, say 15-20 min. Such is why you should ice in intervals or smaller periods of time. Icing too long will make the body increase blood flow and body temperature to the applied area, and actually cause swelling. (Defeats the purpose of icing, obviously.)
3) It’s important to know that although cold temperatures can help, too much or an extreme in temperature which shocks the body can be very harmful. Steam room to pool and back and forth will probably be fine, but ice soaking, extreme cold dousing and similar results in shock to your capillaries. The shock in temperature will cause them to shrink, decreasing blood flow, at which your heart rate will increase, pumping blood through them harder. The result is burst capillaries (doesn’t have to be noticeable or close to the surface of the skin) and high increase in blood pressure. Repeat this shock on a daily basis and you can assimilate blood clots.
Anyone know differently…seriously?
Dalamar-
I think your safe and we’re all adults…. or can at least act like them 😀
Anyways, just a quick question.
What you are trying to convey here is that sitting in a tub of ice or dousing is just fine in short durations. However, one may notice or experience a degredation in their health if they continue to do it for extended periods of time? I just want to clarify your stance…
Of course, if you are talking about extreme temperature differences you should ease into it a bit. So, for example, if you get out of the hot sauna, what some people will do, they will first walk outside for a bit, breathe some fresh air (all naked of course, that’s how sauna is done!!), then go into the cold water tub. You also wouldn’t jump right into it, you kind of walk in, feet first, then slowly immerse your whole body.
How long you should stay inside depends on the water temperature. If it’s ice water, barely above freezing, you would just walk in, stay in a few seconds and come back out. In water that cold, you could potentially freeze to death after just a couple of minutes, so you would really just get in and get out.
If it’s still cold, but not quite icy, let’s say 55 degrees or so, you can stay in a lot longer, maybe ten-fifteen minutes or possibly more. To freeze to death in that type of temperature would take a lot longer, a few hours (not exactly sure how much, but it’s a lot more). So, you could stay in much longer there. That’s about the temperature the ocean has in winter in LA and believe me, it feels like freezing, but it’s still far above it. I’ve stayed in water that cold for quite a long time (up to 15-20 minutes maybe) and was just fine afterwards (and very refreshed!). It also depends a bit on your body type how long you can stay inside the water, people with more body fat can stay in longer, because they have that extra layer of protection against the cold.
By the way, once the water gets really cold (even 55 degrees or so) and you go in, often you don’t feel cold. I mean you do, but there is that burning sensation on your skin that makes the water feel almost hot. It’s weird. Sometimes, I don’t really feel cold at all and I have to pay attention that I’m not staying in too long. But do stay in for a while, because you will get a better effect than if you just stay in for a few seconds (in 55 degree water).
Jumping into a pool is okay, too, but it’s often not really cold enough to have the desired effect.
Doing this correctly really does help with blood circulation. You can feel it, especially after sauna. By the way, what some people will do in northern countries if there is no cold water tub, after being inside the sauna, they will go outside and roll around naked in the snow! Not quite as effective in my opinion, but better than nothing. Of course in the good old US of A, you might want to make sure the neighbors aren’t watching, or you’ll get a ticket for nudity in the snow or something. 😉
quote :I think your safe and we’re all adults…. or can at least act like themJops,
I know. I was meaning to be more humerous than anything after seeing some people have \”spitting\” matches on the forum. 😀 Nothing wrong with it…
It’s not so much the duration of the \”dousing\” as it is the extremity to which the temperature is. Pool jumping after a sauna is probably going to be fine. (Although I doubt walking from the sauna to the pool will lower your internal body temperature to adjust, Giantkiller.) Remember it’s the sudden change in drastic temperature, like ice or ice cold water being dumped on a warm body that causes SHOCK. It’s hard on your system. Taking a mild cold shower after a warm one, probably fine. Sitting in ice after raising your temperture high from a workout……you test it. Try turning the shower to ice cold after having it hot for ten minutes. Tell me if your heart-rate goes up and you have the feeling of a compressed chest.
quote :By the way, once the water gets really cold (even 55 degrees or so) and you go in, often you don’t feel cold. I mean you do, but there is that burning sensation on your skin that makes the water feel almost hot. It’s weird. Sometimes, I don’t really feel cold at all and I have to pay attention that I’m not staying in too long. But do stay in for a while, because you will get a better effect than if you just stay in for a few seconds (in 55 degree water).Giantkiller,
That burning sensation is a warning sign. It’s your body shrinking its capillaries to reserve heat and keep blood from cooling by touching the surface of the skin. As a result you start to feel almost warmer because you are more sensitive to you inner body temperature. It’s how most people die from hypothermia. They’re found dead with their clothes off in the wilderness because they have reached a stage where they feel very hot and begin actually stripping off clothes even though it contradicts all rational.
End of post. Sorry for the length.
Well, I can really only speak from my own experience (and others I know, who swim in cold water sometimes). All I can say is, I think if you are careful and are doing it the right way, it can indeed be beneficial. I always feel healthy and refreshed when I do this and I do feel as if it has positive benefits for blood circulation.
I think shock would definitly occur if you jumped right from feeling overheated into a 36 degree ice pool. So, you want to take things slowly. Usually, when you do sauna and are feeling as if you can’t stand to stay in a second longer, but then step out of the door (or even if someone opens the door) you immediatly don’t feel hot anymore, you can even feel cold (that’s why serious sauna goers will, often in unison, hiss \”Close the door!!!\” at anyone, who dares to come in and not close it quickly enough. 😀 ). Somebody once told me the real reason you start to feel as though you have to get out of the sauna is also not just heat but lack of oxygen. That’s why if there is air coming in from the outside you’ll immediatly feel better.
So, anyway, you should stay in as long as you can, then get out, usually walk outside for maybe a minute or two (or longer), breathe some fresh air, then SLOWLY get into the cold tub. If you dove right in it would propably result in shock, but if you go in slowly you should be fine.
For swimming in the ocean, you just have to use your own judgement on how long you think you want to stay inside the water. All I can say is I always feel very good and refreshed afterwards. The ocean temperature in LA is rarely lower than 55 degrees, often it might be around 58 (in winter).
If nothing else, I’d definitly recommend the cold shower. I have never felt any shock from it or have felt my heart rate going up. If anything from the hot shower maybe, but then the cold one was really refreshing.
Giantkiller,
If one were to do the hot tub/cold water pool about three times or so, how long do you recommend someone to stay in the hot and the cold water? Should the cold water just be a dip, go up to your shoulders and then go to the hot tub?
Also, I have been trying to do the cold water at the end of my showers. I figure, once I get out it will be cold anyway. Plus, when I take really hot showers (especially during winter) I start to get tired. So at least with the cold water at the end, it wakes me up and makes me feel refreshed. I never really thought of doing that until I read this thread.
It really kind of depends on how cold the water is. A lot of pools aren’t really that cold, probably at least 70 degrees (I’m guessing), maybe more if they are really heated.
So, if it’s not too cold (maybe around 70 degrees or more) you could stay in quite a while ,do some swimming etc. At that temperature it wouldn’t really have the hot/cold effect, it would just be refreshing.
For more of a hot/cold effect I’d say the water temperature should at least be in the lower 60’s. Go in slowly and even then you can stay in for a while. I guess it’s best to try it out for yourself, see what works best for you.
The really short dip would usually be done with extremely cold temperatures, such as around 40 degrees. Around 50 degrees you can stay in a bit longer, up to a few minutes, but sometimes a relatively short dip will work, too.
Definitly do the shower thing. I’ve been doing it for so long, I don’t even think about it anymore, I’m just doing it. I have actually never thought of someone NOT doing this until I’ve started reading this thread! 😆 The main reason here is simply to feel refreshed. I’m not sure if there are any long term health benefits just from the shower thing… You’ll have to see how long you want to stay under the cold shower, depends a bit on water temperature, but also water pressure. If your water pressure is low, you might have to move around a bit to get that cold water everywhere. If the water pressure is higher, it’s much nicer and has an even better effect. I usually put the shower on cold for maybe 30 seconds (water pressure in my building is not very strong). And don’t forget to put your head (or at least your face) under!!! 😉 Oh yeah, and it’s okay to scream! 😯
Okay… I’ve made it this far. The only problem I am having is when I turn the cold water on, the male part of my anatomy ends up in my stomach. 🙄
Jops,
Haha… I used to do the cold showering thing too, so I know what that’s like. The benefit is that you feel ripped because your muscles are all tight. 😉
So, has anyone else tried that hot shower/cold shower thing? In Southern California the cold water temperature is finally getting low enough, in summer it’s really too high to have the desired effect. Right now it’s perfect. So, go try it! Enjoy! 😀
Re:
quote \”rosie\:Cold increases blood circulation. Increased blood circulation is beneficial if you have sore achy muscles, or tendonitis, or anything that needs healing like bruises. Heat also increases blood circulation, but not as much as cold does.I just use ice packs on areas that are bruised or have inflamed tendons. What I find most helpful is to use an ice pack until the area is numb, then move the area to get more blood circulation.
About the mental clarity and colds claim, I have no idea.
/stethoscope on
Cold actually *decreases* blood circulation by way of vasoconstriction. When you apply cold to your aches and bruises, it is this vasoconstriction that decreases swelling to the affected area (as well as numbing the pain).
/stethoscope off
I guess what increases blood circulation with those cold showers and short ice water dips is that the cold might temporarily decrease circulation and then when you get out of the cold water, the blood rushes back into all of those cold areas. Don’t know if that is correct, but that’s kind of what it feels like! 😉
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