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I tried cold showers for at least a month. I can confirm it gets easier & feels less painful over time, and there is a kind of rush that you get from it. But

I tried cold showers for at least a month. I can confirm it gets easier & feels less painful over time, and there is a kind of rush that you get from it. But ultimately I stopped. Partly because my hair never washed right in the cold water, but mostly because the showers were making me grumpy & irritable for the rest of the day. I didn't enjoy that feeling, I didn't particularly enjoy the showers, and I didn't notice any productivity or health benefit. I first heard about cold showers from Joel Runyon, so I'll give him a link [1]. But it quickly went from blogs about "here's a self-motivation idea I'm trying" to "here is my TEDx talk and Cold Shower Therapy™ email course and download the Cold Shower Therapy™ app on the App Store". [1] http://impossiblehq.com/cold-shower-therapy/ http://impossiblehq.com/cold-shower-therapy/

dajbelshaw 11y ago
I've taken cold showers every weekday for the last few years. The way I get around the problems raised (washing hair, etc.) is that I have a really hot shower just before bed. This helps me sleep by lowering my core body temperature. Cold showers are great and, as someone who's suffered from depression in the past, I go into each day thinking, "what's the worst that could happen"?* *I realise that sounds flippant, but it's true...
- unicornporn 11y ago
  So you shower twice a day? My skin wouldn't approve...
  - culturestate 11y ago
    I've been doing this (both hot, though) most of my life. My skin is fine, but my hair used to take a beating -- now I only wash it every other day, rinsing in between, and it seems to work well.
  - joelrunyon 11y ago
    The cold water doesn't dry your skin off nearly as much as hot water does.
rhinoceraptor 11y ago
I take them only before bed, it's sort of meditative and helps me get to sleep.
joelrunyon 11y ago
Joel here :) Glad you tried it. For my part - I tried to build tools that helped people take action (rather than just read it and think "hey, that's a cool idea"). Pretty much all of them were free if that helps at all. If the "tm" thing bothered ya, I apologize. Let's call that symptoms of a hangover from a trademark related lawsuit (story coming soon). Let me know if you want to do pushups in the park anytime soon :)

dajbelshaw 11y ago

I've taken cold showers every weekday for the last few years. The way I get around the problems raised (washing hair, etc.) is that I have a really hot shower just before bed. This helps me sleep by lowering my core body temperature. Cold showers are great and, as someone who's suffered from depression in the past, I go into each day thinking, "what's the worst that could happen"?* *I realise that sounds flippant, but it's true...

unicornporn 11y ago
So you shower twice a day? My skin wouldn't approve...
- culturestate 11y ago
  I've been doing this (both hot, though) most of my life. My skin is fine, but my hair used to take a beating -- now I only wash it every other day, rinsing in between, and it seems to work well.
- joelrunyon 11y ago
  The cold water doesn't dry your skin off nearly as much as hot water does.

rhinoceraptor 11y ago

I take them only before bed, it's sort of meditative and helps me get to sleep.

joelrunyon 11y ago

Joel here :) Glad you tried it. For my part - I tried to build tools that helped people take action (rather than just read it and think "hey, that's a cool idea"). Pretty much all of them were free if that helps at all. If the "tm" thing bothered ya, I apologize. Let's call that symptoms of a hangover from a trademark related lawsuit (story coming soon). Let me know if you want to do pushups in the park anytime soon :)