Pure cold ice water baths
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I've heard good things about contrast showers/baths.
When I visited a friend who had a super-high-tech shower, there was a button with a snowflake marked "Scottish Shower"... if you pushed it, it would randomly slam the valves to full-cold for several seconds and then back to warm. Confusing as hell for the body, but my surprised yells probably amused everyone in earshot...
When I visited a friend who had a super-high-tech shower, there was a button with a snowflake marked "Scottish Shower"... if you pushed it, it would randomly slam the valves to full-cold for several seconds and then back to warm. Confusing as hell for the body, but my surprised yells probably amused everyone in earshot...
All major pro sports teams have ice baths in their training room. They are the little stainless steel tubs that you often see in the background during interviews. After running hard for a few hours taxing your muscles to the max, the best thing to do is get in one of these ice baths. It reduces most of the swelling and inflammation in your muscles and joints and allows your body to heal and recuperate for the next day of practice.
In the book, "7 Seconds or Less", about the Phoenix Suns, the author said what surprised him the most was how much time Steve Nash spends in these things. Nash gets into an ice bath for 25 minutes immediately after each practice and game. Nash also spends almost an hour a day stretching, getting massaged, and doing preventative maintenance on his body. There is a reason Nash and Jason Kidd are almost 40 and still playing at a very high level. Ice baths are a big reason why.
After I have a tough soccer or basketball game, I like to go sit in the cold ocean for a while. Its amazing how much better you feel when you do this.
Icing is a part of life for pro athletes.
In the book, "7 Seconds or Less", about the Phoenix Suns, the author said what surprised him the most was how much time Steve Nash spends in these things. Nash gets into an ice bath for 25 minutes immediately after each practice and game. Nash also spends almost an hour a day stretching, getting massaged, and doing preventative maintenance on his body. There is a reason Nash and Jason Kidd are almost 40 and still playing at a very high level. Ice baths are a big reason why.
After I have a tough soccer or basketball game, I like to go sit in the cold ocean for a while. Its amazing how much better you feel when you do this.
Icing is a part of life for pro athletes.
Chad Daring
Ostrich
Just did my second cold water bath, and was surprised at how much I didn't mind it this time. The first thirty seconds were a bit rough, but after that I got used to it quickly and went about business as usually scrubbing myself down.
Another interesting thing I Noticed as well, my skin feels great afterwards, it almost tingles in a pleasant way
Another interesting thing I Noticed as well, my skin feels great afterwards, it almost tingles in a pleasant way
punjistick
Pigeon
Any of you dudes living in NYC or Miami should absolutely check out Russian Turkish Baths, http://www.russianturkishbaths.com/enter.html.
It's an old school (more so in the NYC location) Eastern European style bathhouse where you bake in absurdly hot (200+F) saunas for as long as you can handle it, and then jump into pools of ice cold water.
I have a hard time articulating just how refreshing the feeling actually is. I actually feel an opiate-like high (endorphins I'm sure) for hours after a session in the hot rooms followed by a dip in the cold pools. Highly recommended for brutal hangovers as well, this place has saved my ass several times while partying my balls off in Miami.
It's an old school (more so in the NYC location) Eastern European style bathhouse where you bake in absurdly hot (200+F) saunas for as long as you can handle it, and then jump into pools of ice cold water.
I have a hard time articulating just how refreshing the feeling actually is. I actually feel an opiate-like high (endorphins I'm sure) for hours after a session in the hot rooms followed by a dip in the cold pools. Highly recommended for brutal hangovers as well, this place has saved my ass several times while partying my balls off in Miami.
I definitely feel much happier after an ice cold shower.
Don't puss out though.
Tim Ferriss in the 4 hour body recommends a 10 minute ice cold bath or shower which has been shown to increase testosterone levels (the sacred lifeforce).
Personally, I have been taking Ice cold showers since last year. However, during the winter it becomes unbearable and I usually hyperventilate during the shower and cant stay the full 10 minutes. I need to buckle down and man up!
Don't puss out though.
Tim Ferriss in the 4 hour body recommends a 10 minute ice cold bath or shower which has been shown to increase testosterone levels (the sacred lifeforce).
Personally, I have been taking Ice cold showers since last year. However, during the winter it becomes unbearable and I usually hyperventilate during the shower and cant stay the full 10 minutes. I need to buckle down and man up!
Cold showers are great for health, but I don't think it's a good idea if when the temperature drop below 50.
Chad Daring
Ostrich
bengalltigerr said:
Wouldn't the outside temperature relative to a cold water bath only matter if you heat was kept low?
Chad Daring said:
Yea that's when it usually matters, unless it's really cold outside.
I once got flu from ice cold shower, after that I started avoiding ice cold showers.
I'm not in the habit of taking cold showers, but I noticed a significant difference in libido after swimming in a friend's cold pool this summer, for a weekend.
The effect wasn't placebo, as I wasn't expecting any effect. I was just swimming. It just happened, and i felt much better for a few days. So, as far as it being "bro" science, I'll say that I believe that a lot of doctors are too arrogant in their knowledge of the body. Show me a doctor who can cure himself of a low libido, naturally, and then I'll listen. Until then, discounting the experience of a group of people, who have conducted an experiment that you have not, isn't valid. Unless your a specialist in adaptive medicine (high altitude training and the like).
I'll try out the cold shower routine and report back. However, I'm not a Latino, and so maybe I won't benefit from the super-Latino-power that Moma ascribes to Mixx not aging. We'll see.
What I will say is that if the body has an adaptive response to cold water in that testosterone is increased, then its very likely that the opposite effect occurs in hot water. The body may adapt by lowering testosterone. Just a hypothesis, based on the clear logic of the statements here.
I do know that ice cold temp will create an inflammatory effect after a short time, as well, which speeds aging (an extreme example is frostbite - but sub-clinical exposure to ice cold temps could also create an inflammatory response that, while not burning the skin beyond repair, might create inflammation in your system). You will notice this response when you see that your skin becomes warm and red after you remove an ice-cube from it. Well, the same response can occur in your vascular system and your organs. Therefore, I'd shy away from bathing in ice. I would build my tolerance slowly, through room temp showers at first, and then cold showers or cold (not iced) pools/baths later. But that's just me. The pool that I swam in was cold, but not ice cold, and it had a pretty significant effect.
I think that the testosterone jump is probably a result of the body temperature decrease that comes with your heat dissipating into the water (think about it, your body naturally keeps your testicles colder than the rest of your body - at least mine does - I think that it does this to maintain testosterone production).
The second mechanism could be through creating a short term inflammation effect, that your body responds to through raising your anti-oxidant defense and testosterone. The trick would be not overdoing the cold showers or baths, temperature wise, so that you injure the body to the point where there is no "rebound response" in testosterone versus creating a short term stress that your body can readily handle, and responds to with a testosterone boost. Just a thought. I'm looking forward to trying this out. Good thread.
The effect wasn't placebo, as I wasn't expecting any effect. I was just swimming. It just happened, and i felt much better for a few days. So, as far as it being "bro" science, I'll say that I believe that a lot of doctors are too arrogant in their knowledge of the body. Show me a doctor who can cure himself of a low libido, naturally, and then I'll listen. Until then, discounting the experience of a group of people, who have conducted an experiment that you have not, isn't valid. Unless your a specialist in adaptive medicine (high altitude training and the like).
I'll try out the cold shower routine and report back. However, I'm not a Latino, and so maybe I won't benefit from the super-Latino-power that Moma ascribes to Mixx not aging. We'll see.
What I will say is that if the body has an adaptive response to cold water in that testosterone is increased, then its very likely that the opposite effect occurs in hot water. The body may adapt by lowering testosterone. Just a hypothesis, based on the clear logic of the statements here.
I do know that ice cold temp will create an inflammatory effect after a short time, as well, which speeds aging (an extreme example is frostbite - but sub-clinical exposure to ice cold temps could also create an inflammatory response that, while not burning the skin beyond repair, might create inflammation in your system). You will notice this response when you see that your skin becomes warm and red after you remove an ice-cube from it. Well, the same response can occur in your vascular system and your organs. Therefore, I'd shy away from bathing in ice. I would build my tolerance slowly, through room temp showers at first, and then cold showers or cold (not iced) pools/baths later. But that's just me. The pool that I swam in was cold, but not ice cold, and it had a pretty significant effect.
I think that the testosterone jump is probably a result of the body temperature decrease that comes with your heat dissipating into the water (think about it, your body naturally keeps your testicles colder than the rest of your body - at least mine does - I think that it does this to maintain testosterone production).
The second mechanism could be through creating a short term inflammation effect, that your body responds to through raising your anti-oxidant defense and testosterone. The trick would be not overdoing the cold showers or baths, temperature wise, so that you injure the body to the point where there is no "rebound response" in testosterone versus creating a short term stress that your body can readily handle, and responds to with a testosterone boost. Just a thought. I'm looking forward to trying this out. Good thread.
Okay, here's part of the answer. Hot water baths DO decrease testosterone, at least in rats:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20389168
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20389168
Chad Daring
Ostrich
That makes more sense, rather then cold water increasing testosterone, its just brining it back up from the deficit that hot water was putting it in.
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