Frozen

If you know me you know I am a wimp in the cold! It can be pretty pitiful and quite frustrating. Even living in St Louis, I have had to leave outdoor activities to go home and warm up. I just really dislike being cold. But this year, I am trying to embrace the cold and be thankful for all 4 seasons. I’m not going to bore you with all my positive thinking and  inner dialogue of convincing myself I can be cold and will be ok. What I do want to tell you about is one trick that has seemingly actually helped me regulate my body temperature. Out of all the things I’ve tried with this ‘being able to bear the cold’ experiment, hot to cold to hot to cold showers are the winner. SO many times I have heard about cold water therapy. On podcasts, in books, online, in social media and even through other fitness professionals I’ve personally worked with. But I hate being cold so why would I want to take an ice bath or take the polar plunge? No way, I thought, I will increase my circulation and increase my health and strengthen my heart muscles that move my blood and warm my body with exercise, surprise surprise. While this does help a ton, it obviously is not enough for me. So when I heard, from my husband who read Gorilla Mindset, that you can get some amazing health benefits just by adding some cold water bursts to your hot shower. I figured I should probably toughen up and give it a try. Luckily, our house in St Louis has a good water heater and I don’t have to worry about this plan backfiring. What I do is turn the hot water off and have the cold water shoot onto my chest, you feel your body and your heart reacting right away. I do this for maybe 30 seconds a few times throughout my shower. Longer in the crazy huid summers of St Louis. What this does is tell your heart it needs to flush your body with blood to the extremities stat. So you get a total flush of new blood moving through the body increasing your heart strength, draining your lymphatic system and helping your body be more efficient with circulation and body temperature control!  Adding cold water therapy to your wellness routine is a great idea even if you aren’t cold like me all the time. Moving our blood and and flushing our lymphatic system has so many health benefits.  Here are two more articles that focus more on the proven science if you aren’t convinced 7 Amazing Cold Water Therapy Benefits5 Helpful Benefits of Cold Showers