Quick blog today guys! Yesterday (02/13/2022) marked my 30th day of cold showers and I wanted to share my experience with you and a few of my take aways. There is much debate in the scientific community about the efficacy of cold showers from a health standpoint. After doing some research What I found is that there is no hard evidence that cold showers or cold water exposure (Ice baths etc) have any benefits that can be proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. There is a lot of “data suggests” out there, but nothing rock solid. When I discovered this I thought “Well screw that! Why bother?” Why go through that kind of discomfort for no reason? It wasn’t until I stumbled upon a TedX talk that I decided to go for it. Here is what I learned……
1: Cold showers SUCK! By that I mean they are exactly what you would expect. Cold, uncomfortable, bone chilling, on the verge of painful. I’m not talking tepid or cool showers. I’d venture to say my water temp was regularly between 40-45 degrees. I would step in to a cool shower and within 10 seconds crank it down. My goal would always be to spend 4-6 minutes in and then GET OUT. (No last minute warm ups. Start cold finish cold or colder.) Being in the middle of winter certainly didn’t help anything. Having said that I did get back to feeling comfortable within about 90 seconds after getting out and beginning to dry off. The upside…… AWAKE! Revived, energetic, and ready to go for the day!
2: The less obvious…… Stepping into a cold shower and staying there is a fear. Not a fear in the sense of a phobia like spiders or heights, but a fear of discomfort. The kind of fear we face every single day of our lives. The kind of fear that keeps us stagnant in stages of life we may not be happy in. We all want to be comfortable That’s normal human nature, but at what point do we become so comfortable that we no longer go after the things we want out of life?
When I started this I had to literally hype myself up with pep talks to turn that water dial down. I would brace myself with clenched teeth and fists and frequently back out of the water into the safe haven of the back half of the shower. By the end I simply stepped into it, dropped the temp, took one good breath, and stood right under it with the water hitting my face and rolling down my back. I took deep breaths and told myself “This is nothing. You can do hard things. Most of the rest fo your day will be more comfortable than this.” I eventually found I had almost meditative moments under that water. I had conquered a fear. Every. Single. Day. First thing. That’s a nice way to start the day.
3: I became more motivated. After getting through 3 surgeries that significantly set back my fitness, my ability to take on normal daily tasks, took a toll on how I perform my job, and frankly left me losing A LOT of sleep. Being in constant pain I was feeling very down and defeated. I have come back from my share of surgeries, but with age it gets harder each time. I didn’t feel like myself. I was struggling to keep up with my fitness as well as proper nutrition. This reignited something in me that changed my mindset. “That is less uncomfortable than that is Kyle. Get your S**t together!” My physical therapy started to become more productive. I was starting to figure out how to piece together some kind of workouts. I started getting my nutrition back on track. My joints began to feel better. (I can’t say if that was a placebo effect or not, but it happened nonetheless.)
4: Something that was once a fear became significantly easier. When I was 19 I worked on a tall ship for 3 months over a summer. Part of my job was climbing up into the rig to work to set and furl sails and grease the masts and yards. I was 180 ft off the deck and free climbing on ropes and very small wooden beams that were greased. A fall didn’t mean hitting water. It meant hitting the deck and pretty much certain death. We latched in with safety harnesses once we got to our work area, but 170+ feet was free climbing on ropes and rope nets. Dangerous work to say the least. I started that job with a paralyzing fear of heights. By the end of the 3 months I would race people up those nets and ropes to the top. (My fear of heights is back lol. That was a lifetime ago!) My point is this reignited in me what it means to face fear and discomfort head on. Not just face it, but take it on like a foe you intend to defeat. That does wonders for the brain. Not missing a single day of this did that for me again. My moods were noticeably improved.
5: A simple one…… my skin got a bit better. Not sure why. There are scientific reasonings for this, but they are again somewhat hypothesized. I just know mine was.
The takeaway is quite simple. If you remind yourself on a regular basis that you can do hard things AND actually do them it can have profound effects on your mood and your general view of your days, weeks, and frankly the world. It leaves you wanting to prove more to yourself. A mindset that I would venture to guess some of the world’s most successful people (and I don’t just mean wealthy people…success comes in many shapes and sizes. ) have day in and day out. Give it a try. You just might find something awakens inside you that you didn’t know you had.
Coach K. Hopkins
