Hacker News Reader

Comment by cyberferret | Hacker News Reader

We did this in our entire house for about 6 months once when our water heater broke and we couldn't afford to get it fixed quickly.

UPSIDES: We nearly halved our water bill as all of us (kids and parents) took far shorter showers because it was so cold. This also meant we had to clean the shower much less often. I would also be more awake and alert in the morning after a cold rinse.

DOWNSIDES: I noticed I was getting more headaches and stiff necks, then I realised that the hot showers were helping me to de-tension and relax my shoulder and neck muscles which have become tight due to my long work hours writing code at a keyboard.

Didn't notice any up or down occurrences of sickness in the rest of the family. Overall, I am glad we have hot water back now. At least I have a choice which way to go.

View on HN

Do you think you were standing in the shower incredible tensed up to combat the inevitable cold? I feel like just reading about a cold shower gets me in that mode.

Possibly that. I know that I used to 'shrug' in anticipation of the cold shock when I turned on the shower faucet.

But I think more than that - I like the blast of hot water essentially massaging the back of my neck and shoulders. I think the heat had a significant effect on loosening up the muscles and knots, and increasing flexibility and neck movement. The cold showers simply did nothing, and me tensing my body to meet the cold shock didn't help any.

I find that I do a bit of both these days - have a hot shower first and do neck stretches in the shower, then turn the water to cold just before I hop out.

it is type of fight-or-flight response. One result of tensing muscles is decreasing of blood flow near body surface to minimize heat losses from the body.

The best thing about a cold shower is that when you get out, you feel to only get warmer, and it's very pleasing the sensation of thawing through. Whereas hot shower to coldish environment just makes me shiver.

I enjoy the best of both worlds: cool air --> warm lather --> cool rinse --> warm air.

Yes, this phenomenon is really remarkable. When I take a nice, warm shower I feel freezing when I get out. After a horrible cold shower I feel nice and warm getting out.

It's due to the contrasting temperatures.

I can/will second this. Climbing into bed and warming up after a cold shower is a very enjoyable experience.

A small bucket of warm water and sponge is all you really need. You get just as clean as having a full shower, use a tiny fraction of the water - and no risk of hypothermia. This is what what we did living in a small village in the Himalayas for a year.

True. But one has to admit that a good long hot bath/shower from time to time just make you feel soooo good :-)

I've tried it before as well (because of studies), but I found it tensed my body up so badly I could barely move.

I wonder if there's a way to condition oneself to somehow ignore it and not lock every muscle up? I'm not necessarily talking about Wim Hof, but it would be nice if I weren't so easily affected by cold.

i do like really cold shower ... right after good warm/hot shower. No stiff neck, etc. :) Basically a quick version of occasional weekend hot sauna + cold pool.

I think the main issue of Wim Hof vs. regulars like us is whether you're able to maintain near skin blood pipes open in the cold water. These pipes shutting down immediately upon cold contact isn't really a good thing, it hits heart, near skin muscles get not enough blood, etc. On the other side, if your blood pipes keep pumping the blood while you're getting into cold water that is very healthy, that is the effect you're really after - the body starts to pump even more actively through these pipes to maintain the temperature in the near skin tissues and that pumping is really good for those tissues and for the heart and for the whole body. The hot shower/sauna is what makes my and other regular people's near skin blood vessels to not collapse upon entering the cold shower/pool immediately after.

> The hot shower/sauna is what makes my and other regular people's near skin blood vessels to not collapse upon entering the cold shower/pool immediately after.

I never thought about that. That's cool.

Especially if you add "venik" to it :)

I've been taking cold showers for 3-4 months, but recently had to quit because I hurt my neck so badly in the shower.

Can you elaborate this? Did the cold water hurt your neck? Or did you hurt neck due to a related/unrelated accident in the shower?

Most likely it didn’t hurt the neck directly but rather did not provide the normal tension reducing benefit that hot water does. On top of that your muscles do spasm a bit when you are cold which could possibly build more pressure which over a period of days/weeks would result in pretty bad stiffness.

I think I had a slightly stiff neck after 9 hours of sleeping, then jumping into the cold water made me jerk unnaturally, giving me neck spasms.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com