Cold Water Therapy (Fascinating!)

[DaoChild]

Check this out:

 

http://www.giveittomeraw.com/forum/topic/s...ATopic%3A113180

 

Has anyone else heard of this? It's incredible sounding, and makes sense based on human evolution (e.g. we were MADE to take physical damage, made to tolerate quick temperature shifts, made to be durable)

 

I'm going to give it a shot and see if it improves my circulation and / or asthma.

[orb]

Check this out:

 

http://www.giveittomeraw.com/forum/topic/s...ATopic%3A113180

 

Has anyone else heard of this? It's incredible sounding, and makes sense based on human evolution (e.g. we were MADE to take physical damage, made to tolerate quick temperature shifts, made to be durable)

 

I'm going to give it a shot and see if it improves my circulation and / or asthma.

 

 

This is an old practice but simple and efficient and it does require a little bit of preparation - please don't just start randomly diving into cold rivers because if you are not prepared you can have a heart atack.

Daily cold showers at home are a great way to start preparing for this....

[Encephalon]

Check this out:

 

http://www.giveittomeraw.com/forum/topic/s...ATopic%3A113180

 

Has anyone else heard of this? It's incredible sounding, and makes sense based on human evolution (e.g. we were MADE to take physical damage, made to tolerate quick temperature shifts, made to be durable)

 

I'm going to give it a shot and see if it improves my circulation and / or asthma.

 

An old Tae Kwon Do instructor up in Oregon recommended cold showers. I finally got around to it on a regular basis in college. There was a great scene in the fairly decent movie "Best of the Best" where the Korean TKD team is running through the snow and then meditating in the icy river. So, it was really my ego that got me started on cold showers. I'd climb into the shower stall, aim my face at the spigot, and crank on the cold water, imagining that this would help turn me into a warrior impervious to physical discomfort.

 

I am so totally NOT in the mood to do this these days, but since it's 80 degrees at ten in the morning here in LA, those days may come back. The feeling of the blood returning to your peripheral tissues after a cold shower is awfully nice.

[orb]

An old Tae Kwon Do instructor up in Oregon recommended cold showers. I finally got around to it on a regular basis in college. There was a great scene in the fairly decent movie "Best of the Best" where the Korean TKD team is running through the snow and then meditating in the icy river. So, it was really my ego that got me started on cold showers. I'd climb into the shower stall, aim my face at the spigot, and crank on the cold water, imagining that this would help turn me into a warrior impervious to physical discomfort.

 

I am so totally NOT in the mood to do this these days, but since it's 80 degrees at ten in the morning here in LA, those days may come back. The feeling of the blood returning to your peripheral tissues after a cold shower is awfully nice.

 

 

u don't have to poor ice water on you, but rather slowly lower the temperature while giving enough time for your body to adjust. Also the first few months after starting one should get only to a "cool" temperature level and only later try to get to the "cold" level

[Encephalon]

u don't have to poor ice water on you, but rather slowly lower the temperature while giving enough time for your body to adjust. Also the first few months after starting one should get only to a "cool" temperature level and only later try to get to the "cold" level

 

10-4

[DaoChild]

An old Tae Kwon Do instructor up in Oregon recommended cold showers. I finally got around to it on a regular basis in college. There was a great scene in the fairly decent movie "Best of the Best" where the Korean TKD team is running through the snow and then meditating in the icy river. So, it was really my ego that got me started on cold showers. I'd climb into the shower stall, aim my face at the spigot, and crank on the cold water, imagining that this would help turn me into a warrior impervious to physical discomfort.

 

I am so totally NOT in the mood to do this these days, but since it's 80 degrees at ten in the morning here in LA, those days may come back. The feeling of the blood returning to your peripheral tissues after a cold shower is awfully nice.

 

Yeah, part of me is motivated by this.

 

I'm finishing school here at Clemson (SC), so it's close to 100 degrees daily now. WAY too hot for my tastes.

 

We'll see if it legit improves circulation long-term.

[Dainin]

I've seen this concept appear across a number of different cultures, which leads me to think that there is some validity to it. I've seen it mentioned in R.W. Smith's book Chinese Boxing and Jay Gluck's book Zen Combat. The 3HO Kundalini Yoga people are into cold showers too.

 

Some people choose the bucket of cold water all at once, others a gradual cooling down of the shower. Still others alternate between hot and cold. I find the last approach is most appealing to me personally.

 

This seems like something that could be experimentally tested pretty easily

[Aetherous]

I like to swim in Lake Superior (one of the great lakes in the USA...it's freezing cold most of the year), and go to this waterfall area near there. Much more fun than just doing a cold shower.

Edited June 28, 2009 by Scotty

[DaoChild]

Yeah, my dad does the polar bear swim in the Hudson river, NY.

 

Couple shots of rum, and you're good to go

[NorthWide]

The text Xi Sui Jing contains information regarding bathing in alternating hot and cold water to improve circulation.

 

Too much heat or cold can lead to hot type or cold type pathenogenic invasions, in combination with other current imbalances these can create heath problems. An example would be:

 

My being fatigued after working a fifteen hour shift in a warehouse (previous job) then going home and taking a cold shower as a habit. Resulting in a cold pathenogenic invasion lasting a couple of years until treatment with acupuncture and herbalism. (chronic bronchitis some years back)

 

I am sure anything I say about it would be imperfect; yet these things did cross my mind when I read this.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Edited October 6, 2009 by TheSongsofDistantEarth

[mantis]

I switch the water to cold after I finish my testicle massage to disperse the heat, feels pretty good.

[thelerner]

The past week I've been working on the Tumo method Santiago teaches in KAP, so I've been taking cold showers as practice.

 

It strikes me that we learn to swim so we can be safe in the water, but the cold of winter can be deadly, certainly uncomfortable. Getting tumo up to speed would be a nice trick, a minor league siddhi.

 

 

Michael

[innerspace_cadet]

I take cold showers on a regular basis, every day in fact. I find it lowers my blood pressure and actually calms me down.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

I take cold showers on a regular basis, every day in fact. I find it lowers my blood pressure and actually calms me down.

 

 

 

I always end my showers with a couple minutes of cold...but have never done just cold ones. Should be interesting going outside and dumping 2 buckets of cold water over my head twice a day...from the above article, the shower thing doesn't approximate 'dousing' with a couple of buckets...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 6, 2009 by TheSongsofDistantEarth

[NeiChuan]

I do variations.. once a week I take cold showers.. Either Heat myself up first then stay in the coldest till im use to it.. Or just go straight to the coldest. I've always enjoyed it, just a Test I like.

[DalTheJigsaw123]

Definitely interesting.

[Old Man Contradiction]

I'm gonna start taking cold showers now. It sounds good and for some reason i intuit that it may help with my headache-like pressure.

[Moon Knight]

The occultist/magician Franz Bardon mentions cold baths as one of the first practices to take up in his, Initiation Into Hermetics. Cold water is also used for a couple other magical processes in the early stages too. It's been awhile since I read the book, but I believe cold was supposed to conduct more energy (in general, or possibly specifically electrical energy) and be more impregnable with intentions and emotions (during showers one was supposed to let go of the failures and sins of the day and let them be washed away, leaving a more purified being behind).

[CarsonZi]

I've been taking hot/cold showers for almost 13 years now.

 

What I do is I take a very hot shower, but several times during the shower, when the blood is very close to the surface skin and I have become quite "red", I switch the water to cold, and keep it there until the body adjusts, and then go back to a hot shower.....do this between 3 and 6 times every time I take a shower.

 

The idea is to start to slowly lower the bodies resting temperature over time. This is supposed to keep the skin from dying if you get to I believe it was 2 degrees colder then regular resting temperature. I have not kept track of whether or not my personal resting temp has dropped over time, although I would be very surprised if it hadn't (I can tolerate cold temperatures much easier now, and I have more difficulty with warmer temps then I used to). Personally I do not do this practice for the body temperature lowering effects though. I do it because it I find it is an incredible kundalini stimulator. It has instant effects on the breathing as well as (for me) instantly causing all the mudras and bandhas to be applied, and I often get warm very quickly with internal energy and the cold water becomes soothing instead of shocking.

 

Anyways, just thought I would share incase anyone wanted to try out this method.....very little risk of a heart attack doing this

 

Love,

Carson

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

[Herodes]

[gendao]

Having cold showers is quite common in India. Yogi Bhajan recommends having cold showers. Some time ago, i also read that showering with cold water is usual in chinese monasteries.

Well, there's also generally no hot water even available in Chinese monasteries (as well as other places), so I'm not sure that would be entirely by choice...lol.

[Taomeow]

My mother-in-law did the polar bear swim (in an opening made in the ice on a frozen body of water in winter) two or three times a week for decades, into her 70s. It didn't make her healthy, but we don't have a control group -- who knows what her health would be like if she didn't do it? or if she did something else too (this had always been her only practice.) She does have the benefit of never getting any colds or the flu. Polar bears and all polar animals store huge amounts of fat to protect them from cold; my mother-in-law is fat and I think that's one thing that helped her with the practice -- or maybe vice versa, the practice contributed to weight gain?..

 

I absolutely hate cold water, this includes cold drinks taken internally. And I don't gain weight.

[buscon]

I usually have a tepid shower after my kung fu lesson and then I turn to cold water(just for one minute or even less): it's quite a shock but after that you feel great

 

If you're in good health just try it out