Jeremy Ethier
What Happens To Body After 30 Days Cold Showers (Science Explained)
What would happen if you took cold showers for 30 days? Today we’ll dive into the science, and I’ll reveal the results I got from doing the 30 day cold shower therapy protocol I’ll share later on. Even if you’re thinking you’ll never take cold showers, trust me, after learning of the benefits of cold showers in this video, you might just reconsider. But what are the specific benefits you can expect? How to take a cold shower? How cold does the water need to be? Can it help with fat loss or building muscle?
You’ll start experiencing the benefits of cold showers right from day 1. Exposing your body to cold seems to release 3 key hormones; norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine. Together these stimulate your “fight or flight” response. These hormones stay elevated for an extended period afterwards. Anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours depending on how cold the water was and how long you were in it. The benefit of this is improved mood, energy, and focus. But to experience these benefits, there are a few things you need to know.
First, the temperature of the water for your cold showers needs to be cold enough. Research suggests at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit or colder. To tell if it’s cold enough without a thermometer, it should trigger what’s known as the “initial inspiratory gasp”. But you also need to stay in the cold for long enough. The subjects in the study I mentioned earlier sat in cold water for an hour. I did find several studies showing benefits with shorter durations of even just 20 seconds of cold exposure. But in most cases, they used an ice bath instead of a shower. This doesn’t mean a 30 second cold shower won’t do anything though. Even if your hormonal increase isn’t significant by research standards, you will likely still feel a benefit and an increased mood. But over time, your body adapts to the cold and the hormonal response seems to die down. Once you notice this, here’s how to take a cold shower to continue feeling a benefit: try making the water colder or staying in it for longer.
Next, let's talk about fat loss. A 2021 study found that cold water immersion increased well trained athletes’ estimated daily calorie burn from 2,000 calories per day all the way up to 3,000 calories! However, there are two catches. First, subjects were immersed in the cold for over 3 hours. The average shower length is 8 minutes, and the amount of time you’d spend showering in the cold would be only a fraction of that. Second, the researchers assumed the subjects would continue burning calories at the same rate as when they were in the cold. Even if you crunch the data while being super optimistic, it likely wouldn’t end up anywhere close to enough to make a meaningful effect for fat loss.
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Now what about muscle recovery and growth? Well, Ice baths have been shown to reduce muscle soreness, fatigue, and inflammation after a training session. This is great for athletes who need to recover quickly between events. But if you're looking to build muscle and strength, this may actually be a problem since it reduces inflammation, which is part of your muscles’ recovery process to grow bigger and stronger. Three studies have now shown that post-training cold water immersion significantly decreases muscle growth. So, if you want to maximize growth and strength, either do it before the workout, at least 4- 6 hours after your workout, or on a separate day altogether. Now, the studies I mentioned all used ice baths where subjects stayed immersed for anywhere between 10-20 minutes. So they were pretty intense protocols. Based on that, I would speculate that a quick cold shower after a workout wouldn’t have any negative effects on muscle growth. But on that note, it also probably wouldn’t do anything meaningful for your recovery.
There’s one more benefit you should know about. Forcing yourself to mentally withstand a stressor like the cold activates an area of your brain that suppresses impulsivity. This can help you remain calm and not overreact whenever stressors come up in your life. But this also helps build tremendous resilience and grit that can positively transfer into other areas of your life. I’d recommend start with cold showers, work your way up to 30 seconds to a minute, and then overtime try to stay in it for longer or if possible make the water even colder. And to further intensify the benefits, consider investing in a cold tub for some of those recovery benefits.
what would happened like a 30 Days War up you took a whole shower every single day and through the cold today we're doing a deep dive into the science and I'll also reveal the results I got from doing the 30-day cold protocol I'll share later on now it seems like wherever you look all the top athletes and celebrities are taking cold showers ice baths and just using cold therapy in general and honestly after looking at the research I can see why they do but what are the specific benefits you can expect how cold does a water need to be can it help with fat loss or built-in muscle are there any side effects you should know about well you'll start experiencing benefits right from day one it will be the hardest day but also the most rewarding you see exposing your body to cold seems to release three key hormones norepinephrine epinephrine and dopamine together these stimulate what's known as your sympathetic nervous system or your fight or flight response this is what makes you panic and feel as if you need to escape or yell during the cold exposure now the cold not only elevates these hormones during the exposure but it keeps them elevated for an extended period of time afterwards anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours depending on how cold the water was and how long you were in it the benefit of this is improve mood energy and focus similar to the feeling you get after going for a run or doing a workout coffee actually works in a similar way but activating the sympathetic nervous system it's why many people find they no longer need to rely on coffee in the morning if they instead just jump straight into the cold but to experience these benefits there's a few things you need to know first the temperature of the water needs to be cold enough one study compared cold water immersion at 90° 70° and 60° F they found a significant increase in dopamine and norepinephrine in the 60° group but not the others now I measured a couple of showers after setting it to the coldest setting and it clocked in at about 50° F I am from Canada so the water is a little bit colder here but still I'd expect most showers should be able to get around that level but to tell if it's cold enough without a thermometer research suggest it should trigger what's known as the initial inspiratory Gap this is a deep breath your body instinctively PES as soon as you feel the cold but you also need to stay in the cold for long enough enough thing is the subjects in the study I mentioned earlier they sat in the cold water for an hour I don't know about you but I'm not planning to take hour long showers every day I did however find several studies showing benefits with shorter durations of even just 20 seconds of cold exposure but in most cases they Ed an ice bath instead of a shower so the body could be fully immersed but this doesn't mean a 30-second cold shower won't do anything even if your hormonal increase isn't significant by research standards you'll still very like likely feel a benefit and an increased mood I mean ask you do and comment below if you also notice the difference after a cold shower but to keep feeling that mental benefit over time there's one more thing you need to know it's called attenuation so over time your body adapts to the cold and the hormonal response seems to die down once you notice this you can try making the water colder or stay in it for longer to continue feeling the benefit all right we've talked about the mental benefits but what about fat loss a common theory is that exposure to the cold boost your metabolism since your body is trying to heat up this burns more calories and can accelerate fat loss as a result what does research say well it's true cold exposure can boost your metabolism most research suggest that exposure to the cold increases your metabolism by around 15% a 2021 study however found that cold water immersion increased calorie burning far more than this up to 50% in well-trained athletes this took their estimated daily calorie burn from 2,000 calories a day all the way up to 3,000 calories and given that 1 lb of fat is equivalent to roughly 3500 calories this would in theory mean the subjects could burn off a pound of fat every 3 days just from their cold protocol however before you plan your move to Antarctica there's two catches you need to be aware of first subjects in the study were immersed in the cold for over 3 hours the average shower length is 8 minutes and the amount of time You' spend showering in the cold would only be a fraction of that second the researchers tested metabolism while the subjects were in the cold they used that value to estimate how many calories they burn for 24 hours but this assumes they'd continue burning calories at the same rate for the rest of the day which is very unlikely so even if you crunch the data while being super optimistic it likely wouldn't end up anywhere close to enough to make a meaningful effect for fat loss unless you quite literally sat in the cold water all day every day but that said there was a study released just this year that throws a curveball to what I just said and even took me by surprise subjects were put into a weekly cold protocol of 53c cold showers and one 2minute cold water immersion to the neck after each exposure they let their bodies naturally warm up for 10 minutes meaning they ended the protocol with the cold rather than turning the shower to hot water right after doing the cold water after 8 weeks of this the men in the study lost just over 1 cm off their waist and experienced a sign ific reduction in their visceral belly fat this is a dangerous belly fat deep within your organs the women however they didn't experience any significant effects and it's unclear what now although at least for men this sounds promising I decided to take a closer look in the study and I found some serious issues you see the authors only reported the result from the cold experimental group but to truly understand whether the results were caused by the cold you need to compare them against a control group for whatever reason the research seers decided not to do this even though they actually took the time to include a control group in the first place but if you do compare the two groups you'll find that there wasn't any significant difference between them this was just one of the many issues with this paper which is why a person wouldn't feel confident with any of his fining but now a far more effective and proven way to lose fat is to use a well-designed nutrition and training plan and if you need help setting one up using the latest scies just head over to build with.com and take my 30second quiz to find the best program for you and your body so we talked about your mood and we talked about fat loss but what about Muscle Recovery and growth how does cold exposure affect that well this is where things get really interesting so ice bats have long been used as a recovery method for top level athletes and for good reason they've been showing in multiple studies to speed up recovery by reducing muscle soreness fatigue and inflammation after a training session this is great for athletes who need to recover quickly between events but if you're looking to build muscle and strength this may actually be a problem you see after workout your muscles temporarily become damaged and inflamed it's part of their recovery process to grow bigger and stronger taking ice baths immediately after your workout can interfere with this process by reducing the inflammation this is one of the possible reasons why three Studies have now shown that posttraining cold water immersion significantly decreases muscle growth so if you want to maximize growth growth and strength you definitely want to avoid ice baths immediately after workout either do it before the workout at least 4 to 6 hours after your workout or on a separate day altogether for example I personally do them on my rest day and several hours after my leg day to take advantage of the recovery and soreness benefits without impairing my gains as for cold showers the studies I mentioned they all used ice baths where subjects stayed immersed in the water for anywhere between 10 to 20 minutes so pretty intense protocols based on that I would speculate that a quick cold shower after workout probably wouldn't have any negative effects on muscle growth and isn't really something to worry about but it also probably wouldn't do anything meaningful for your recovery so it might not be worth the potential downside all right so we've talked about mental benefits we've talked about bat loss and we've talked about Muscle Recovery and growth but there's one more benefit you should know about it's actually the main reason why I personally make the effort to incorporate cold showers and FS into my routine forcing yourself to mentally withstand a stressor like the cold is an incredible way to strengthen your mind one of the ways it does this is by activating an area of your brain that suppresses impulsivity this can help you remain calm and not overreact whenever stressors come into your life but this also helps build tremendous resilience and grit that can positively transfer into other areas of your life for example during a tough leg workout just like I do with a cold I simply view the pain as a sensation a sensation that I can overcome with my mind to push my body past my mental limits now for those interested this is a protocol I'm currently following I'd recommend start with cold showers work your way up to 30 seconds to a minute and then over time try to stay in there for even longer or if possible make the water even colder and to further intensify the benefits consider investing in the cold tub which will also give you some of the recovery benefits that showers just don't seem to provide now although all this probably won't do much for f loss you can click here for a video on what I believe is the most underrated exercise you could start doing today to lose fat faster thanks for watching and I'll see you next time
#Body #Days #Cold #Showers #Science #Explained
source
Hope you enjoyed this one! See below for a link to all the studies:
EFFECTIVE TEMPERATURE OF A COLD SHOWER
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10751106/
TEMPERATURE SHOULD TRIGGER THE INITIAL RESPIRATORY GASP
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19945970/
EVEN 20 SECONDS OF COLD IMMERSION CAN BE EFFECTIVE
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/44/3/179?max-results=200
ATTENUATION TO COLD EXPOSURE
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19945970/
COLD EXPOSURE AND INCREASE IN METABOLISM
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21490370/
COLD WATER IMMERSION INCREASED METABOLISM BY 50%
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8561167/
COLD EXPOSURE AND REDUCTION IN WAIST CIRCUMFERENCE AND ABDOMINAL FAT
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36599485/
ICE BATHS HELP SPEED UP RECOVERY
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2018.00403/full
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27396361/
POST-TRAINING COLD WATER IMMERSION DECREASES MUSCLE GROWTH
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31513450/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26174323/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25760154/
Start the shower at a warm to hot temp. Get your washing done then drop the temp as much as possible but avoid shivering. Get right to the edge and you will feel invigorated and ready to start you day. It's also great for your skin.
Will the benefits work the dame if i only can take the showers at night after work? I have super cury hair and work as a landscaper… I dont have time to shower until the night without going to work with sopping wet hair….
Thanks! Got pneumonia, but feeling much more energetic!
I’m skinny I don’t need higher metabolism
How I do it…
I just get some cold water and do everything I need to do
Then I make it hot at the end of the shower so it’s rewarding
There are 2 ways to go about taking cold showers as far as I'm aware. Both have their own advantages depending on your goals. I have no idea why the Americans and Canadians only focus on a) and mostly neglect b):
a) The way you showed – turn on the rain shower thing and hop under it for 1-2 minutes. This is a perfect aid for quickly waking up and shaving off some calories to increase fat/weight loss.
b) The way I will describe below. This way is more aligned with improving the endocrine system by forcing yourself to undergo a brutal change in temperature for way more than just 1-2 minutes. This is more of a therapeutic approach to achieve more long-lasting results – not in the form of a quick aid in fat/weight loss, but essentially "reminding yourself" that jumping out of your comfort zone (when it comes to temperature changes) is not as hard as it may seem at first.
Here are the steps that I always take to go about b). Remember, I am a male and I can only speak for males. Specific steps will vary for women because they have different "major targets" so to speak when it comes to effectively improving your endocrine system.
Starting from scratch, without any water flowing, and using only water. Remember, this is not done to clean your body, but rather to improve your endocrine system function:
1. Configure your shower to pump water through the handle you can hold in your hands manually – not the rain shower thing -, which allows you to guide the water coming out of it to specific areas of your body
2. Get the handle in your primary hand – this will decrease any amount of useless stress or tension during the shower because your primary hand is more automatic and requires less active thinking (like working out the biceps of your primary side seems more automatic). I will be assuming your primary hand is your right hand, for simplicity reasons.
3. Turn the temperature to the absolute coldest your shower can do, but do not turn on water flow yet
4. Guide the shower handle to your right foot – such that you practically aim all the water directly at your right foot
5. Turn on the water flow with enough, but not too much pressure – just enough to "hit your skin" so to speak, but not so much to make it hurt too bad
6. Target each side of your foot – left, right, behind, front. Remember, just the foot, not yet your lower legs
7. Switch sides to your left foot
8. Switch sides again to the right, but target your lower leg now – calves and shin, but do not yet target your knee
9. Switch sides again to your lower leg on the left side
10. Target your right knee next
11. Switch sides to your left knee next
12. Now target your right thigh
13. Now target your left thigh
14. This is the first "big one". Take your p p with your empty hand, and move it upward so your balls are pretty much an open target – which you should focus on now. No joke. Everything up until now only prepared your brain to handle the upper parts of your body, and nothing else. Your thighs specifically are a major "thermostat". So steps 12 and 13 only tell your brain "alert! something cold is gonna hit my balls any second, I'll prepare accordingly and quickly". But please do not perform this specific step for too long, because there could be major downsides to your general health I presume. I could be wrong on this though, I'm not a doctor. Within a couple of seconds of performing this specific step, you should feel immediate effects throughout your whole mental state. General alertness should be pretty high at this point.
15. Now target your p p directly. This one should feel pretty much like your calves at this point, since your body and brain are already on full alert. I wouldn't stay here for too long either, but it's not as much of a problem as with step 14.
16. Now target your buttocks without going too far up your lower back.
17. Now it's up to you – you can, but don't have to target your buttcrack. There is no major benefit of much exposure to cold water to that specific area as far as I can tell. Just do it until it gets uncomfortable
18. Now target your belly. This one should be a breeze. Do not take too long here either, because your organs in that area will not be very happy if you do I presume.
19. Now target your lower back. This one will be uncomfortable no matter what. Again, not too long. Same reason as 18
20. Now target your chest area. At this point, you should be in a state where your brain knows what's up, your heart should be beating accordingly but not too fast, and you just generally feel cold but somehow comfortable due to steps 12, 13, and 14 specifically. So targeting the area right above your heart should not exactly shock it into panic mode.
21. Now target your left hand. Just like steps 6 and 7 – only your hand and not your arm.
22. Take the shower handle with your left hand and repeat step 21, but target your right hand.
23. Take the shower handle with your right hand again and target your lower left arm
24. Take the shower handle with your left hand and target your lower right arm
25. Take the shower handle with your right hand again and target your upper left arm (biceps + triceps) – not yet your shoulder area
26. Take the shower handle with your left hand and target your upper right arm – again, not yet your shoulder area
27. Take the shower handle with your right hand again and target your left shoulder area
28. Take the shower handle with your left hand and target your right shoulder area
29. Now comes the second "big one". Take the shower handle with your right hand and target your whole upper back (scapula, lats, etc). This will be very uncomfortable for most people, no matter how hard step 14 was
30. Now comes the third "big one" and the last step. Target your head. Although I am not a doctor, it is general consensus that you should definitely not take too long with this, especially when you're a beginner. Do not take a full minute with this, 30 seconds should be way more than enough. So about 15 seconds should do it here.
All areas should be targeted with a circling motion around that area. And all of them should be done very cautiously and consciously.
This is how I do it. Step 14 is the reason you are able to withstand the cold for much longer than if you didn't perform that step. The steps before step 14 are just preparation for step 14, but they do help a lot with gradually preparing your brain and body to what will undoubtably come next.
All the steps of b) do is prevent you from entering panic mode which is definitely the case for a). Think of it as taking a walk of about 15k steps vs. running for the amount of time required to burn the exact same calories as walking for 15k steps. a) is running, b) is walking with a therapeutic and relaxing benefit you get afterwards.
I take cold showers all the time, it's only hard at first when you're not used to them. but your mind gets used to the shock and gets not so scared of them.
Hot water tank broke today. Will take cold showers this week bcus I have no other option. Watching this video to get prepared.
Van I do cold shower in the morning prior to going to work and take a hot bath or shower after work at night? Or both have to be cold?
Only scary thing my balls get cold
Is their a benefit if you first wash with a warm or hot shower and then rinse and finish with a cold shower?
Good for your skin
Been cold showering since 2015. Feel like I'm gonna live to 100. Good to occasionally sleep on the hard floor too.
What's your height bro
I like to go back-and-forth between hot and cold for about 6 minutes. Apparently there are health benefits for hot and cold.
So I'm og from Southern California and I'm currently in Western Ny I started working out since I got here in July 2023 after working out I just said forget taking hot or warm showers now I love cold showers it took time started of with 3 mins then 5 mins and now I'm at 45 min what I call Niagra falls almost 0° showers my roommates thought I was using all the hot water and so I told them to touch my skin I was cold as ice in fact I liked it so much till my skin turned red and noticed after a 30 min internse workout I slept like a baby 8 hours without waking up my mind was focused with my day I don't drink coffee and only eat breakfast lunch and dinner snacks in between like yogurt with lots of probiotics & mixed fruits I got to the point I'm in great shape that the people around me compliment me they think I'm 30s I'm actually 40s I was in 2 car accidents I refuse to be in a wheelchair my sciatic nerve damage is intense I learned how to help myself and workout to were I can have a great lean body I don't believe in giving in so I push myself to the point of no pain and I feel great I can also tolerate buffalo weather to 5° it was all worth it and I'm solid I will never yield to pain I'm going strong thanks to good food from wegmans there amazing quality I've noticed that I built solid muscle that stayed lean not bulked so I look like Bruce Lee I want to be able to scratch my back and whip my 😂
I started cold showers about a month ago; and seeing these comments makes me want to continue doing it for a while. Maybe the rest of my life
Hot water: celebrate now, suffer later
Cold water: suffer now , celebrate later
1:10 you're reading the graph completely wrong. It doesn't show hormones levels after the exposure, it shows the effects of prolonged exposure. Basically happens to the hormone level if you are exposed for 2 hours.
i just went out in the snow with only short pants on thanks man
i enjoyed making snow angles and suffering
All those studies was made in men, never on women.
What is the best time to do this? It seems like with elevated epinephrine levels it might be hard to sleep?
How much you need to stay basically? I want to try as well
I'm going to start taking cold showers permanently as of today January 14th 2025 I'll come back next year to share my experience.
Hello, I am from Serbia, and it is currently winter here, with the water temperature around 5 degrees. I've been training my whole life, but only now, at the age of 37, have I started showering with ice-cold water for about 30 seconds, and I feel great. However, I shower after training, and I’m not sure if that’s good but tbh i don't see any muscle loss issues or slow growth.
This morning started doing my cold shower routine, but during daytime I started sweating excessevily. Does the sweating go away eventually?
I am taking cold shower n enjoying it…
One morning the gym I go to lift weights it was cold side gym pant and a tank top i started lifting after 10 minutes I didn’t feel cold no more I felt warm after a good hour workout. And I take warm shower before bed and I take cold shower few hours before bed I try come back to this a month later if you want me to.
If you work out and shower immediately after, shower with luke warm water. Cold shower every morning
Try this in winter time
Dont put cold water directly in ur head it can degrade your health. Thats why first of all put cold water on ur body and then at last put the cold water in head.
It is written ayurveda and from ayurveda concepts of yoga and mental health and sugar is bad was written 1000 years ago so i follow it
What if you were born in cold environments such as Alaska or colder atmosphere.
I have been taking cold showers regularly for 2 years and the benefit I can clearly say is that my cold resistance has increased significantly. I used to get cold and sick very easily but now I can wear a t-shirt while people wear coats in cold weather.
I only bath with cold water i dont understand u white people do yall only use hot water ew….
spring summer autumn winter it's constant it's hard work
https://youtu.be/U9kpk8oSXU4?si=9MwWNyRfch3TFYJo
You guys ever hear about enjoying a warm shower, to unwind?
Most people who self report doing cold shower don't actually do 100% cold showers. They aren't hard enough. I did cold shower 100% for a year, yes, even through the winter. I quit because it turned me into a psychopath, probably what he was talking about at 8:40. I didn't notice any physiological effects.
It's much easier in the summer , still quite brutal tho . But makes ya feel mean as when ya get out and dressed , fully wakes me up .
So based on this… should I avoid going for a swim after a workout?