Having cold showers every day was one of my new year’s resolutions. In the beginning it was definitely hard to have a cold shower, or at least a cold splash at the end of a hot shower every day. But in the end the they were absolute worth it. They also helped me become a morning person. Here are my top 9 benefits of cold showers why:

1) Cold showers train your immune system

Small exposures to the cold can train your immune system. This was already known hundred of years ago, as Mr. Kneipp created protocols like cold foot baths, walking around on cold, wet lawn etc. to train the immune system. This was recently scientifically proven.

2) Cold showers you up and make you more alert

Yes, we all know our typical reaction to cold showers. Our bodies release adrenalin, go into fight or flight mode. Overall, we wake up. A lot. This is especially beneficial if you wake up tired in the morning and usually need 3 cups of coffee to wake up. Or if you need a quick boost because you have an important meeting in the morning.

3) Cold Showers are great for circulation and for your skin

Cold showers, or alternating cold and hot showers are great for circulation and therefore for the elasticity of the skin and connective tissue. This especially important to fight cellulite. Girls: You know what I am talking about. Guys: You probably don’t know what I am talking about. But that’s fine. I got you covered with my next point.

4) Cold showers are great for testosterone production and male fertility

Yes guys, cold showers can boost your testosterone production, leading to more muscle growth and also to a higher fertility and sperm production. In fact, hot baths ahve been shown to decrease fertility in men. So next time you are taking that cold shower think of you are benefitting tiny little sperm army.

5) Cold showers promote will power and emotional resilience

Yes, as soon as you are having your cold shower, taking a deep breath you know what kind of will power I am talking about. Gradually stepping up your cold shower game will train that will power muscle massively, and therefore also leading to more emotional resilience. If you can survive a cold shower, you can survive a lot more!

6) Cold showers are great for muscle recovery

Well, actually ice baths are. This has been known amongst olympic athletes for years, and is now slowly becoming more and more popular among us weekend warriors. Of course ice baths would be ideal, but if you don’t have a bath tub an ice cold shower is the next best thing.

7) Cold showers save you a lot of time

Do you know that feeling when you are having a hot shower and never want to leave it? Have you ever had that feeling while having a cold shower? No? Me neither. But this is actually a good thing. It makes my morning routine so much faster and efficient. Get into the shower, cold rinse, wash down with body wash, rinse again, done. Total duration: 2 efficient minutes.

8) Cold showers are good for the environment

Everyday we use an average of 15 litres of water showering. If you cut out 80% of it because you switch from showering 10 minutes in the morning to 2 minutes you are saving an incredible amount of 1095 litres a year.

9) Cold showers save you a lot of money

Depending on the water prices where you live the water savings could actually lead to significant $ savings (or €£¥ depending where you live). But not only the amount of water used will contribute to the savings, also your energy costs will reduce because you are not heating it up any more. You don’t think it has an impact? My water bill last year was only half of what the average single household in London had (according to Thames water statistics) and a lot of it was due to cold showers.

So how can you make them  a habit?

  1. Start out easy: Start with cold rinses. First week: legs. Second week: add arms. Third week: add chest. Fourth week: add back. And once you are accustomed to that, you start with full body cold shower.
  2. If you are having a hot shower, always end with a cold rinse. Or have hot/cold alternating rinses.
  3. Do it as soon as you wake up before your brain realizes what you are doing. If you start thinking about it you will overthink it and not do it.