Welcome to our Monthly Challenges
Did you know you subconsciously work harder when there’s an end date to your goals?
The shorter time frame keeps you actively putting effort in, particularly when it’s the end of the month.
Your Goal in June is: Take A Cold Shower Every Day
The Challenge
It’s pretty self explanatory – make sure you take a cold shower every day in June.
As the hottest month, this could actually be more refreshing than you think!
You have two options when it comes to your 30 day cold shower challenge:
- All cold. Replace your daily shower with a cold one, avoiding any hot water from the moment you step in to the second you step out.
- James Bond Shower. Named after the character in author Ian Fleming’s books. Take your regular shower, but before finishing switch it to cold water for the final 2-4 minutes*.
Both provide many benefits, with the second option being more popular with some as it is great for your skin and hair.
*it’s important to finish on cold water, so don’t sneak it up to hot before you get out.
Health Benefits
Read about my own experience with cold showers here, I’ve added an extract below.
- The first benefit I experienced was raised alertness for the rest of the day. The Science behind that is the ‘shock’ of cold increases breathing and heart rate, pumping more blood round your body.
- It’s also a huge time saver, when I’m late to work it’s nearly always from dwelling in a hot shower – something that happens far less when it’s ice cold!
- If I do it after the gym I find that I have reduced muscle soreness and it also speeds up recovery, by controlling inflammation in the muscles (wait one hour after finishing in the gym).
- It’s also better for skin and hair, even if you start hot and finish cold. By getting out a hot shower you’re leaving your pores wide open for all the grime in the outside world to get in.
- The increased blood flow also boosts immunity, eases stress and relieves depression, the Science of which is here.
- Finally, it can stimulate weight loss, with this study showing that cold water increases our healthy ‘brown fat’ by up to 1500%, giving you the potential to lose 1lb every six weeks.
Tips
- The water is cold enough if you feel an increased rate of breathing. If you’re in any doubt that you’re having a cold shower then it isn’t cold enough!
- Keep it short. You only need four minutes to get the benefit – this isn’t an endurance event.
- Stick with it. It only took me five days before I got hooked on the habit, so push through those difficult first few days.
- Move around. Let that water hit your legs, back, chest and face. Don’t shy away from it.
Thanks for reading this article. Please share this with anyone you think is up for the challenge of taking a cold shower every day for a month!
