Hot or cold shower? Which one are you?

We all shower on a daily basis and it is an essential part of our lives. Depending on the water’s temperature, it can be a part of your healthy lifestyle. Whether you like it hot or cold, you may find out that each has its benefits that are beneficial to your health. After reading this, you may decide which way you would like to turn the dial.

Those who like hot showers

Even if the weather is extremely hot outside, the thought of an “ice-cold shower” does not even cross your mind, even if it means sweating right after the shower. What are the benefits of putting our skin into the steam treatment though?

1. It cleanses the skin

Taking hot showers help to cleanse the skin. Clogged pores build up toxins and impurities in the skin and bathing in hot showers can open those pores to flush all the toxins out of your skin. Your skin will feel great after a hot bath.

2. Relaxes your muscles

After a long day at work, those sore shoulders and stiff neck can really get to you. A hot shower can help alleviate those stiff neck and sore shoulders, as heat relaxes muscles, and thus contribute to the faster relief of soreness.

3. Helps you to sleep better

A hot shower is like a natural sedative. But of course, it won’t make you fall asleep instantly like some sleeping pill. Though wouldn’t it be nice if that actually happened?

Lucky people who can fall asleep instantly. Some of us take 3 hours, a few different positions, and maybe a sacrifice to the gods to even fall asleep.

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If you have trouble sleeping at night, take a hot shower for about 10 minutes to calm your body and your mind, and your nerves. It helps you to sleep better as it relaxes you before bedtime. Some people like to take hot showers before bed as it helps them to sleep better.

4. Treat joint pains

Taking a hot shower can help treat muscle and joint pain. For those working in the retail line or the Food and Beverages (F&B) line, we all know how painful it is to have to stand the whole day. You get sore from your heels to your knees, and it may cause your joints and muscles to ache. Let’s not forget that investing in a chair massager is expensive. Taking a hot shower is a cheaper alternative. It helps loosen joints, tendons, tissues, and muscles as the warmth of the water stimulate circulation and blood flow.

For those who like cold showers

After coming home from that impeccable heat outside those doors, or finishing that long run in the gym, you will be sweating from head to toe. What would you not give for a nice refreshing and cooling shower?

Cold showers can be almost unbearable at times. It can be so cold that you might lash out and curse everything in existence, but it is actually good for your body.

Here are some benefits of bathing in cold water:

1. Jolts you awake

Taking a cold shower in the morning, that sounds horrifying.

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Taking a cold shower in the morning just sounds horrible. You would rather cosy up in your warm bed or take a hot bath. However, do you know that taking cold showers can wake you up? When the cold water hits your body, you feel shocked due to the icy cold water on your skin. The shock deepens our breathing, and our body will start to take in more oxygen which increases our heart rate. This releases a rush of blood to our body which shakes us awake.

2. Good for the hair and skin

Taking cold showers is good for the hair and the skin.  Hot water tends to dry the skin and the hair as it flushes oils and toxins from the body. Cold water works the other way round. It helps to tighten pores and hair cuticles which will prevent them from being clogged.

3. Burn fats

There are two types of fat in our body, white fat and brown fat. White fat, the one we struggle to get rid of, are fats that are accumulated when we eat more than what our body needs to function. Brown fat is the one that does most of the fat burning work here. Brown fat helps to keep our body warm by burning calories, and it is activated when we feel the coldness in our body. It also increases metabolism.

4. Strengthens immunity

With metabolic rate increased, it activates your immune system which will then release a virus-fighting white blood cell that prevents you from falling sick frequently. Cold showers also increase your blood circulation which is good for the heart as it helps fight against hypertension and the hardening of arteries.