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General information
Contrast water procedures bring tangible benefits to the body. The procedure involves alternating hot ( up to 45 degrees), and cold ( up to 20 degrees) water. Cold and hot shower perfectly refreshes and hardens a person.If we consider the effect on the body of hot and cold water separately, you can find many shortcomings. For example, when cold water gets on the skin, the body perceives it as stress, and the adrenal glands begin to intensively secrete adrenaline. Of course, for those who suffer from heart disease, the effect of cold water on the skin will be negative. The action of hot water ( for example, a long stay in a hot bath), can lead to a decrease in the body's protective functions.
But if you alternate hot and cold water, this has an effect on connective tissue and blood vessels have a completely different effect. This is an excellent refreshing, invigorating and hardening remedy. Warm water relaxes, and cold water strengthens blood vessels and increases their tone.
Benefit
A contrast shower is a very useful procedure. Under the influence of heat, the pores of the skin open, the blood vessels begin to expand, and toxins come out of the body. And sudden exposure to cold causes the pores to shrink. Thanks to this contrast, the skin is cleansed and becomes smooth. When contrast washing, you don’t have to use soap, or use it no more than once a week.The alternating action of heat and cold strengthens the vessels, the walls of which become elastic; blood circulation increases, blood stagnation resolves. Metabolism is activated and the immune system is strengthened. Alternate irritation of tactile, cold and thermal receptors stimulates the work nervous system and normalizes the activity of the endocrine system, activates redox reactions. This tool is not only very useful, but also affordable!
Some scientists are inclined to believe that contrast douches and hardening can cure cancer.
Hardening
Contrasting water procedures are a type of hardening. Doctors define hardening as a set of measures that increase the body’s resistance to unfavorable conditions. climatic conditions, and also help the body develop conditioned reflex mechanisms of thermoregulation in order to improve it.Hardening procedures include natural factors: sun, air, water. Hardening procedures, when carried out correctly, can increase endurance and performance. In addition, psychological qualities are also trained by hardening: perseverance, determination.
Our individual reaction to heat or cold depends on us ( we do not take into account, for example, attacks of allergies to cold - in such cases we cannot regulate this process consciously). A hardened person is exposed to cold in the same way as an unhardened person, but the cold does not disturb his constant temperature: when such an organism cools, it produces more heat, releases less of it to the external environment, and increases metabolism. This ensures the normal flow of all biochemical and physiological processes in the body.
A contrast shower is a good home alternative to, for example, winter swimming. In both cases, it is necessary the right approach to the procedure.
Requirements: not only systematic and regular implementation of procedures, but also a correct understanding of the temperature regime and its effect on health. If a person with the best intentions to recover from a cold and quickly harden himself, immediately begins to douse himself with ice and hot water– it will not bring any benefit to the body. On the contrary, the person will get even more sick.
Consistent and gradual implementation of hardening procedures is especially important for children. After all, the main rule of applying all medical procedures and medicines- "Do no harm".
When hardening, you should be guided medical rule that a weak and moderate stimulus improves functions, and a very strong one causes harm. An example is hardening cold water feet If an unprepared person immerses his feet in very cold water, then he experiences a rush of blood to the mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract and nose. Because of this, body temperature rises, mucus production increases, which creates favorable conditions for the growth and reproduction of pathogenic microflora. Weakening of the body combined with the proliferation of pathogenic microorganisms leads to the development inflammatory processes. But if you cool your hands in the same way, then such a reaction from the body simply will not happen. This can be explained by the fact that the hands are much more often exposed to thermal influences, and they are more hardened than, for example, the feet, which are protected by shoes.
But if you regularly and gradually harden your feet with cold water, then symptoms from the mucous membranes in the form of a runny nose will become less and less pronounced, and, in the end, will simply disappear. After this, you can move on to a full-fledged contrast shower, in the same way gradually increasing the procedure time and increasing the temperature contrast.
Contraindications
Under no circumstances should a contrast shower be used for hardening and healing for those people who have a severely weakened immune system, otherwise it will lead to the opposite result. It is advisable for sick people to refuse to use contrast procedures, or to at least reduce the temperature contrast.It is also undesirable to experience the effect of a contrast shower if you have: constantly high blood pressure, heart disease; thrombophlebitis; tumors.
How to take it correctly?
A sign that contrasting procedures are right for you is a feeling of energy and vigor after a shower. If after a shower you feel severe chills and freezing of your extremities, it means temperature regime selected incorrectly. In this case, you should adjust the temperature of hot and cold water so that you do not experience discomfort.
You need to take a contrast shower in the morning, after gymnastics ( if you do it) and before breakfast. The duration of the procedure is 5 - 8 minutes. When carrying out the procedure, you should not pour over the head, but only the body. A proper contrast shower should start with warm water and end with cold water.
In the first week of getting used to contrast procedures, you should douse yourself with moderately cool and moderately warm water. In the second and third weeks, you can already douse yourself according to this scheme: 1 minute of warm water - half a minute of cool water - half a minute of warm water - half a minute of cool water. This number of differences will be sufficient for now, and such a procedure will be short in time. In the fourth week, you can increase the number of changes and thereby increase the procedure time to the recommended one. You can gradually increase the temperature contrast, moving from moderately warm water to hot, and from cool to cold. The optimal temperature difference is 25 - 30 degrees.
After a contrast shower, under no circumstances should you immediately go outside. The procedure should end with thorough rubbing with a hard towel, and only 30 minutes after rubbing can you go outside.
Those who begin performing contrast procedures after hearing about their benefits sometimes make a serious mistake that can negatively affect their health and well-being. For example, a person douses himself with cool water for a week in a row without reducing its temperature to the recommended value. After this he falls ill. It turns out that the temperature of such water seriously cools the body, but at the same time it is not yet so cold as to activate immune system. But if you suddenly, but not for long, douse yourself with very cold water, then the body does not have time to cool down much, but the nervous system receives a powerful shock, and at the same time the immune and thermoregulatory mechanisms are launched.
The procedure must be performed every day. Daily systemic contrast procedures will have a complex effect on the body. Before performing a contrast shower, you need to “get used to the water.” To do this, you first need to stand for a few minutes under the shower, set to room temperature. Then you need to douse yourself with hot water for a minute, and then stand in cool water for just half a minute. You need to perform these steps several times.
Getting used to it will not come right away, but by repeating a similar workout for three to four days, you can not only get used to it, but also “get a taste for it.”
Regularly pouring hot water over your head will cause your hair to fall out, and your vision may begin to deteriorate. Therefore, it is better not to pour the head along with the body, but to do separate short procedures for it with not too contrasting temperatures.
Rubbing is drying the body after a contrast shower using a terry mitten or a hard towel. By drying after a shower, the stratum corneum is removed from the skin and blood circulation increases.
First you need to wipe your head, if it is wet, in the direction from the periphery to the center. After this, run the towel from your fingers up along your limbs. The chest is wiped in a circle, starting from the center, gradually increasing the radius of its circular movements. The belly is wiped in the same way, but the circular movements not only widen, but also narrow back towards the navel. Then comes the turn of the lower back, which is rubbed from the bottom up, in the direction from the tailbone. The back is massaged from bottom to top, along the spine.
For weight loss
The temperature contrast trains the blood vessels, and thanks to this, blood flow throughout the body increases, not excluding problem areas. Increased trophism significantly improves the speed of metabolic processes, activates the breakdown of fat, and promotes skin tightening. The weight loss effect will be better expressed if you combine a contrast shower and hydromassage. Any weight loss product is better absorbed into the skin and works more effectively with increased blood flow.Contrast procedures go well with wraps for the whole body, with any types of massage: honey, lymphatic drainage, general, anti-cellulite.
It is recommended to carry out contrast procedures in the morning, but if this does not work, then you can do it in the evening, but in this case you need to finish the procedure not with cold, but with slightly cool water. It is advisable to carry out a contrast shower in parallel with a massage with water jets. To do this, the shower head should be kept at a distance of approximately 20 cm from the body. If you move the shower in a circle, capturing the stomach, chest, buttocks, then such movements will additionally increase blood circulation.
Contrast showers for weight loss also have contraindications: colds, fibroids, ovarian cysts, tumors, circulatory disorders.
By massaging your body and doing contrasting douches for weight loss, you can not only get rid of excess fat, but also make the skin of your buttocks, abdomen, and chest elastic and soft. And besides this, your health will improve, and colds will no longer be scary for you.
For varicose veins
If veins protrude on the lower extremities, it means that their walls have stretched under blood pressure and become thinner. This means that blood circulates poorly in the veins due to malfunction of the venous valves. This stagnation of blood progresses and over time adds trouble to the sick person. For women, this problem also has cosmetic significance - bluish veins swell, lift the skin, and form unsightly protruding spots on the skin. The legs become not as beautiful as they were before, which cannot but upset the woman.A contrast shower for varicose veins is useful in that by increasing blood flow and increasing venous tone, the phenomena of stagnation in the veins, which cause their protrusion, are eliminated. Even if you do not have varicose veins, it is still better to use a contrast shower, since it is an excellent prevention of this disease.
As a rule, no woman avoids this disease with age. The cause of varicose veins is wearing heels, the load on lower limbs during pregnancy, etc. The myostimulating effect of contrast procedures for varicose veins has been proven by doctors.
Strengthening the walls of blood vessels is also the prevention of varicose veins. Any creams and ointments designed to improve the condition of the veins work more effectively after preliminary preparation in the form of contrasting water procedures.
The rule of a contrast shower for varicose veins: cool water should be cooled slowly and gradually, and the temperature of warm water should not be increased sharply, because varicose veins themselves expand, and hot water can expand them even more. If used incorrectly, contrast procedures can be harmful.
For potency
Contrast showers are useful for men, increasing their potency.Requirements for contrast procedures in the intimate area: not too big a temperature difference ( so as not to catch a cold); rubbing the genitals after a shower until the skin turns red. The mechanism of beneficial action is the same as for other disorders that a contrast shower treats: increased blood flow eliminates most stagnant problems and activates beneficial functions of the body.
For children
The benefits of hardening for children have been proven for a long time. To make them immune to colds and runny noses, you need to regularly carry out contrast douches. The effect of the procedures will gradually come, but you should not expect instant results. Pediatricians can provide parents with information about general standards hardening However, they always need to be adjusted within the framework individual approach to the child.
The basic principles of hardening are regularity and gradualness.
Of course, you cannot expose a child to a contrast shower if he is unwell ( colds, flu, etc.). And if the child has a chronic disease ( bronchitis in chronic form, For example), then you should change the hardening tactics and start it not with a contrast shower, but with air baths.
Small children under seven years of age are advised to walk at a temperature environment from 13 to 22 degrees. The walk can be short - up to half an hour, or long - up to an hour.
For sick children, the procedure for taking air baths may be somewhat shorter, but the air temperature must be several degrees higher.
Pediatricians consider water procedures to be a more reliable means of hardening. It is better to start them in early autumn or summer, and for children who are often ill, it is better to do water procedures exclusively in the summer, until the body gets stronger.
Rubbing is such a simple procedure that a child can do it on his own. To do this, you need a soft sponge or bath mitten soaked in warm water ( approximately 30 degrees Celsius). You can add table salt to the water, this will improve the effect ( add 50 grams of salt to 5 liters of water).
First, wipe your arms and legs, then your chest and stomach, and your back. Be sure to rub yourself with a dry towel until the skin turns red - this kind of massage is very useful. Every week you can reduce the water temperature by one degree. The procedure itself should take no more than two minutes.
Subsequently, if the baby tolerates rubbing well, you can move on to the most effective methodology hardening at home - to a contrast shower. Initially, the temperature of the water for a contrast shower should be several degrees higher than the water for wiping. Then you can reduce it gradually and smoothly to 15 - 20 degrees. The duration of a contrast shower for a child should be no more than 2 - 3 minutes. One more is enough effective remedy for hardening - these are foot baths.
You can accustom your child to contrasting procedures from the age of one year, and you need to start hardening with air baths and dousing your feet. By the age of one and a half years, the child can be slowly placed under a contrast shower.
Pouring your feet with cool water, the temperature of which slowly and steadily decreases, gives remarkable results. You need to start with a temperature of 28 degrees, lowering it every two days within three weeks by one degree.
In older children ( from five years) good results are shown by gargling with water of a contrasting temperature: warm, cool, cold. This procedure is best done in the morning while brushing your teeth.
Hardening, contrast showers, and other measures to strengthen the immune system and general health are included in the concept physical culture. This is a convenient and easy way to make yourself and your family healthier.
What will happen to your body if you douse yourself with cold water every day?
Prepared by: Anastasia Kuzheleva
If you are tired of getting sick every time the weather changes, start strengthening your body. This will help not only strengthen the immune system, but also improve metabolism, which promotes weight loss, strengthen the nervous system, heart and blood vessels. But you shouldn’t jump into the hole right away. Find out how to properly harden yourself in our article.
Before listing all the safe methods of hardening, you should remember the following:
Do not rush to do everything at once - otherwise the opposite effect will follow: you will get sick. Select several points below and gradually add the remaining ones to them one by one.
You should begin to harden only after making sure that you are absolutely healthy.
If you feel that you are getting sick, turn on a more gentle hardening mode, or temporarily abandon the procedures that made you feel worse.
Thermoregulation in children is weaker than in adults. Before you start hardening your baby, it is better to consult your doctor.
1. Walking barefoot
To prepare your body for hardening, start walking around the apartment without slippers and in the lightest possible clothes. Yes, put home sweaters, leggings and terry robes on the very top shelf.
2. Sleeping with the window open
Get into the habit of sleeping with the window open in the winter, and completely in the summer. open window. This will not only strengthen the body, but also have a beneficial effect on sleep. In an unventilated room for a long time, carbon dioxide accumulates, inhaling it, a feeling of fatigue arises, and people begin to yawn. Sleeping in such a room is disturbing - most often you have nightmares.
3. Washing with cold water
You need to accustom your body to cold water from small things - start washing your face with cold water in the mornings and evenings. The rule applies at all times of the year.
4. Drying with a towel
To begin hardening, rubbing with a towel is one of the most safe ways improve thermoregulation, i.e. help maintain constant temperature bodies in different climatic conditions.
Wiping is beneficial for everyone except people with skin diseases or disorders.
What do we have to do? Wet a towel with water at a temperature of 35 degrees and rub the entire body until red. It takes less than 2 minutes. Gradually reduce the water temperature by a degree. In a month you will be able to wipe yourself with a cold wet towel.
5. Air baths
Air has a positive effect on blood vessels and improves blood pressure. You can take air baths both at home and outside.
At home: open all the windows in the apartment, creating a draft, and undress. After 5 minutes, close the windows, and after 10 minutes, open them again.
On the street: It is most beneficial to take air baths while moving; if it is warm outside, put on a minimum of clothing and go out for a walk. In the cold season, dress so as not to freeze. It should be remembered that you can easily get sick if you walk in low temperatures and high humidity. You should not harden outdoors in the event of precipitation, fog or strong wind.
6. Pouring
You should start dousing individual parts of the body at room temperature. Best time for dousing - morning. Gradually move on to dousing the entire body. If you can handle this task, gradually reduce the water temperature. So, after a few months you will start dousing yourself with cold water. To avoid catching a cold, take a warm shower before showering. If the area allows you, go outside to shower, of course, in the summer. Dousing outdoors in winter is equivalent to diving into an ice hole - it is reasonable only after several years of hardening.
7. Contrast shower
A contrast shower will speed up metabolic processes and improve the functioning of the heart vascular system. The main rules of a contrast shower are to spray the entire body with a stream of water and not delay switching between hot and cold water. Start with several cycles of 30 seconds hot water - 10 seconds warm - 5 seconds cold water. After a week, remove the middle part of the cycle, leaving only hot and cold water. After a week, complicate the task - 20 seconds of hot water - 10 seconds of cold. In a month you will be able to take a contrast shower with 20-30 seconds of hot water, 20-30 seconds of cold water.
8. Hardening the feet
Hardening your feet is useful for both general strengthening immunity, and for the prevention of flat feet or hyperhidrosis - increased sweating. Fill the bathtub ankle-deep with room temperature water and walk around in it for a few minutes. Gradually reduce the temperature by 5 degrees.
9. Bath
Baths and saunas are also a good source of hardening. After the bath, you can plunge into cold water, douse yourself with cold water, or jump into the snow. remember, that sudden changes temperatures are dangerous for an unprepared body. If you have just started to harden yourself, the point “cold after the bath” is no longer necessary. Take a warm shower.
10. Swimming and winter swimming
Swimming in the river in summer is also one of the ways to harden yourself. It is rare when the water in the rivers of central Russia warms up by more than 25 degrees. If you have been hardening yourself for several years, try to swim for a few minutes or at least go into cold water for a short time during the rest of the year. And at baptism, plunge into the ice hole.
Physical education methodologist and massage therapist Galina Samuilovna Inovenkova believes that hardening is best prevention all diseases. Where to start?
In my opinion, the most effective methods hardenings are those that have stood the test of time. Not everyone knows that hardening was the norm in Rus'. In the 17th century, all work related to active movements in the fresh air during the cold season was considered useful. Healers and healers recommended this hardening exercise, which, by the way, is still applicable today: in early spring, put on wet shoes - that’s what linden bast shoes were called, “stuffed” with the first herbs: dandelions, coltsfoot, young nettle sprouts - and walk in them in the cool early morning . The cold hardened the body, the herbs strengthened the immune system and at the same time dissolved calluses, prevented the appearance of new ones, protected the skin from infections and relieved swelling.
IN modern world hardening has become a system of comprehensive measures to strengthen the immune system and increase the body’s resistance to the effects of weather and climatic conditions. The main law of hardening is gradualism and systematicity. There are four main means of hardening: water, air, Sun rays And physical exercise.
The most powerful hardening agent is water. Water treatments available at home include rubdowns, hand and foot baths, douses and contrast showers. These procedures can be alternated, but, as a rule, each person stops at one type of hardening. With any water hardening, it is necessary to monitor the water temperature, so I would advise using a water thermometer, at least for the first time.
Rubbing is the mildest means of hardening with water. With a well-wrung out wet terry towel, wipe the entire body in the following sequence: arms, then neck, chest, back, and finally legs. The direction of rubbing is important: arms and legs - from fingers to forearms and thighs. The stomach is massaged in a circular motion clockwise, shoulders and back - from the periphery to the center. Initially, you need to wet the towel in water at room temperature, then gradually reduce the temperature, bringing it to 10-12 "C.
Hand and foot baths are suitable for those who suffer chronic diseases and does not tolerate cold water well. Most useful contrast baths. Prepare two basins: with hot water, temperature - 38 - 40 "C, and cold, 28-30 'C. Every five days, reduce the temperature of cold water by one degree. Ideal temperature for healthy women- 10-12 ‘C.
Place your legs and arms in hot water for half a minute, then cold - for 10-15 seconds. Repeat this procedure 3-4 times. Then dry your feet and hands with a cotton towel, rub your soles and palms with a rough, scratchy, dry washcloth, and put on soft socks.
For this procedure, you can use solutions of herbs: sage, lavender, chamomile. Herbs relieve fatigue. They are prepared as follows: pour 2-3 tablespoons of dry herbs into one liter of boiling water, leave for at least thirty minutes, strain and add water. desired temperature. The solution can be stored in the refrigerator for several days in a glass jar tightly closed with a plastic lid.
Dousing should begin with water at least 34°C. Gradually, the temperature must be reduced and brought to 18-20°C. The meaning of dousing is a rapid and strong flow of water. Therefore, water is poured into a bucket or basin and quickly poured onto the body. It is advisable to douse your head as well. For women with long hair, such a daily procedure is impossible, so the flow of half the bucket should be directed to the chest area. The second half of the bucket is poured onto the back. After dousing, rub the body with a dry washcloth or towel and put on a warm robe for ten minutes.
Effective way hardening is a contrast shower: the water should be quickly switched several times - from warm, about 40'C, to cold, from 34 (initially) to 18'C. A shower with a temperature difference of more than 15" is considered high contrast, medium contrast - about 10", low contrast - less than 8". . Any Contrast shower is an excellent and powerful vascular exercise. In addition to the benefits of changing the “temperature” regime, water has an excellent effect on the skin, being a kind of massage that improves capillary blood circulation. Once a week, a hardening “mineral” bath is useful. Add half a glass of salt and soda to warm water. Sit in this bath for ten minutes. Then douse yourself with cool water.
The mucous membrane of the nose and throat can be hardened by daily preventive washing and gargling with cold salt water - half a teaspoon of salt per glass of water - or chilled infusions of antiseptic herbs: raspberry leaves, Linden blossom, coltsfoot.
Don’t let it seem strange to you that such a thing is not only useful, but also delicious recipe to strengthen the nasopharynx: eat ice cream and then drink a glass of warm herbal tea. The temperature contrast perfectly trains the mucous membrane, making it resistant to infections.
Photo: still from the movie "Gentlemen of Fortune"
In the cold season, skiing and skating in lightweight clothing are used for hardening. One of the most the best ways hardening - walking in the fresh frosty air, as well as sleeping indoors with an open window. True, the air temperature in the room should not be lower than 16-18 ‘C.
The most effective way to combine physical activity is Fresh air and the healing power of water. This opportunity is provided by outdoor swimming pools. An exceptional energy strengthening effect is walking at a brisk pace from a warm shower to the pool, even if it is bitterly cold outside. After such a “minute walk”, even cool water will seem like fresh milk.
The bathhouse has great hardening value. The effect of the bath, like all types of water hardening, is based on temperature contrast, which normalizes the functioning of the vascular system and regulates blood circulation. But the bath also relaxes the muscles and has a beneficial effect on the respiratory system.
However, you should not steam more than once a week. Traditional Russian bath ceremony involves obligatory dousing with cold water or swimming in the snow. The heat of the steam room becomes stronger each time, and the water douches become cooler. The choice of a bath: Russian, Finnish or Turkish depends on the tastes and preferences of each person.
Hardening will not be beneficial if you wrap yourself in warm clothes. In winter, even in severe cold, you should not pull the scarf tightly around your throat - the neck area should be ventilated. Otherwise, a steam room effect is created, which is fraught not only with colds, but also with skin allergic reactions. The neck of a turtleneck or the collar of a sweater is quite enough. If the clothing does not cover the neck, then it is loosely covered with a thin scarf. But the blood vessels of the brain need to be protected from hypothermia - protect your head with a hat in winter.
Rules for water hardening:
1. Water hardening procedures should not be performed before bedtime or immediately after waking up.. They are desirable during the period of the day when the body is active and vital. Cold water quickly affects the central nervous system, relieves fatigue and gives vigor. After hydro procedures, it will be difficult for you to fall asleep, and for a newly awakened body, cold water is too strong a “doping”.
2. Water hardening should not be abused. For women ideal norm- one procedure per day.
4. The duration of procedures should not exceed 1.5-2.5 minutes.
5.Rubdowns, douches, contrast showers cannot be interrupted. They should become a daily ritual, as obligatory as combing your hair or applying makeup. One of the mistakes is that when we get sick, we stop hardening. Procedures can be interrupted only for a few days, when it lasts heat. With a runny nose and cough, the body will defeat the infection faster if traditional hardening does not stop.
6. Useful after all water procedures, rub the body with a towel until noticeable redness. You should feel that your skin is completely warmed up.
8. Chills, blue goose-colored skin - an indicator that this procedure doesn't suit you. It is worth changing it or choosing a more gentle temperature regime.
Solovey Olga
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Recovery with cold or contrast shower increases durability, protective functions. It is water hardening that is considered best method to strengthen and maintain health.
Cold shower– an extremely beneficial event for the health of the body. Water hardening stimulates blood circulation, saturates organs with a large amount of oxygen, useful substances. There are two options for taking a shower for hardening - with cold water and alternating contrasting temperatures. It is better to start health procedures with a gentle regimen, that is, alternating hot/warm water. When the body gets used to it, you can alternately turn on warm/cool water. This procedure is based on pouring your body from above, including your head. It is better to do hardening in the morning, because, in addition to the healing effect, you will also get an invigorating effect.
As already noted, it is better to start hardening the body with a contrast shower. But at the same time, you should know how to shower properly to improve your health. It must be remembered that in this procedure it is important not only to be systematic and regular, but also to have a correct understanding of the temperature regime and its effect on the body.
Let’s say that if a person, in an effort to quickly recover from a cold, starts taking a shower, alternating ice and hot water, then this will not bring him any benefit. The opposite effect is more likely - that is, the disease will only get worse.
Hardening should be gradual and consistent. After all, without exception medical procedures must meet the main requirement - to be safe for the body. This means that when carrying out water procedures, you need to remember the rule: a mild irritant stimulates functions, and a strong one harms. After the body adapts, you can switch to a cold shower, but also with a gradual decrease in temperature and an increase in procedure time.
How to start hardening correctly
It is clear that not many people can immediately take a cold shower, which is why it is recommended to begin hardening by alternating temperatures. This will help prepare the body and conduct safe hardening. It is advisable to start performing water procedures in warm time year, ideally in the summer. In addition to this rule, there are some more and it is advisable to know them for anyone who has decided to start their recovery in this way.
- Beginners should not immediately pour low-temperature water on their heads. Because it can cause hypothermia, colds, and headache due to unexpected vasoconstriction.
- It is not advisable to go completely under a cold shower at first; this is an extra burden for the body. Hardening should start from the feet.
- You need to start taking a shower with water at a temperature of at least 30-32 degrees. Then every three to five days you can lower the temperature by a couple of degrees. After a few weeks, you will be able to adapt to water of 15-18 degrees. If there are no restrictions and no observed feeling unwell, then the mark can be increased to 10 degrees. It is important to carry out hardening by listening to your feelings and body - you should not feel any discomfort.
- After taking a shower, you should rub yourself thoroughly with a towel and perform warming movements so that the blood from the organs returns to the skin.
- There should be no drafts in the shower, otherwise colds can't be avoided. Doctors recommend not only rubbing yourself after a cold shower, but also dressing warmly to achieve maximum comfort.
- One more thing important rule: if a person has already started taking a shower for hardening, then this procedure must be carried out regularly. Adaptation of the body to cold water occurs after two months, and weaning occurs much faster - in one to two weeks.
It is worth paying attention to the fact that hardening is only a component general requirements To healthy image life. You should not ignore your diet and other important aspects of life.
Why is the procedure useful?
The benefits of taking a cold shower are considerable, but it is worth highlighting the following important points from the total mass of advantages.
- Strengthening immune forces due to the body’s adaptation to sudden changes in temperature.
- The activity of the nervous system improves due to systematic stimulation of receptors skin. A cold shower is useful for severe fatigue and apathy.
- Stimulated endocrine system, the state of which is reflected in all life processes.
- Under the influence of cold water, all cells begin to actively work, due to which their rejuvenation occurs.
- It is useful to take a shower, like preventative measure, reducing the risk varicose veins veins, manifestations spider veins. Due to the compression of blood vessels during cold temperature, they acquire elasticity and stability.
- Recovering appearance skin, it becomes more elastic, the appearance of cellulite decreases.
- In addition, proper hardening stimulates blood circulation throughout the body, including the head, which ensures oxygen saturation of all organs, tissues and cells. This significantly improves overall well-being, enhances brain activity, increases tone and activates the body's energy reserves.
In general, these are quite compelling arguments in favor of hardening with a cold shower. Of course, if you remember the rules and recommendations.
Contraindications
Recuperation with a cold or contrast shower is not recommended for people with severely weakened immune systems, since this procedure can cause hypothermia and lead to the opposite effect. People with existing diseases should also refrain from water hardening procedures; in extreme cases, a minimum temperature contrast is allowed.
Shower with cold or ice water strictly prohibited. It is not advisable to choose such a health activity if you have heart disease, increased blood pressure, tumors, thrombophlebitis.
All health activities should be started only when a person is absolutely healthy. For children or people with any diseases, it is preferable to use a gentle regimen and only after the approval of the attending physician.
You also need to strictly adhere to the requirement of gradualism. This can be attributed to the temperature regime and the time of taking a shower. You should start water procedures by taking a shower at room temperature, and you should gradually reduce it by one or two degrees. The same principle applies to the time of hardening; you need to start with 2-3 minutes, gradually increasing the duration of your stay in the shower.
Regularity in the procedures is no less important; there should be no long breaks, regardless of weather conditions and time of year. If some circumstances force you to pause, then the procedures must be started again with a gentle temperature regime.
Water activities should be combined with physical activity to increase their effectiveness and provide an overall positive impact on overall health. It is important to remember that hardening should please and invigorate.
If you feel unwell after water activities, you need to stop them and go to the doctor. When hardening, it is important to take into account the characteristics of a particular person, climatic and weather conditions, time of year, general state health and other important factors.
Conclusion
When performing hardening activities, it is important to correctly assess your well-being, monitor your blood pressure, pulse, appetite and other indicators, of course, taking into account individual characteristics body. Hardening water treatments, like other types of healing of this kind, requires endurance and self-control.
The efforts made are fully justified, since strong body even with sudden temperature changes external environment provides thermal balance of organs within fairly limited limits.
For example, if the ambient temperature sharply decreases or increases, a hardy organism will quickly respond to the risk of possible overheating or hypothermia by constricting or dilating blood vessels. Due to this, heat transfer will be adjusted in the desired direction: when overheating, it will increase, and when overcooling, it will decrease.
An unprepared body is incapable of a quick reaction, and the threat of overheating or hypothermia greatly increases. In addition, healing with a cold or contrast shower increases resistance and protective functions. It is water hardening that is considered the best method for strengthening and maintaining health.
