Whether you’re a gym bunny, weekend runner or enjoy a daily brisk walk, showering after you’ve worked up a sweat is essential. But, rather than simply keeping you clean, a post-workout shower can also enhance muscle recovery, boost immunity, reduce stress and even help with weight loss.
Some sports actively encourage showering as an integral part of their training regime. The Tae Kwando moral code, for example suggests that a cold shower (known as naengsoo machal) helps students ‘build pride and tenacity’. Exposure to cold water has also been found to increase the body’s supply of a powerful antioxidant called glutathione which is important for liver health and immune response. Don’t overdo it, however, as excessive exposure to cold can have the opposite effect and increase your susceptibility to infection (as can over-exercising).
Hygiene Showering is especially important if you play contact sports – sweat will mix with small cuts and abrasions and needs to be cleaned as soon as possible to prevent infection. For swimmers this is equally important as swimming pool chlorine can damage your hair and skin if you simply towel off after getting out.
Recovery Your shower can help reduce aching after a hard session, as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) can be prevented with an ice-cold shower in which you hold the showerhead directly over the muscles you’ve worked. Elite athletes use an ice-bath, but putting your shower on the coldest setting is a quick and easy alternative. If you exercise daily or more than once a day, this simple tip means you can start your next session without the DOMS that might otherwise reduce the intensity of your next session. And if you still feel ‘tight’ in the morning, a hot shower will increase blood flow, allowing your muscles to relax.
Fat loss However unlikely it sounds, a cold shower can help with weight loss. Why? Because your metabolic rate can increase up to five times its resting level during a cold shower to maintain your core body temperature at 37 degrees C – meaning you burn more calories just to stay warm. Most of this extra heat comes from increased fat burning in your liver, by increasing heat production in a type of fat known as brown adipose tissue , and from the act of muscle shivering – research shows the energy used by shivering muscles mostly comes from stored fat. If you don’t fancy a freezing cold shower, you can still gain benefits from a shower that’s cold enough to cause shivering without shaking, which increases muscle tone. Experts in cold immersion suggest immersing your face first. This triggers a nerve reflex that decreases your heart rate as part of the so-called diving response. Then immerse your whole body in the cold flow for ten to twenty seconds before turning the shower off. This short exposure is all you need to start burning fat for heat. Lather up with body gel and shampoo for a minute, then turn the cold shower back on. It won’t feel so cold, as your body has already adapted. Alternatively, start with a warm shower, then slowly reduce the temperature to the coldest setting for a maximum of three minutes.
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