Should You Take a Cold or Hot Shower After a Workout?

Exercise puts a lot of stress and strain on your body, and a cold shower can help your recovery in many ways: 

Muscle Relief

It can help your blood vessels contract and prevent bruises and swelling and also improves your blood flow. A cold shower may also numb your nerve endings, providing your body instant pain relief. This is the main reason we use ice packs when we get injured.

Anti-Inflammatory Effect

Since working out inflames your body and inflammation isn't good, a cold shower can provide you with anti-inflammatory effects. That way, you'll recover quicker after a workout and reduce the post-workout DOMS you might experience.

Skin Cleansing

While working out, your pores open to release sweat. As helpful as this is, sweating and leftover dead skin cells can clog up the same pores and cause acne, whiteheads, and blackheads. Taking a cold shower may burn fat and help unclog pores to get rid of any bacterial build-up post-workout.

Immune System Boost

A cold shower after a workout can quickly boost your immune system — if practiced regularly, of course. One study involving more than 300 participants proved that taking a daily shower that starts warm and ends with 30 to 90 second-bursts of cold water can significantly reduce the number of sick days used at work [1].

Showering with cold water isn’t as simple as “jump into the shower and switch the water to cold.” The process starts with finishing up your high-intensity exercise.

Here’s the most important advice on how to have a proper cool-down shower after a hard workout:

• Cool down properly - First things first, you'll need to switch to a gentler form of exercise to cool down after your workout. The cool-down should start to lower your heart rate and should last for at least 5–10 minutes.
• Stretch your muscles - Once your heart rate starts slowing down, you should begin stretching your muscles.
  A good stretch will help clear out lactic acid buildup and prevent soreness from an intense workout [2].
• Start with lukewarm water- You should start showering at a lukewarm temperature to avoid shocking your body.
• Gradually switch to cold water. As you start to cool down, you can adjust the water to make it colder.
  The main reason for this start is decreasing the inflammation in joints, tendons, and muscles.
  The cold water will lower your blood flow, stiffen your muscles and joints, resulting in less pain.
• Get colder and target major muscles -  For the last 90 seconds, bring the water temperature down to as cold as you can stand. Hit your major muscle groups with a blast of cold water to re-energize and refresh your tired muscles.
• Switch to warm water -  Next up, switch to hot water to avoid potential joint stiffness.
  A hot shower should also improve muscle and joint recovery, flush out any dead, inflammatory cells or scar tissue buildup, and improve your bone health.
• That’s it! After you finish the hot shower, dry off completely with a clean towel and step into your post-exercise clothes.

Related Articles:

• Do Cold Showers Boost Testosterone?
• How Long Should I Wait To Shower After Working Out?

"It is like a 'pause' button in the healing process to decrease the body's quick response to injury, which can be very painful at times."

- Kristin Maynes, P.T., D.P.T.