Hardening with cold water is considered the most famous type of hardening, which is used very widely among people.
- People are tempered with cold water in many ways.
- First of all, it is douche. It should be done all the time, preferably outside. Do not overdo it and overcool.
- A contrast shower is also considered cold water hardening. A shower can have a positive effect on the human body. It has a calming effect.
- Swimming in public water bodies. Sometimes people swim in lakes and rivers. They are engaged in swimming, and it is known for its ability to strengthen the human body, to improve blood circulation. Swimming strengthens the musculoskeletal system. Plus, your muscles are always in good shape when you swim. Public reservoirs do not have a high temperature, as a result of which if you swim in them, your body will be hardened. This method of hardening is recommended for those who have just embarked on the path of hardening the body.
What are the benefits of hardening
The benefit can be called the fact that the body becomes more resistant to low temperatures and temperature changes.
What is hardening? This is the very process by which the body's thermoregulation functions are trained, and the reaction to temperature stimuli is also trained. 
When tempered with cold water, the body learns to resist temperatures to which it is not accustomed - to low temperatures. In addition to training the ability to resist temperatures, hardening helps to get rid of excess weight and cellulite.
This procedure makes the skin more elastic. New wrinkles will appear much more slowly.
Water hardening - where to start
In the hardening procedure, the most important thing is a correct assessment of a person's abilities. It is necessary to consult with a specialist, go to the hospital and be examined for contraindications. For each person individually, different activities and their intensity are required.
If you have no contraindications, start training.
An important point is the gradual hardening of the body. First of all, they start with foot baths. Do a foot bath before going to bed. Each time, the water temperature should get lower. Wipe with a cool wet towel along with the foot baths.
If you easily endure these procedures, start more aggressive procedures - pouring cold water.
Choose the correct dosage of hardening loads and accustom your body to them. What harm can cold water hardening do? 
If you exert too little or too much stress.
If the body does not react to hardening, know that this is also harmful. Do not feel sorry for yourself and do not overestimate your capabilities. Do not stop hardening. The effect that you have achieved can be very easily lost if you stop training for a few weeks.
Contraindications to hardening
There are several contraindications to this procedure. But there are cases when it was hardening that helped a person to recover. Do not pour your head over. This is true for all people. The change in temperature will not affect your head very well. You will catch a cold.
The next contraindication is chronic stage diseases of the cardiovascular system.
When quenched with cold water, your heart begins to beat faster. A very important point is the absence of serious diseases.
Who is strictly forbidden to temper the body with cold water: heart failure, coronary heart disease, tachycardia.
Also, in case of chronic diseases of the central nervous system, epilepsy, hysteria, psychosis - temper carefully, or do not temper at all. Temperature is irritating and can cause seizures. 
When skin diseases, pustules, open wounds also cannot be hardened. Even with regular douches, exercise should be stopped until the skin is completely healed.
With diseases of the respiratory system and all respiratory system - ARVI, bronchial asthma, flu, tuberculosis, acute respiratory infections. During the course of the disease, it is necessary to suspend hardening.
If you have increased eye pressure, you should also avoid cold water hardening.
How to harden children with cold water
Of course, it is best to teach a person to hardening from early childhood. But this process needs to be controlled even more. The body of children is weaker, it is strongly influenced by the environment.
It is allowed to harden children on the tenth day of a newborn's life. Before hardening, you must undergo an examination and listen to advice from a pediatrician.
Follow some rules during the hardening procedure for children. The body of children has just begun to develop, some diseases may exist, but in a latent form.
The hardening of the body must be carried out systematically. If the procedure is carried out once, you will not feel the benefit. It is necessary to harden children in a playful way.
Agree, it is extremely difficult to force a child to pour water of his own free will at an unpleasant temperature for him. It is necessary to demonstrate, by your own example and the example of the rest of the family, accustoming the child to the hardening procedure. The child should learn this gradually.
Both children and adults must adapt to this procedure.
It is necessary to start the procedure with small doses. The dosage is increased gradually.
Severe irritation should be avoided. Shower often, but for a short time. The nature of the impact should be just that - short-term.
After you have doused yourself with water, you need to wipe off and massage.
After the massage, the body recovers faster. It is also important to consider the state of the child.
The hardening process will benefit the child if he is healthy and comfortable. If it freezes, postpone the procedure.
It must be remembered that the hardening procedure will be useful when you know the measure and how the training works.
"If you want to be healthy, temper yourself!"
Our time can without exaggeration be called the era of synthetics, polyethylene and plastics - all this is the result of chemical manipulations with various substances, and if the effect on the body of these products is a controversial issue, then during the production process harmful substances are unambiguously released into the air.
The food and drinks we consume today are also very different from natural ones, and the lifestyle has gone far from being athletic and healthy. All this inevitably leads to the fact that our immunity weakens and needs to be resuscitated as soon as possible. Cold water hardening, along with other methods, is one of the most effective ways to strengthen the immune system. Artificial immunostimulants should not be preferred - despite the pharmaceutical revolution, they are not even close to traditional methods hardening the body.
The benefits of dousing
Dousing with cold water is a method that has come down to us from time immemorial, and this is not surprising, because it has a lot of advantages.
This incomparable way to help yourself wake up will not only wake up the sleepy body, but also provide a charge of vigor and good mood for the whole day. This is due to the fact that cold water activates all processes in the body, setting it up for productive activity.
It goes without saying that hardening is the most powerful prevention colds. A person gets used to lower temperatures, making himself less and less vulnerable to ARVI and FLU.
For the cardiovascular system, such water procedures are also excellent training, that is, the prevention of heart and vascular diseases.
The nervous system also undergoes changes: irritability and fatigue decrease, a person becomes more resistant to stress and negative influences from the outside. In addition, getting up half an hour earlier and devoting this time not to tea and sweets, but to courageously overcoming oneself, a person trains willpower, and this also affects character and stress resistance. And after such a morning you will leave the house filled with pride and spend the whole day in high spirits.
It is impossible to doubt how useful cold water is for the skin: douches and contrast showers renew cells, tightening and rejuvenating the skin, making it more elastic and elastic, giving it a healthy pink tint. This method is one of the main components of a comprehensive fight against cellulite and stretch marks.
Normalizing and accelerating metabolism, plain water helps to fight excess weight. Moreover, in the process of dousing, there is a positive effect on the endocrine system, and problems with hormones can also cause extra pounds and other health problems.
A bath of cool water will help relieve fatigue and tension from the legs.
It is believed that along with the physical recovery of the body, cold water also cleans the human biofield, that is, it affects its energy, freeing it from the accumulated negativity, envy and anger of others. This technique is actively used in many spiritual practices and underlies various rituals.
If we consider the process of dousing from the point of view of its specific effect on the body, the following happens: skin receptors perceive cold water falling on them and transmit a signal to the central nervous system, from where it passes to the brain. The supply of organs with oxygen for the body is a primary task, therefore the brain gives orders for the outflow of blood from the skin and its inflow to the internal organs, as a result of which all metabolic processes are triggered - the body wakes up. When the brain realizes that the danger has passed, the blood returns to the skin, nourishing and renewing it.
In addition to the obvious health benefits, hardening the body with cold water has some other benefits: first of all, it is free. Apart from fees for cold water supply, this unique cosmetic procedure - also known as a session to restore health and activate the body's reserve forces - will cost you "nothing"!
The next item "for" is time. It is best to temper yourself in the morning, but if you do not have this opportunity, calmly build an individual pouring schedule.
Of course, the main advantage of tempering over the services of beauty salons, in addition to the price, is that you can safely do it at home. This does not require special devices, materials and substances, the main condition is the presence of water and a basin or bucket!
The only thing worth paying special attention to is that even this seemingly harmless occupation has its own contraindications, although most of them are temporary.
Contraindications for dousing with cold water
- The most important on this list are cardiovascular diseases. The load on this body system during hardening is high: for a healthy person, this is only a workout of the heart and blood vessels, and it is very effective. But if the problem already exists, you should be careful and it is better to consult a doctor first. If the doctor considers it acceptable, he will select for you an individual hardening program, perhaps a little less intense. High or low blood pressure is also a reason to postpone dousing for a more favorable moment.
- It is definitely not worth giving a load to a weakened body: if you have already caught a cold, you will have to postpone the strengthening of immunity, otherwise you can aggravate the situation. The same applies to the exacerbation of chronic diseases - at such moments a person needs peace, spending energy on additional loads is inappropriate.
- Do not douche with severe irritation, damage and skin diseases.
- It is worth carrying out the procedure with caution if you have an increase in eye pressure, sometimes it is better to completely abandon hardening so as not to provoke deterioration.
Be attentive to your body and, if there are any doubts about your health, before you start hardening, consult a specialist.
Correct hardening technique
It is of great importance how exactly to start training your body and how to carry out the procedure itself.
- You need to start not with ice water, but with cool water, gradually accustoming your body to such loads.
- First of all, try to calmly perceive washing and washing your hands with cold water, then you can move on to your feet and beyond.
- If pouring is especially difficult for you, try wiping off with a wet towel.
- It is useful to douche after morning exercises, but you can stretch out afterwards: when the body wakes up, the exercises will be more effective.
- Avoid drafts in the house or room where you are performing the procedure and where you will be for the first time after it.
- The effect of hardening increases significantly if you do it regularly, without skipping procedures on weekends and holidays.
- To increase the elasticity of the skin, it is useful to rub with a hard towel: a waffle towel is ideal. On the other hand, it is equally beneficial to keep the skin wet, allowing it to absorb as much moisture as possible.
- Do not be tempted to bask in a warm shower after a bucket of cold water has been tipped over on yourself: the whole effect will be hopelessly lost.
- Hardening is an area where sharpness and speed are welcome; a cool shower will not work. It is important to provide the body with stress achieved by a sharp temperature drop, this is how all processes are started at once!
- You can enhance the healing effect by pouring water while standing on the snow: the cold affects the points located on the feet, activating all processes in organs and tissues.
Can children pour themselves on?
Children adapt to environmental changes much faster than adults, and their bodies are more resilient and more mobile. Therefore, you should not succumb to the widespread opinion that such an event as hardening should be postponed until a more conscious age in order to avoid colds and other complications. Observing simple rules and recommendations, you can strengthen the child's immunity from birth: at first, it is enough to reduce the temperature of the water when bathing by only 1 degree per week, and already from a year you can start pouring water on the baby. The most important thing is not to scare your child and not force the child to do something against his will. Here the psychological factor plays the main role: learn to interest the baby, then dousing will be of great benefit to the small body.
Remember that enthusiasm is welcome in all spheres of life, but you should not rush from one extreme to another: a healthy assessment of your own capabilities plus courage, determination and willpower is the ideal formula for success. And most importantly - don't be afraid to start, the effect will surpass all expectations!
A fun holiday in Thailand Songran - everyone pours icy water over each other.
What hardening Is a very useful procedure that promotes health - a well-known fact. However, like any other technique, hardening has a number of certain limitations and contraindications that must be taken into account before starting to master it.
In this article, we will break down a few rules that will allow you to get the most out of this ancient way of strengthening your immune system.
How it works
Hardening is a controlled stress effect on the body.
Cold or alternating low and high temperatures irritate millions of skin receptors that send nerve impulses to the brain. In response to this, the hypothalamus (structural unit of the brain) and the pituitary gland, the main endocrine gland, are included in the work. It is this functional ligament that is the main regulator of the constancy of the internal environment of your body, including in terms of thermoregulation.
The pituitary gland sends a quick command to the adrenal glands, which react by actively releasing into the blood so-called stress hormones: cortisol, adrenaline, nor-adrenaline. The pituitary gland itself, in turn, produces endorphin - an analgesic hormone that causes a state of euphoria - a positively colored emotional arousal.
The body's response to reduced temperature manifests itself in two stages:
- At the first stage there is a narrowing of the vessels of the skin and activation of blood circulation in the internal organs,
- At the second stage, at the end of the hardening effect on the body, the blood from the internal organs is redistributed to the skin. Hence - the feeling of pleasant warmth spreading over the body.
In addition, the heart rate and respiration rate increases, which leads to a sharp acceleration of metabolic processes.
Varieties of hardening procedures
1. Aerotherapy -
these are long walks in the fresh air. In any season.
The main mechanism of action on the body is oxygenation of the blood, training of receptors of the skin and mucous membranes.
2. Water procedures.
Among them are the most powerful and reliable methods of hardening:
- Cold and hot shower;
- Pouring cold water;
- Foot baths;
- Drinking cold water;
- Swimming in the ice hole (winter swimming).
3. Walking barefoot -
effectively due to the direct effect on biologically active zones located on the surface of the feet. Thanks to the connection of these sensitive points with the internal organs, a beneficial healing effect on the body is achieved.
Benefit
Let's briefly summarize the benefits that any of you can get from regular hardening practices:
- Improves blood circulation, especially capillary;
- The tone of the blood vessels is trained;
- Metabolism accelerates - metabolism;
- Blood pressure is normalized;
- The state of the nervous system is stabilized;
- Vitality rises;
- The mood improves;
- Anti-aging processes are stimulated;
- Increased resistance to colds.
Contraindications
- Cardiovascular failure, heart disease, hypertension or thrombophlebitis;
- Hyperexcitability;
- Epilepsy;
- Active phase of colds;
- Aggravation of any chronic diseases;
- Diseases of the joints;
- Diseases of the skin.
For those of you who are affected by the above restrictions, you can use more forgiving techniques: wiping with a damp towel, foot baths, dousing your lower body with cool (not cold!) Water up to your waist, walking barefoot. But only after proper consultation with your doctor.
Basic rules for hardening
1. The development of hardening procedures can be started only in a healthy state. Malaise, elevated temperature, exacerbation of any chronic diseases is a strict contraindication.
2. You should start carefully, gradually accustoming the body to the effects low temperatures... Do not seek to force events. Any water procedures: douches and contrast showers, it is better to start with a comfortable temperature. Then the water can be gradually cooled.
For a prepared person, the appearance of slight discomfort is allowed, when doused with cold water, the volitional overcoming of which should be accompanied by positive emotions.
3. Regularity is the most important principle that should be followed. Consistency is the key to high efficiency of hardening.
4. Monitor your own health carefully. Tempering procedures should not cause a feeling of stable psychological discomfort or lead to a deterioration in your health.
If you feel unwell, your performance has decreased, you have begun to catch colds more often, or, starting hardening activities, you have to overcome internal resistance that is growing from time to time, then something has gone wrong. In this case, pause, recover and then return to a comfortable temperature regime for you.
5. The most appropriate time of day for tempering practices is morning hours. A contrast shower or douche will give you a boost of vivacity and lift your spirits, setting the appropriate mood for the entire day ahead. Evening hardening, due to the stimulating effect on the nervous system, can disrupt your daily rhythm, preventing you from going to bed on time.
6. With a contrast shower, at the initial stage, the temperature difference between hot and cold water should be minimal. Before dousing yourself with a cold stream, it is necessary to achieve a persistent feeling of warmth throughout the body, using hot water. Follow this recommendation especially carefully during the winter season.
After your body has warmed up enough, and you feel that the skin is filled with excess heat, proceed to pouring cold water at a temperature that is comfortable for you.
You can douse yourself with or without your head, it doesn't matter. The duration of exposure to hot and cold water is 5-15 seconds for each approach. This time is quite enough to cover yourself completely, including the surface of the back, arms and legs.During one procedure, three douches with hot and three douches with cold water are performed alternately.
Over time, it is necessary to increase the temperature of hot water and gradually cool the cool water - leaving them in a conditionally comfortable range for yourself. As your psychological resistance grows, after full adaptation, it is permissible 2-3 times a week to resort to dousing with cold water, whose temperature is beyond your current tolerance.
7. Dousing with cold water can start from the lower legs, then rise to the thighs, then - to the level of the abdomen and chest and, finally, smoothly move on to full dousing with the head. The water temperature should drop gradually. It is important to remember that the water should not be icy.
(Details in the section "The negative effects of hardening").
8. Consuming chilled drinks on a regular basis is also a good way to promote health. In this case, the emphasis is on training the nasopharynx - the first line of defense against any pathogenic microorganisms. After all, it is hypothermia of the throat, nasal passages and shells that triggers the development and spread of colds.
This method takes a very gradual habituation. In the first step, be sure to use a water thermometer. Taking a drink or water from the refrigerator - bring its temperature to the desired level with hot liquid. Drinks should be chilled carefully, monitoring your own well-being, no more than 1 degree in a few days.
The use of cold water / drinks as a general strengthening measure should be used with extreme caution by those of you who have chronic diseases nasopharynx: sinusitis, tonsillitis, pharyngitis. In this case, it does not hurt to get the advice of your doctor.
Negative effects of hardening
You cannot ignore the potential harm that improperly selected hardening procedures can cause to your body. In particular, dousing with ice water and swimming in an ice hole is not suitable for everyone. These are quite extreme ways of influencing the body. Their beneficial effect is to stimulate the endocrine system, more precisely, the release of stress hormones into the bloodstream, which regulate energy metabolism, and an analgesic hormone - endorphin, which is responsible for the state of euphoria.
At the same time, the processes described above, in their excessive manifestation, can cause serious and, often, irreparable damage.
1. Vessels
During extreme hardening procedures, the body experiences not only stress: for some time it falls into a state of severe shock. First of all, the adrenal glands react to this: they produce large volumes of cortisol and adrenaline. The combined action of these hormones leads to a thrombotic effect: small blood clots form in the microvessels. And if such a powerful stressful effect occurs on a regular basis, then over time, an increasing number of capillaries are clogged.
After months and years, individual tissue fragments, as well as nerve endings, can simply become disabled due to impaired blood flow. The process of thrombosis, developing, is able to spill over to larger vessels. This, among other things, significantly increases the risk of myocardial infarction.
2. Wear of the endocrine glands
Above, I already wrote that the main function of the production of stress hormones is assigned to the adrenal glands. Working regularly to the limit of their capabilities, they gradually, month after month, deplete their reserves.
Most people who practice winter swimming or dousing with ice water are faced with the fact that over time they lose the sharpness of pleasant sensations, up to their complete cessation, and the healing effect on the body is significantly reduced. In order to achieve the desired results again, they are forced from time to time to increase the duration of stay in the hole or pour themselves not with one, but with two or three buckets of ice water.
These are formidable signs of increasing wear and tear of the endocrine glands, which can lead to serious hormonal disturbances, dystrophy of the pituitary and adrenal glands, and malfunctioning of the immune system.
3. Controversial results
Many propagandists of winter swimming and dousing with ice water, as an indisputable proof of the effectiveness of these techniques, cite the facts of the rapid cessation of pain or relief of the condition of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, rheumatism, etc. However, it is important to distinguish the palliative effect from the real deliverance from ailments. Unfortunately, a quick cure as such happens infrequently. The relief of the condition of patients is explained by the action of two potent factors:
- release of endorphin, which relieves pain;
- blockage of capillary networks and, as a result, partial death nerve endingssignaling a problem.
Some of you may argue: but there are people who have been walruses all their lives and at the same time preserve their unkillable health until very old age. The answer is quite simple: nature endows on average 3% of the population with the most powerful immunity and extremely high potential of internal reserves. The stomachs of such people are able to digest nails, the heart can easily endure heavy physical exertion, the liver copes with alcoholic poison consumed in incredible quantities, they practically do not get flu and acute respiratory infections.
You shouldn't be equal to them. If you are not lucky enough to fall into this small category, then be ready to take care of your own body all your life, thus showing respect for it.
Hardening and losing weight
The organism found itself in a stressful situation, due to the launch of the adaptive mechanisms of self-regulation, significantly increases the metabolic rate. The accelerated metabolism, aimed at generating energy and stabilizing the temperature regime, actually begins to use fats, decomposing them into fatty acids.
However, it should be borne in mind that to ensure the proper effect, i.e. for a tangible reduction in fat reserves, you need to swim in an ice hole or douse yourself with ice water, at least 2-3 times daily. Exposure to a lower intensity, in fact, is not able to have a significant effect on the effectiveness of the fat burning process.
At the same time, moderate hardening procedures, of course, can become a good help in the fight against excess weight as part of complex activities, which also include systematic training and balanced nutrition.
RESULTS
Hardening is the oldest and very effective way to strengthen the adaptive abilities of your own body. However, in addition to this, hardening procedures are a powerful stress agent that can cause significant damage to your endocrine system and immunity. Therefore, before making a choice in favor of a particular technique, carefully weigh the pros and cons.
I personally recommend using a contrast shower. With its help, you can achieve the most optimal and, which is important, controlled effects on the body. In any case, focus on your own feelings. Giving preference to more radical hardening measures, just watch your well-being more carefully.
I wish you unbending health and every success.
Rustam Yusupov.