← Back to Blog

400 Days of Cold Shower Why I Plan to Take a Cold Shower Every Day Till I Die

00:00Hi, I am Geek Climber. I was pretty average  when I first started this channel. Throughout   the past few years, I have been able to achieve  a few significant athletic milestones. However,   I did hit some plateaus and got injured a few  times along the way. Being the kind of person   who is willing to grind through anything to yield  results, after hearing that taking cold showers   could potentially help me recover from my workouts  faster, I decided to give it a try for 30 days.   I know my reaction to my first ever  cold shower wasn't very entertaining,   which is probably bad for YouTube. To be  honest, taking a cold shower is not comfortable,   but it's far from being unbearable. I  discovered that if you breathe more heavily,   you will feel less cold, and I also discovered  that if you imagine you are swimming, you will   also feel less cold. On day 3, I started to notice  that my body did actually feel less sore after a   strenuous workout, and I was pretty surprised to  notice an effect that soon. On day 15, my body  
01:00became used to the cold shower. I no longer needed  to breathe very heavily to fight the cold, and I   also no longer needed to imagine I was swimming to  fight the cold. Thirty days flew by really fast,   but to be honest, 30 days isnt enough for  me to draw a conclusion on cold showers.   A lot of people talk about the benefits of the  mental aspect of taking cold showers. For example,   it helps you get out of your comfort zone. It can  help fight depression. It can help you deal with   stress better, stuff like that. However, none of  these applies to me. Since I step out of my comfort   zone all the time, I don't have depression, and   I already know how to deal with stress due to   the high stress I had to deal with in my teens  and 20s. What I want to find out is, will my   body eventually get used to the cold shower, and  thus the muscle recovery effect will eventually   diminish? Is it just like how the coffee addicts  get used to caffeine, causing their body not to be   able to wake up the way it used to with a cup  of coffee? I also want to find out, are there  
02:00any other benefits from cold showers not mentioned  in other people's videos that I would personally   experience? I decided to continue on my daily cold  shower journey. I even purchased a timer for this,   so I can make sure I am always taking a cold  shower for at least 3 minutes. Here are what   I discovered after 400 days into it. First,  the muscle recovery effect does not diminish.   This reason alone is enough for me to continue  to cold shower every day till I die. Second,   cold shower actually helps heal up injuries.  One day when I was attempting the back lever, my   sternum cracked and I felt a sharp pain. After a  night of sleep, it still feels painful when I woke   up. At that time, I was thinking to myself, man,  my channel is going to suffer because I have to   stop all progressions on climbing or calisthenics  for a few weeks. Later that day, I walked into the   cold shower without thinking too much since it has  become my habit. To my great surprise, the sternum  
03:00pain was gone after the cold shower. I couldn't  believe it. I thought maybe the cold numbed it,   and it would come back after my body warms up  again, but nope, it's completely gone. Even if   in the future I somehow got to a point where I  decided to stop working out with high intensity   that will cause muscle soreness, this experience  alone is enough for me to continue to cold shower   every day till I die. Third, I also discovered that  I am more resistant to cold in general. I haven't   worn a jacket once yet this winter. I know I live  in California, but this is still an improvement   to me. I am also able to perform as usual during  workouts in the park in cold weather nowadays.   I remember prior to starting cold showers, my  performance dropped at least 50% when working   out in the cold. Fourth, although I didn't get  sick often prior to my cold shower journey,   I haven't gotten sick since. Cold showers boosting  the immune system is another commonly cited   benefit, and I guess I am another empirical proof  of this. Lastly, I feel more alert and energized
04:00in general. I haven't felt the need to take a nap  during the day or felt too tired to concentrate   on work. This is another commonly cited benefit,  and I guess I am another empirical proof of this   as well. In conclusion, I think 3 minutes of  discomfort from taking a cold shower every day   in exchange for the benefits I have experienced is  100% worth it. Honestly, I think everyone should   start doing it. There is really no reason not to.  If you are still not convinced to start taking   a cold shower after watching this video, comment  below and let me know why. Lastly, as we all know,   mainstream climbing brands refuse to sponsor  average climbers like myself. Therefore, I have   no choice but to create my own brand to sponsor  myself. When I hit 100k subscribers one and a half   years ago, I announced that I wanted to prove that  it was possible for average climbers like myself   to build a viable business via YouTube. Throughout  my YouTube journey, I refuse to advertise  
05:00products that I don't use. I refuse to ask for  donations on Patreon. I refuse to sell t-shirts   or mugs with a geekclimber logo slapped onto it.  I refuse to sell cookie cutter online workout   programs. I want to create a product that actually  solves a real problem in people's lives. This is   a tough route, but one and a half years later, I  am ready to bring my new product to market. You   will be surprised how difficult it is to find a  food bar in the market that has zero added sugar,   consists of real food ingredients, meaning no  weird ingredients that you can't even pronounce,   and is made of high quality premium ingredients  that are organic, non GMO, vegan, and gluten-free.   I strongly believe there's a market for this;  therefore, I am launching my own food bar   brand called 5Bar to fill in this gap. With the  amazing recipe developed by my wife, feedback from   industry experts, and feedback from enthusiastic  early beta testers, who joined my email list,  
06:005Bar is fine-tuned not only to be healthy but also  to taste great. Chances are high that the snacks   you consume regularly aren't very healthy, so you  should definitely consider replacing them with   5Bar. We all know what we eat strongly  correlates to our performance, so if you   value your health and performance, and also want  to support me to make 5Bar a successful story,   make sure to click the link in the  video description below to place an   order. I can't wait for you to try 5Bar and let me  know how you like it. See you in the next video.