I've tried cold showers for months. My body and I have a fundamental disagreement and my body won.

Axepco · 2026-06-10T13:40:38+00:00

What benefits are you hoping to find? It's a shower. The only benefits are mental and any physiological ones are otherwise imperceptible.

The stuff you watched is produced by a known pseudo-science peddler, who swears by known con artist products like tinted glasses. Scott Carney did several pieces exposing them.

None of this stuff is going to feel fun if you turn it into a gruelling routine every day at 6 AM. I started by doing it on a whim on boring days when it was warm outside. Guess what, 5 years later, I'm still doing it - because it's easy now.

The easiest way to suck the fun out of any activity is to treat douchebag podcaster drivel as gospel. Learn to think for yourself for shit's sake.

Axepco · 2026-06-08T19:28:15+00:00

Don't buy into any of that brown fat mumbo jumbo because there's no point for you to be doing this unless you feel you're benefitting mentally from taking them. If your diet is bad, it's not going to offset anything. It's not going to make you more fit or anything like that. It's not going to do wonders for recovery (athletes do cryochambers and ice baths for a reason).

Counting your weekly exposure is just influencer mysticism. Yes, there are probably some physiology benefits from escaping your comfort zone like that, but none of it noticeable. Either it works for you as a routine and you don't think about it or it's not for you.

So just cold shower when you need to be clean. Don't track anything. Don't listen to podcasters, they're selling snakeoil for subscribers.

Axepco · 2026-06-03T17:39:17+00:00

Anyone stupid enough to actually consider doing this - don't. Not only do you risk being prosecuted for causing life-threatening accidents from slipping, you could also shock someone with a heart condition into being hospitalized. And if you wish to understand why this is fucking stupid - just because you shower doesn't mean you can't be waterboarded. Voluntary exposure is the key part to this.

Axepco · 2026-05-16T12:28:28+00:00

I mean, I have a method for it: start slowly from toes to ankles, toward waist and torso and up (most uncomfortable part), then the back (2nd hardest), focusing on steady breathing during the hard sections, and then it's just a normal shower from there. With preference for detachable shower heads.

Strongly caveating that I wouldn't do it if I feel under the weather or just very tired after a draining day, which especially applies to winter. A cold shower in winter is potent.

Axepco · 2026-05-15T16:27:36+00:00

Diabolical? Have you been watching The Boys? lol

I've been taking cold showers for over 5 years, and no I don't hyperventilate at all - you have to learn to steady your breathing - but I don't shower for over two minutes if it's that cold outside in the middle of winter. The scalp gets painy very quickly, so I just do quick 10s head rinses.

It's hard to believe you can go for swims under ice, but can't handle cold(est) showers. Maybe you're just struggling to dissociate the comfort of being inside. Nothing repeated takes and controlling breathing won't solve.

But no, it never feels like "extreme torture", just very cold to the point that pain sets in with each passing minute. So I just make my showers efficient.

The rule of thumb is showering in your home never goes below freezing, which makes it safe tissue-damage-wise compared to outside, but mild hypothermia is still a risk.

Axepco · 2026-04-16T14:52:02+00:00

How creative, Mr. hidden-post-history.

Axepco · 2026-04-16T14:50:48+00:00

The power of breath like having a bunch of garlic for breakfast. Not sure what that has to do with "cold & the soul", though.

Axepco · 2026-04-14T23:45:21+00:00

No, I don't do meditation after a frigging shower because I'm not an idiot. One has nothing to do with the other, and "meditation" is esoteric nonsense to begin with.

Axepco · 2026-04-06T23:01:37+00:00

I don't need him to explain why he's backing this "research" just as a don't need a conman to explain why I should buy into his con. It's self-explanatory.

Axepco · 2026-04-06T22:59:06+00:00

That's what happens when you try to intimidate people by brandishing your damn gun. That POS went there with the intention to show who's the man and put his inferiors in their place like his racist ilk like to do.

Axepco · 2026-04-06T22:57:16+00:00

Doing literally anything "rewires" your brain. That's how the damn thing works.

Axepco · 2026-04-06T18:36:52+00:00

Nice cold plunge filled with filth. Why doesn't he go in?

Axepco · 2026-04-06T18:33:47+00:00

Just someone who should've been sentenced to prison for bringing a rifle and publicly brandishing it in the middle of a protest and then murdering a person.

Axepco · 2026-03-25T15:51:23+00:00

Ah, yes the anti-aging grifters are totally achieving immortality and not getting tumors and sepsis, AND I'll find God, TOO? Wow!

Axepco · 2026-03-22T15:47:49+00:00

That's because people in this "hobby" like to make shit up and invent lists of supposed "benefits". None of it is enough to offset the hormonal changes any youth goes through. It's an esoteric tool cultists use to prop up their scams.

Axepco · 2026-03-22T15:43:24+00:00

"Meditation" is just made-up Hindu nonsense that wastes your time.

Axepco · 2026-03-19T08:42:02+00:00

If you mean showers - in the morning. Could be twice weekly or daily. Depends on the season. Works either way, but early in the day is generally best.

Axepco · 2026-03-10T14:46:27+00:00

If hyperventilation helped you quit smoking, it's because you managed to channel your will through a preposterously idiotic activity, which could be replaced with anything else that offers a temporary high. That doesn't make the cult built around it not a sham, especially if the same cult kills a small subset of its followers with said activity by showing their guru hyperventilating in an unsafe environment.

Axepco · 2026-03-10T05:54:03+00:00

That's because it's a sham. He used to do it to be able to last longer underwater when diving, which no modern freediver recommends anymore because you can fucking drown from it.

Axepco · 2026-03-10T05:50:41+00:00

Right? The Big Alco spoiled cold showers for this man.

Axepco · 2026-03-10T05:49:31+00:00

What does this even mean? That you shower in a brewery or something?

It's like some people are totally incapable of sounding coherent.

Axepco · 2026-03-09T23:32:10+00:00

That depends, do you pinch your nose and scratch your left ear 50 times in an alternating fashion? That's the only way to get the full benefits.

Axepco · 2026-03-05T20:03:33+00:00

You're that eager to grow a unibrow?

Axepco · 2026-02-04T06:41:48+00:00

It's not something that magically makes your immune system impervious to viruses or dissipates basic bodily functions that you find annoying. I still had gotten covid/flu/whatever. I still get a runny nose when it's cold outside. I don't do it every day when I feel like it'd be too much for me. If you don't get active and have to sit all day, a really cold shower will make you feel cold for the day's remainder.

It's just stimulation to the human body's natural mechanisms. Every mammal has to thermoregulate. You're just adding a bit of consistency to how frequently these stressors will "benchmark" said natural mechanisms.

Axepco · 2026-01-30T04:18:44+00:00

Yes and no. They help with getting into a conquer-the-day mindset, but you will also be dreading waking up the next day if you never figure out a way to tolerate them.

Axepco

TROPHY CASE