I personally like to take showers that switch between hot (actually more like warm) and cold. For example, I might start out warm and end cold. To me this allows the best of both worlds.
shadowfoot,
It's a very interesting question as to whether contrast baths (alternation between hot and cold within the same showering or bathing session) provide similar benefits to a regimen of purely (or mostly) cold water exposure. Contrast baths probably do provide some benefits to circulation (alternating vasodilation and vasoconstriction) and they no doubt improve tolerance to both heat and cold. But when I've tried contrast baths, I notice that the "numbing" effect of warm water tends to inoculate you against deeply experiencing the subsequent cold chill. And similarly, a dip in the cold tends to buffer you against feeling the subsequent heat so intensely. It is almost as if the rapid contrasting temperatures merely numb your experience of extreme temperatures.
Going beyond the merely subjective, does this "inoculation" effect from warm or hot water result in less shivering and reduced thermogenesis when plunging into the cold? And if so, does it reduce the benefits?
I've also noticed (and commented before) that taking only cold showers allows my tolerance and subjective benefits to progress over days and weeks. If I insert even a single warm or hot shower, I take a slight step back in tolerance, which I notice the next time I take a cold shower. If I do this only once every 2 weeks or so, the loss is transient and insignificant. But I suspect that if I were to take several warm showers in a row in the course of a few days, I would lose a lot of ground. So there seems to be some degree of "memory" involved in cold tolerance.
I would be interest in learning about any objetive or subjective comparisons between pure cold exposure and alternating exposure to hot and cold.
Todd
