Hi everybody,could someone explain me how to do contrast showers?I mean,how seconds?And when-post wo,rest days…-?
And what about crioterapy?
I’ d like to know if there are some basic priciples to respect…
Thanks guys…
post workout
Do regular shower with hot water
1 minute cold
1 minute hot
30 seconds cold
30 seconds hot
10 seconds cold
2 minutes hot and get out
The above can be used for arms or legs.
You can do a extra 5-10 seconds twice on your spine (from the top) which has helped me alot. Will be very hard to do for first timers.
Thank you…
So is that you have wrote the sequence most useful?
What to you mean when you say that “will be very hard to do for first timers”?
The sequence is just a way to go about doing the contrast shower, you can do it 4x 1 minute intervals or whatever.
Letting ice cold water run down your back will be very difficult if you don’t have a certain tolerance level, which can be developed over some time of repetitive use.
I have always read that you start and end the contrast shower with cold water. CF has advocated this here many times as well.
2 min hot/1 min cold, repeat 3-4x, starting and ending with cold.
And the temperature of the water will vary with each individual- hot as you can stand and cold as you can stand- no use in scalding yourself with hot water if you aren’t ready for it, just try to build up your tolerance to the varying temperatures. Same goes for cold.
Thanks for the explanation…
So I should starting and ending with cold water…
I think that expecially for the first time I should be more careful with hot and cold water,cause I ought to test my tolerance and I get used to doing this practice…
Charlie, could you clarify what the correct protocal for contrast showers is please? Ive always done 3 mins hot with 40 secs cold x 3. Someone mentioned finishing the last cold shower lying on your back with the shower head facing onto the soles of the feet.
Check out the Recovery Between Rounds Thread in this Recovery and Regeneration section. 
No. I mean, I suppose this could be fine, but this is not what contrast showers have been considered the past many decades. You need to spend more time in each part (the cold and the hot) and you traditionally end on cold.
3min cold
30sec hot
Anybody feel weird when doing these? I get lightheaded and almost a vertigo feeling, figure it’s some sort of nervous response.
test message
Verbatim ex CF
Contrast showers involve three minutes of total body immersion in water as hot as
tolerable, and then one minute in water as cold as tolerable. This process should
be repeated three times. This can aid in both muscular and CNS recovery.
The picture in my avatar was taken doing hot tub and snow contrast baths. If you look close you can see steam coming from my body.
I have used hot and colds from everything to helping me sleep to preparing for competition to loosening up tight or injured muscles.
We have always done 3 minutes hot followed by 1 minute cold and repeat this 2 more cycles ( 12 minutes total). Often I extend the hot and or cold but initially ( day one , day two) I would begin with the normal ratio.
We have very hot water and almost all year around very cold water.
Ideally dunk tanks are great but if you have sufficient water pressure the shower can be enough.
IMO I also think you get max benefit from doing them consistently over time.
I have discovered the less I want to do a hot and cold the more I seem to benefit from it.