Many generations of hydropaths were paid tribute to cold water as a doctor and tempering agent. The combination of systematic tempering with cold water and intense physical exercise is the most powerful and correct stimulator of vigor and an inexhaustible source of eternal health.
The founder of rational hydrotherapy is the Greek famous physician Hippocrates, who studied thoroughly the very physiological effect of water on the human body. He clearly defined that the effect of cold water is expressed in excitement, and warm - in relaxation. He considered rubbing, bathing and dousing (water quenching) as a therapeutic potent agent.
Indeed, conventional water quenching is the most effective and commonly available means to promote health. Even short-term, short-term douche that affect the central nervous system, invigorate, relieve fatigue.
Exposure to the cold water used causes a reflex narrowing of the skin vessels (and the skin contains 1/3 of all blood). The narrowing and subsequent expansion of these blood vessels is a kind of gymnastics for the cardiovascular system, which promotes intense blood circulation. It gradually causes mobilization and a moderate flow of reserve blood mass into the general bloodstream.
Under the influence of cold water, the diaphragm activates, ventilation in the lungs increases, breathing becomes free and deep, the number of leukocytes, erythrocytes increases. All this has a beneficial effect on the course of oxidative processes, as well as on metabolism in general. In addition, sexual potency is enhanced, which has a good stimulating effect on the NS, and therefore on personal attitude.
But the main advantage of the “water quenching” procedure is the improvement of the unstable thermoregulation apparatus, due to which the body temperature, even in the most unfavorable and unbearable environmental conditions, always remains in the optimal range, and the developed protective forces of the human body are constantly in “combat readiness”.
Those who are just planning on water quenching should first accustom themselves to washing their face and hands regularly with only cold water, which clearly contributes to improving human performance, invigorating well-being and teaching them how to “feel” cold water itself.
Rubbing the body is the most "mild" means of hardening with water. It is carried out with a wet towel or squeezed sponge. At first they wipe their hands, then their neck, back, chest, legs. When wiping, the movement of the hands should be in the direction along the vessels, more precisely, from the periphery to the center. Circular movements on the stomach should be done clockwise. Having gotten used to wiping, it’s time to move on to a more tangible procedure - pouring. When pouring, they overturn a bucket (basin) of water on themselves so that it flows down a stream throughout the body.
To prolong the hardening effect with cold water, you should not use a towel to wipe it after use, you just need to wipe dry only your head, and massage your wet body with soft, light strokes until you feel some pleasant warmth, and then put on quickly.
An effective means of hardening is a contrast shower. Distinguish: high contrast, medium contrast and low contrast difference. Such water quenching causes an excellent healing and strengthening effect with a fairly rapid achievement of the desired effect of training the heat adaptation of physiological mechanisms.
The duration of the douche or contrast shower is a maximum of 5 minutes, during which it is necessary to produce changes of cold to heat; at each change, the mild thermal effect must necessarily be somewhere in 2 p. longer than exposure to cold water. The contrasting procedure must be completed by the influence of only cold water.
The duration of stay in open water should be regulated depending on the temperature of the water and weather conditions, on health, the degree of training involved in hardening.
For people who are almost healthy, the most rational is the following dosage of bathing in time:
- +22 ... + 25 ° - 5-16 minutes;
- +18 ... + 22 ° - 4-6 minutes;
- +14 ... + 18 ° - 1.5-3.5 minutes;
- +10 ... + 14 ° - 0.5-1.5 minutes;
- +6 ... +10 ° - about 1.5 minutes;
- +2 ... + 6 ° - 30-40 seconds;
- about 0 ° C - 14-30 seconds
Systematic water quenching is mandatory for everyone who wants to achieve the highest form in cold quenching - winter walrus.
Water quenching rules
No. 1 Graduation. When the initial water temperature is 32 ° C, the next step will be to use water of the same temperature, and only on the 3rd day - 31 ° C. It is recommended to reduce the temperature by 1 ° C in 2 days.
No. 2 Systematic. Targeted hardening should be carried out daily. If 1 week hardening is carried out, and the second is not carried out already, then an unhardened body will not be able to adapt to different loads every time again.
No. 3 should take into account personal individual characteristics. Indeed, some people can start with a temperature of 26-25 ° C, and for others - no lower than 34-33 ° C.
No. 4 Complexity. In order to purposefully temper, it is advisable to choose some one main tool. And the whole lifestyle along with this should contribute to hardening.
No. 5 Water quenching should begin only in the absence of any acute disease, with the complete elimination of the inflammatory chronic process.