Everyone has heard the words of the famous song: “If you want to be healthy - temper! Forget about the doctors, get cold water if you want to be healthy. ” And it’s perfectly said, neither to add nor to decrease.
“The sun, air and water are our best friends,” children’s counters reappear in memory as soon as it comes to hardening. Everything is simple again! It is only a pity that we perceive this only as songs, counters, sayings, and not as a guide to action.
So what is hardening of the body, and how to start tempering yourself and your children in order to stop suffering from colds (or at least minimize them)?
Hardening of the body is an increase in its resistance to the effects of adverse environmental factors, such as low air, water, etc. That is, in order not to catch a cold from a slight hypothermia or wet feet, not to catch a cold in the throat from drinking cold water, you need to train your body to withstand these adverse effects.
Although hardening is not able to protect us from infectious diseases, such as flu or childhood infections, they will be much easier to tolerate and the likelihood of getting complications will decrease many times - because hardening of the body has a beneficial effect on increasing all its defenses, that is, enhances immunity.
What are the ways to harden the body and what types of hardening of the body are most effective?
Probably, listing all the known methods of hardening, I will not tell you something new, but, nevertheless, let's repeat:
- air baths;
- wiping with a wet towel followed by active rubbing;
- general strengthening morning exercises;
- jogging or walking,
- systematic walks in the fresh air in any weather (except for stormy weather, of course, when there is a raging breeze, rain with a wall, a blizzard, etc.);
- dousing with cool water (with a gradual decrease in water temperature from time to time);
- cold and hot shower;
- Russian bath with subsequent diving into a river, pond or pool;
- skiing and skating (in winter), cycling (in summer);
- swimming (in a river, in the sea, a pond, in a pool);
- walking barefoot on grass, on small pebbles, on snow (the latter only for specially trained ones);
- gargle with cool water;
- etc.
In fact, all types of hardening are effective - whether it is water, air or solar. If anyone does not know, hardening by the sun is called heliotherapy. For example, it is very good to expose your throat to the sun's rays, opening your mouth wide (it is only important to keep your eyes safe, the sun should not be at its zenith at that moment), moreover, it is a useful gymnastics for the muscles of the larynx.
The main thing is to do everything systematically, increase the load gradually and take into account the individual characteristics of your body. And in no case can you begin hardening procedures at the time of an exacerbation of a disease or after a disease just suffered, loading an already extremely weakened body.
And the main thing is to be able to overcome laziness and make a plan where to start hardening the body. The most appropriate time to begin to get involved in this process is from mid-spring to early summer to mid-autumn.
Even accustoming yourself and your children to sleep with a slightly open window leaf, doing wet cleaning in their rooms more than once a week, observing the sleep and rest regimen - you are already starting to become tempered. And having compiled the regime of the day, I assure you, there will be time for morning exercises, evening walks, and visits to the gym.
At the weekend, whenever possible, go outdoors - just spend half a day with your family, running to catch up with the children, or walk through the forest.
And if there is an opportunity - get the bike and tirelessly (but also without fanaticism) step on the pedals - forward to your health!