Do you like diving into an ice hole after a Russian bathhouse? Tips to help you make the most of this and not get sick

The most radical type of hardening in a bathhouse is swimming in an ice hole. For many, the mere mention of this phrase causes a shudder and a natural fear of icy water, although in Rus', from ancient times, diving into an ice hole after a steam room is not such an unusual thing. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to convey information about diving into an ice hole, as well as the harm that thoughtless and unprepared swimming in winter can cause.

How to start your recovery correctly?

The Russian bath has an excellent preventive effect on the individual’s body. It increases resistance to many diseases, making a person healthy. The basis of hardening consists of strict adherence to the following steps:

• Heating – gradual increase in heat load. The focus of your stay in the steam room is your well-being. If discomfort and profuse sweating occur, it is recommended to leave.
• Cooling - start with a cool shower and take it for the same amount of time as you spent in the steam room. Reduce the water temperature from time to time and only then proceed to wiping with snow, dousing with ice water and swimming in an ice hole.
• Rest - its duration corresponds to the time during which the body has time to cool down. It lasts approximately twice as long as staying in a steam room.

All these steps must be followed so as not to harm your health. It should be remembered that after a long absence of hardening, you need to start everything like the first time. It is better to start the hardening process in spring and summer, while the weather is warm. Next, we will consider all the stages in more detail.

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Bathhouse and snow

If the winter turns out to be snowy, you should definitely try to take a snow bath while visiting the bathhouse. A snow bath is another way to cool down, but you need to warm up well before doing so.

The steam room should be well heated; it is useful to breathe in the vapors of medicinal herbs. Steaming with a bath broom will help a lot. It is better to entrust this procedure to a professional bathhouse attendant. After a good warm-up, you can quickly plunge into clean snow.

Advice! Beginner visitors to the steam room are not recommended to immediately dive into the snowdrift entirely. If you plan to take snow baths after warming up, it is better to prepare a snowdrift in advance. The snow must be clean and loosened.

Rubdown

Rubbing with snow after a bath is carried out after a good warm-up. This procedure must be carried out while observing a number of rules:

1. Unseasoned people limit themselves to wiping their hands, face and shoulders.
2. The body is rubbed with circular movements or short movements up and down along the massage lines.
3. You should not use hard snow for wiping, as it can scratch the skin.
4. It is not recommended to make great efforts when rubbing the body.
5. Rubbing should stop once the skin becomes warm.

A state of chills should not be allowed. Cooling should not be long.

Should you dive into the snow?

There is ongoing debate about cooling by immersion in a snowdrift. Supporters and opponents of extreme hardening have their own arguments. On the one hand, swimming in the snow trains blood vessels and enriches them with blood. On the other hand, the process can be harmful for an untrained body.

After the steam room, the vessels expand, and with sudden cooling they contract. If a person has a history of cardiovascular diseases, it is better not to resort to such radical methods of hardening. Prepare regularly and for a long time for sudden temperature changes.

Heating

Courage and bragging are unacceptable here, and you should not set records. When visiting the sauna for the first time or after a long break, staying in the steam room should not exceed 3–5 minutes. If you feel discomfort, you should leave the steam room earlier. Next time this stage can be increased to 5–7 minutes. In the future, the maximum stay in the steam room is 10–15 minutes. At first, she is visited no more than twice, and only a month after getting used to it, the number of visits is increased to 3-4 times.

When heat is the enemy

“The first sign of frostbite is pain. Then the frozen part of the body begins to lose sensitivity,” continues Ilya Mikhailovich. “If you feel this way, go somewhere warm, at least to a store or a bus.”

The symptoms of hypothermia are different - a person feels a surge of strength, while his skin turns pale, and the nasolabial triangle acquires a bluish tint, the patient begins to feel chills, and the pulse quickens. If you do not warm him up at this time, the second stage will begin: excitement will be replaced by apathy, drowsiness, the person will be overcome by weakness, breathing and heartbeat may gradually stop.

According to doctors, when a person freezes, it is necessary to take him to a warm room, remove him from clothes - they keep the cold in, give him hot sweet tea and call a doctor.

“Some people think that heat will also help with frostbite - they begin to suddenly warm up the frozen limb. This is absolutely not allowed! You should also not rub your skin with snow, alcohol tinctures or other folk remedies. All this is fraught with irreversible tissue death,” says the doctor. “We have had cases where people treated with blackened, dead skin, they were sent for amputation. And they were perplexed: why, I only warmed it up a little? Under no circumstances should sudden warming be allowed.”

To protect frostbitten parts of the body, they need to be wrapped in a heat-insulating bandage (a woolen scarf or scarf will do) before entering the room, this will protect them from exposure to excess heat. And seek medical help immediately.

Every woman tries to take care of her appearance: chooses stylish clothes, does her hair, takes care of her skin, placing special emphasis on the skin of her face. Wiping with snow has an effective effect on facial skin. Some specialized beauty salons even offer an expensive procedure that gives the same effect as rubbing and is called cryotherapy. The result of wiping with snow is disappeared wrinkles, smooth skin and a healthy complexion.

How to do this procedure at home? You need to take a handful of snow, pour it into a napkin and press it firmly to your neck and face. These rubdowns are very useful and quite pleasant. At first, sharp, burning sensations are felt, but they are instantaneous, then a pleasant, encouraging chill sets in, which improves your mood. Rubbing with snow is a good remedy, but it also needs to be used in moderation and according to the rules. At the initial stage, you need to dry yourself in the room, having first collected clean snow in a cup. Rub from top to bottom - neck, shoulders, arms, stomach, back, hips and legs. Perform all manipulations very quickly, then wipe with a rough, hard towel until redness appears. Even after the first procedure, a feeling of pleasant warmth and a surge of strength is guaranteed.

Having gotten used to wiping in the room, you can move on to the next stage - wiping on the street (balcony). This stage requires prior consultation with a specialist (doctor).

Cooling

When you first visit the steam room, the mildest cooling is carried out under the shower with a water temperature of 20–25 degrees. For the third and fourth times, the water temperature is lowered by five degrees, the next two times even lower, by five degrees, and only after the tenth visit is it possible to swim in the water. After three to four months, with good hardening, they move on to wiping with snow, dousing with ice water, and only then to swimming in an ice hole.

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The benefits of the font

Each of us has heard about the beneficial effects of cold water on the human body. What exactly does it consist of?

1. During a dive, a sharp narrowing of the capillaries occurs, as a result of which blood is actively directed to the brain and heart. As a result of such short-term stress, all the protective properties of the body are activated. Immunity improves.
2. In the process of immersion in ice water, dopamine is produced - the hormone of happiness. The subsequent effect is a state of euphoria that you want to repeat again and again.
3. When swimming in cold water, as a result of a short-term rapid increase in body temperature to 39-40 degrees, a protective mechanism is activated. This allows you to remove harmful substances accumulated over many years from the body.
4. Immersion releases huge amounts of the stress hormone cortisol. But due to the regularity of such short-term receiving, we become more stress-resistant to life’s adversities.
5. The cardiovascular system is strengthened, internal organs are rejuvenated.
6. Dousing helps in the fight against depression - the antidepressant hormone norepinephrine is activated.
7. Those who want to lose weight can also benefit greatly from cold water. Brown fat, which leads to obesity, is activated at low temperatures. As a result, the calorie burning process accelerates.
8. Cold water relieves fatigue of muscles and the whole body. Improves skin color and makes it more elastic. Very refreshing and invigorating, adding energy and strength.
9. Most baths are made from coniferous trees (larch, cedar, oak). When interacting with water, cedar wood releases beneficial substances that promote wound healing; Tannins from oak bark provide anti-inflammatory and calming effects on the nervous system.
10. Contrast procedures help normalize sleep.
11. Cold water promotes the production of powerful antioxidants. They, in turn, fight the aging process of the body and help strengthen the immune system.

How to properly harden with cold water?

You can cool down under a cold shower, dousing yourself with water, rubbing yourself with snow, plunging into a pool or ice hole. To avoid harm to your health, you must follow the following tips:

• Regular implementation of procedures - the healing effect can be achieved through systematic hardening, swimming daily in an open pond or taking a cold shower.
• The main thing is not to rush - gradually reduce the water temperature and increase the duration of your stay in the water. Do not stay in the ice hole for more than two minutes.

• Follow the rules of immersion and exit from the water - do a short warm-up on the shore, rinse your face, stomach, chest and back and then dive into the water, do not dive headlong so as not to get hypothermic. When leaving, quickly take off your wet clothes, dry yourself and put on warm and dry clothes. Shoes and things should be loose and comfortable when dressing.

• Consider individual characteristics - each person reacts differently to cold. The transition from water to a warm room is sometimes accompanied by dizziness, tinnitus, vomiting, convulsions and an allergic reaction in the form of hives.
• Stop smoking and alcohol - alcohol-containing drinks dilate blood vessels, which increases heat transfer; smoking impairs blood circulation, causing additional cooling.

Don't hurt yourself. Contraindications

Despite all the positive aspects of swimming in cold water, you should also remember about contraindications.

Swimming in cold water should be avoided if:

• the onset of a cold, ARVI;
• problems with the cardiovascular system;
• respiratory diseases (asthma, bronchitis);
• neurological diseases;
• kidney diseases;
• problems with the genitourinary system;
• hypertension;
• suffered a heart attack, stroke, coronary heart disease;
• pregnancy; (

Who is contraindicated from taking a steam bath and then swimming in an ice hole?

Before you start hardening your body, consult your doctor to avoid any health problems. Procedures for strengthening the immune system should not be started in the following pathological conditions: inflammation of the nasopharynx and middle ear; diseases of the endocrine, genitourinary, cardiovascular, central and peripheral nervous systems, as well as the respiratory tract, visual organs, gastrointestinal tract, skin and venereal diseases and allergies to cold.

Only trained and well-seasoned people can plunge into an ice hole after a steam room. In ice water there is a sharp change in temperature, which causes a strong rush of blood to the organs. This procedure requires long and regular preparation.

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Traditions of contrast procedures

Many hundreds of years ago, lovers of bathing procedures built bathhouses along the banks of rivers and lakes. After a hot steam room, they plunged into a pond, refreshing the body and providing a surge of strength and vigor. If the water froze, ice holes were made into which they were immersed or doused with water collected from there.

In the absence of a nearby reservoir, well water was used. Our ancestors filled large wooden containers with it and immersed themselves or poured water on themselves from above. No less interesting is the ancient tradition used in snowy winters - diving into a snowdrift and wiping yourself with snow. Oh, I can’t describe the feeling!

The tradition of swimming in an ice hole (font) was also instilled in children. As a result, they rarely got sick, slept well, and were emotionally balanced.

Children from 7 years old can practice bathing in the font. Only seasoned children can plunge into ice water for no more than 1-2 seconds.

Nowadays, the use of contrasting water procedures is becoming one of the components of a healthy lifestyle.

Dry rub every day

First of all, it has an excellent effect on the skin. Dry rubbing has a peeling effect, ensures good blood flow to the affected areas, thereby helping the flow of more oxygen to the right places. Acting in the thigh area, it actively combats cellulite.

For dry wiping, you can use linen towels or napkins. Special brushes with natural and artificial bristles are also used.

Movements are made in a circular, clockwise direction. It is better to start from the feet towards the body, then from the hands to the shoulders. Place special emphasis on the armpits, under the knees and neck. Blood and lymphatic vessels lie close here and the effectiveness will be more noticeable. Rubbing is not a massage, so there is no need to worry about side effects from rubbing on these areas.

Dry rubbing is carried out 2 times a day for 7-10 minutes. It will take 3 months to achieve noticeable results. Each movement must be repeated 10-14 times. At the end of the procedure, it is recommended to take a warm or contrast shower and rub the skin with cosmetic milk or replace it with some vegetable oil, for example, olive, peach, grape seed...

The method has no absolute contraindications, only some inflammatory skin diseases accompanied by pus.