LIVING WELL CHILL FACTOR
LIVING WELL CHILL FACTOR The secret to finding that extra performance edge may be as simple as a cold shower. // By Jen Murphy DATING BACK TO ROMAN TIMES, communal baths were the healthgiving jewels of the Alpine region and spa towns like Baden- Baden in Germany, among countless others across Europe, centered on their mineral-rich waters. Today, many of them are still flourishing—but if you can’t get to them or don’t have time to indulge in an hour-long hydrotherapy circuit, even a cold shower can help with everything from mental clarity to muscle inflammation. Roughly 60% of the human body is water, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that water therapy can help bring the body back into equilibrium when it becomes unbalanced. Flying notoriously throws off our internal rhythms. The foggy-headed fatigue of jet lag can be minimized by taking a cold shower in the morning at your new location. Even a minute-long, chilly douse can help your body adjust to the time change by activating your central nervous system and resetting your internal clock. The cold stimulus will also help invigorate 52 NetJets
ADOBE STOCK the body and brain and improve the clarity of your thinking. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who is known to take only cold showers, has proclaimed they’re more energizing than a morning cup of coffee, and life coach Tony Robbins wakes up by diving into a 57-degree Fahrenheit pool of water. Tennis great and NetJets Ambassador Rafael Nadal considers a cold shower his go-to reset button. He takes a teeth-chattering rinse before every match to help him find what sports psychologists refer to as his flow, or state-of-alert concentration where his body moves by instinct. An ever-growing body of science backs up their claims. Hydrotherapy dates back to the 1820s, when Vincenz Priessnitz, a farmer in Austrian Silesia, started touting the healing powers of cold-water compresses, baths, and showers. In the mid-19th century, Irishman Dr. Richard Barter took Priessnitz’s observations and applied them to treatments offered at his “hydro” or water hospital. Barter’s Roman-Irish baths consisted of a set of rooms of NetJets 53
