Hardening the body: how to prepare for it and not harm your health

However, before deciding to harden your body, you should make an appointment with a general practitioner and get his consent, since your health, in the case of existing diseases of the respiratory system, heart, etc., may suffer even more.

It is best to start hardening your body in the summer or autumn (while it is not too cold yet), and not in winter.

Hardening should be carried out not only by exposure to cold, but also high temperature, since the body will soon get used to one irritant, and the effectiveness will be low.

At the stage of habituation, the following are used as means for hardening the body: contrast showers, air baths, rubdowns, visiting a steam room, dousing with cold water.

There are three main rules that are extremely important to follow:

• Give a real assessment of your body, thinking about its features, because if you constantly you are freezing both outside and indoors while others feel fine, you simply need to consult a neurologist or cardiologist, suddenly you have problems with blood vessels and hardening is contraindicated for you
• You should increase the load and duration of exposure to the irritant on the body consistently
• If you have started hardening the body, the procedures should be carried out regularly, since long intervals will weaken the acquired protective reactions of the body

Many people do not doubt the benefits of hardening, but at the same time they are constantly looking for reasons to avoid it. The main reason, of course, is laziness. And, alas, there is no agitation for a healthy lifestyle such as there was in the Union. But when colds and viruses often overcome the human body, it reconsider its priorities and decides to start strengthening its health.

Wipes with a wet towel should be done every morning. That is, after wetting a hard towel with tap water, actively massage your entire body with it. After the procedure, the body should dry on its own. Over time, try to lower the temperature of the water in which you wet the towel (by 5-8 degrees over several months).

Even if you are chilly in your own apartment, after rubbing down you should walk barefoot and naked (or with a minimum of clothing). Before going to bed, it is advisable to pour cool water over your feet. If possible, visit a bathhouse or sauna once or twice a week. And in the period from May to October, get used to swimming in an open body of water.

If desired, you can add sea salt to the water for rubbing down and dousing (three tablespoons per three liters of water) to tone the body and speed up blood circulation. Sea salt perfectly tones the body, while speeding up blood circulation. Or you can use infusions of medicinal herbs (chamomile, celandine, etc.). To do this, brew one tablespoon of the herbal mixture in 200 ml of water and leave for about 20 minutes. You can gargle with this decoction - this is an excellent prevention of colds.

Having accustomed your body a little, proceed to the next stage of hardening - contrast rubdowns. To do this, you need to take two basins: with hot and cold water. Rub the skin, alternately changing the cold and hot water. You will feel a surge of vigor, and your joints will stop reacting to sudden changes in the weather.

After a month, start pouring water from a bucket over yourself while standing in the bathroom. It is better to pour over your head, but do not go outside abruptly so as not to catch a cold.

Alternate dousing and contrast rubdowns. In winter, it is good to rub the body (without clothes, of course) with clean snow, and starting in April, with water at 10 degrees, swim in a river or lake until late autumn.

The next and most serious stage of hardening is winter swimming, when a person immerses himself in an ice hole at subzero air temperatures.

The duration of stay in the ice hole should begin with literally two seconds. But first, you need to warm up the body by jogging and doing physical exercises, a little, so as not to sweat. As a result, when immersed in an ice hole, there is a sharp activation of vital forces.

Don't be afraid to harden your children, and from an early age. Most children love playing in water, but they react less noticeably to changes in air and water temperature.

Contraindications and possible side effects of hardening the body

Despite the fact that hardening helps the body to stay in good shape, it can have a negative effect on some people. It may take more than one year for rheumatoid arthritis to manifest itself, for example, and then you will need to consult an arthrologist.

External exposure to cold has a rather negative effect on the kidneys and genitourinary system. That is why in cold weather you need to make sure that your shoes are warm enough. The accumulation of cold in the kidneys causes congestion in the pelvic area. As a result, resistance to diseases decreases, cystitis and gynecological diseases develop.

In men, this can manifest itself in the form of chronic prostatitis, and then he will need to consult an andrologist, undergo an ultrasound of the prostate, and undergo long-term treatment.

Moreover, normal kidney function ensures proper blood supply to the lower extremities. This means that when kidney function is impaired, dystrophic changes in the joint tissues occur, developing into arthrosis.

Impaired kidney function can also provoke the formation of stones in the urinary tract, and if you do not consult a urologist in time to treat urolithiasis, it can transform into gout.

And most importantly, sudden changes in temperature can have a negative effect on the cardiovascular system, so if you have a bad heredity or already have heart problems, you simply need to make an appointment with a cardiologist and get his consent for hardening, and especially for winter swimming.

Take all your actions seriously, monitor your health, and your life will give you many bright colors!