Winter not only carries the danger of catching colds, but also provides an excellent chance to recover from many diseases. One of the most effective winter types of hardening is winter swimming. However, the human body needs to prepare for such a procedure, since otherwise the effect of ice water may not be healing at all, but destructive.

Where to start hardening in winter?

First of all, start by making sure there is always fresh air in your home or apartment. Therefore, ventilate the room regularly, it is better to do this twice a day: in the morning after sleep and in the evening before going into the arms of Morpheus. If you have free time, it is better to go for a walk, and after it take a cool bath or perform a full body rubdown cold water. Such water procedures using cool water have a stimulating and tonic effect on the body’s immune system: it activates metabolism, improves the functioning of the endocrine glands, as a result of which a person feels cheerful, experiences a feeling of freshness and joy. In order for water hardening procedures to produce tangible results, they must be carried out in the morning.

Hardening is good for health at any age, but you need to be well prepared for this procedure so that the body does not experience enormous stress.

Secrets of winter hardening

Before diving into the ice hole, it is imperative to warm up your muscles. A jog for 15-20 minutes is suitable for this. Then experienced walruses recommend rinsing your hands, feet and chest with cold water, and then, having come to an excellent and cheerful mood, plunge into the ice hole up to your neck. Beginners are advised not to spend more than 10-15 seconds in the water. This time is quite enough for the body’s hidden reserves and defenses to awaken. At the end of bathing, you need to dry yourself, rub your skin with a dry towel, starting from your feet and hands towards your head, and then put on warm clothes.

Experienced walruses stay in cold water for about two minutes. But even during this time the body does not have time to become hypothermic. Interestingly, while staying in an ice hole, walruses not only do not feel the cold, but feel an internal heat. However, if a person overestimates his strength and extends his stay in cold water, for example, up to 10 minutes, then hypothermia may occur, which is dangerous for the entire body.

One of the main recommendations on how to properly harden yourself in winter is the following advice. Before diving into the ice hole, it is very important to get ready for winter swimming, since the psychological component plays an important role in the success of this procedure. The awareness that immersion is good for health contributes to the active production of happiness hormones - endorphins. They are the ones who create a feeling of vitality, satisfaction, optimism and joy. Perhaps this is why people who experience the healing powers of cold water not only do not get sick, but also successfully overcome life’s difficulties.

A necessary condition for how to properly harden in winter is to adjust your normal lifestyle, because hardening is one of its components. So, in order for hardening to give noticeable results, it is necessary to adhere to the correct daily regimen, eliminate bad habits and adjust your diet. Poor sleep, irregular nutrition, an abundance of unhealthy foods and processed foods in your diet, as well as a lack of physical activity will not allow you to feel the effect of hardening.

Smoking and alcohol also reduce the positive effect of hardening. Alcoholic drinks dilate blood vessels, which leads to active heat transfer from the body, and smoking impairs blood circulation. Hardening, on the contrary, ensures the narrowing and normal functioning of blood vessels - this is the body’s reaction to cold water.

You shouldn’t immediately get into a cold shower, pour a bucket of ice water on yourself right on the snow in the yard, or dive into an ice hole. Such experiments can end badly.

Elena Koroleva

General practitioner

“First, you should definitely visit a doctor and ask if you can douse yourself with cold water. The fact is that even gentle douches at home are contraindicated for people with high eye pressure, chronic diseases of the cardiovascular system, respiratory system, nervous system and skin diseases. Cold water is an irritant that can cause palpitations in heart patients, exacerbation of the disease in asthmatics and a nervous attack in epilepsy, psychosis and hysteria. Hypotonics, hypertensives and patients with kidney diseases should also receive prior approval from specialists. In general, hardening is contraindicated during exacerbation of any chronic diseases, colds, acute respiratory infections and the presence of inflammatory processes in the body. Don’t experiment with your health!”

The attending physician can give some recommendations, taking into account the characteristics of your health, and tell you how to properly harden yourself at home. Hardening procedures should begin in a calm state, when there is no stress or overwork in life. In other words, the nervous system must be in order. It is also advisable to eliminate all bad habits, because smoking and drinking alcohol are incompatible with hardening.

Some tips for beginners

There are two main rules - gradualism and regularity. There is no need to suddenly change your lifestyle. If you've been wrapping yourself up all the time and sneezing from any draft, you won't be able to wake up one morning like a walrus, and no one demands this from you. Start small - walk around your apartment barefoot for at least 5-10 minutes a day, and not only on carpets, but also on cool floor coverings. Gradually increase this time to 40 minutes, and then start dousing your feet. And there is no need to rush here - first dip your feet in a basin of cool water, then gradually lower its temperature and increase the time of foot baths. After a while, you will enjoy the ice water and be able to keep your feet in the basin for three minutes or even more. You can place two basins next to each other - with hot and ice water, creating contrast baths. Also try to wash your face first with cool and then with cold water - if you do this in the morning, then good spirits and excellent tone throughout the day are guaranteed! Already at this stage of hardening, the immune system will become stronger, and you will stop reacting with colds to drafts, provided that hardening continues every day, and not from time to time. And most importantly, don’t give up hardening, because then you’ll have to start all over again. Unfortunately, the body very quickly returns to its original state and again begins to succumb to various diseases.

Pouring rules

When your feet have become accustomed to the cold and temperature contrasts, you can start dousing, but again not immediately. Many hardening experts recommend rubbing the body with a towel soaked in cool and then cold water for two weeks. At the same time, you should not have any dermatological problems - rashes, eczema, wounds and pustules. The duration of the procedure should be increased gradually, as should the temperature of the water, and the total preparation for dousing should not be less than two weeks.

How to start pouring yourself? In the evening, fill the bucket with cold water so that by morning it warms up to room temperature. Get into the bath or shower, pour water over your hands and feet, then rub yourself well with a towel. After two weeks, you can already douse yourself completely, starting with your feet and gradually lowering the temperature of the water - this, as you already understand, general rule for all procedures. Soon you will not need to cool the water in the bucket overnight, but use a home thermometer to regulate the temperature of the water, adding hot water to the bucket if necessary. Some lower the temperature by a degree per week, others by 2 degrees, but in this matter you need to listen to yourself and monitor your well-being, remembering the Russian proverb - the quieter you go, the further you will go. By the way, it is better for women to use a bucket with a volume of no more than 8-10 liters; men can also take larger buckets. After dousing, it is recommended to dry a little in the fresh air; besides, air baths are very useful.

How to take a contrast shower correctly

Contrast showers are more suitable for constantly busy modern people. Agree, it’s easier to stand in the shower than to collect water in a bucket and rub yourself with a towel. The contrast shower scheme is simple - 10-30 seconds of hot water and 10-30 seconds of cold water. The duration of each phase increases gradually, for example, two weeks for 10 seconds, two weeks for 15 seconds. The temperature of cool water also gradually decreases - it’s better to start with 30 degrees, and then bring it to 15, and hot water can be left at 40-45 degrees.

The benefit of a contrast shower is that it improves blood circulation and ensures rapid blood flow to organs, strengthens the heart and blood vessels, increases the body's defenses and speeds up metabolism. Hot water expands blood vessels, and cold water contracts them, and such hardening is very useful for strengthening blood vessels under short-term exposure. The body also learns to resist low temperatures, so it’s already problematic to get sick, as it was before. However, you should not take a cold shower for too long, since prolonged cooling does not activate protective functions, but, on the contrary, depresses it, as a result you can become hypothermic and catch a cold.

Winter extreme: unusual ways hardening

Swimming in an ice hole and walking barefoot in the snow seem unusual only to modern people. Immersion in ice water in Rus' was part of pagan military rites, and the Slavs adopted this custom from the ancient Scythians, who immersed newborns in ice water in order to accustom them from birth to harsh climatic conditions. The tradition of jumping into a snowdrift after a hot bath is still alive, and even in city baths there is a pool with cool water for this purpose. Many people are keen on winter swimming, claiming that swimming in an ice hole in winter lifts their spirits, relieves apathy, blues and many diseases.

Nina Ermilova

Chairman of the hardening club

“Swimming in the ice hole gives me health and excellent well-being. At a young age, I suffered two heart attacks, so 30 years ago I took up hardening and now I can calmly swim across the Kola Bay in Murmansk. There are already 150 “walruses” in our club, and everyone is very happy with life!”

Of course, it is strictly forbidden to immediately dive into an ice hole - you need to go through the entire hardening cycle and only then try to shower yourself outside in winter after the doctor’s permission. If you have been practicing air baths at home for a long time and don’t know how to start hardening yourself in the fresh air in winter, try air baths on the balcony. Start with one minute, gradually increase the time, and very soon you will want to go outside with a bucket. All procedures should bring pleasure and comfort, so if you feel cold and unpleasant, it means that you have run ahead a little and violated the rule of gradualness. Go back a little, because there is nowhere to rush...

Bath - hot hardening method

“The bathhouse brings great benefits,” says a specialist in folk medicine Maxim Kodintsev. — High temperature and humidity in the steam room improves the functioning of the respiratory system, and due to the fact that the breathing rate increases, the bronchi expand and ventilation of the lungs improves. In addition, the heart works more actively, the pulse quickens, blood circulation increases and the body's thermoregulation system normalizes. The high temperature in the steam room, according to ancient doctors, is the cleansing force that expels all diseases. The bath is good for the skin, heart, musculoskeletal system, digestive organs and nervous system, but for some diseases it is not indicated, so prior consultation with a doctor is necessary. Heart patients and hypertensive patients should beware of prolonged exposure high temperatures and avoid too sharp contrasts, so jumping into an ice hole after a steam room is not an activity for everyone.”

Winter hardening has a long history - the positive effect of cold water on the human body was noticed many centuries ago. The vivacity and excellent mood, the amazing feeling of warmth and comfort experienced by a person who has just emerged from a swimming pool, the sea or a small lake is difficult to describe in words. But these are just some of the benefits of winter swimming, which hide invaluable health benefits. The immune system, having experienced mild stress from immersion in ice water, begins to adequately respond to hypothermia of the body, so frequent in winter period time, and the numerous viral diseases that await us in the cold will not disrupt daily plans and will not become a reason for long-term and expensive treatment.

Winter hardening will be no less useful for the younger generation. The child's body, with its developing immunity, responds well to short-term exposure to ice water. Its results will be excellent appetite, activity, good health, which will not let you down even during epidemics of winter colds and flu. Children of those adults who pay Special attention hardening, rarely miss school and, according to teachers, demonstrate the ability to quickly memorize material and study well. Therefore, if your child clearly needs help, is somewhat behind in school and is constantly sick, it may be worth having a serious conversation with your pediatrician about starting a course of hardening procedures.

A little medical knowledge for parents of future "walruses"

The mechanism of action of ice water on humans has now been studied well enough to allow doctors to talk about its exceptional usefulness. First of all, it should be noted that a sharp change in temperature environment forces the body to mobilize all its strength to avoid harm, for health and well-being. Blood circulation becomes more active, including peripheral vessels, which are often characterized by congestion, the heart begins to work faster, breathing becomes more frequent and deeper. There is simultaneous and coordinated work of all other internal regulatory systems of the body, even if, in normal conditions, they are working at half capacity. Eventually, internal organs and tissues receive more nutrients, are enriched with oxygen, and the immune system is trained to respond to adverse conditions and protect the body from their negative consequences.

Such internal changes cannot but affect a person’s mood. The lightness, positive and joyful mood that a supporter of winter swimming feels also has the most positive effect on health, practically unknown to those who constantly wrap themselves in warm clothes and do not want to go outside again if the mercury on the thermometer freezes at levels below zero. Small children are no exception - even the most capricious baby, who has experienced a slight shock from a short immersion in cold water, quickly calms down and falls asleep in a warm blanket, without experiencing the slightest feeling of discomfort. As for his developing immunity, he gets excellent training, acquiring the ability to confidently withstand cold weather and viruses that usually attack a weakened and heat-loving body.

Precautionary measures when carrying out winter hardening procedures for children

To ensure that activities with your child, aimed at strengthening him, bring him benefit and do not cause a serious illness, use the following advice from experts:

Give up the idea of ​​quickly mastering the difficult science of hardening - you need to get used to cold water gradually;
- If a child has recently been ill, classes should be postponed until his or her complete recovery, when the body is fully restored;
- Check the schedule of hardening classes with your pediatrician, who will tell you how to gradually reduce the water temperature, taking into account the general condition of the child;
- Do not allow the baby to remain in the cold for a long time, after bathing - you must immediately change him into clean, dry clothes;
- If activities do not bring joy to the child, they should be abandoned - perhaps his temporary heat-loving behavior is caused by age characteristics body, and later, having matured a little, he himself will be happy to continue his studies.

You can increase the body's resistance to infections by hardening. It is important to start exercising before health problems appear, because preventing them is easier than treating them. One of the most effective methods is winter hardening. At this time of year, training teaches the body to calmly deal with temperature changes and various climatic conditions.

The benefits of winter hardening were proven by our ancestors, who walked barefoot along snowy paths, swam in an icy river, and wiped themselves with snow. Because of this, they got sick less often, were resilient and strong.

If you want to improve your health by hardening, you need to figure out how to do it correctly so as not to harm the body.

Where to begin?

Before starting procedures, be sure to consult with your therapist. Exposure to cold is not beneficial for everyone. It can cause rapid heartbeat, exacerbation of asthma attacks, and deterioration of kidney function. The specialist must individually exclude contraindications and give the go-ahead for hardening.

If you decide to harden yourself in winter, you should not immediately dive into an ice hole or pour a bucket of ice water on yourself. Such experiments will not bring any benefit, but only harm. You need to train your body, gradually accustoming it to such procedures.

• At first, it is recommended to simply walk around the house without slippers, barefoot. In the first week, do this for 10 minutes a day, then gradually increase the time to 1 hour. When your feet get used to the coolness, you can start dousing your feet.
• Get them used to cold water little by little. Fill a basin with cool water and soak your feet in it for a couple of seconds. Every day, lower the temperature of the liquid by 1 degree until it becomes icy. Gradually you will begin to enjoy the procedure and will be able to increase its time to 3-4 minutes.
• It is useful to alternate between ice and hot foot baths. Fill one container with hot water and another with cold water and alternately lower your feet in them for 1-2 minutes.

Ventilate your home regularly. There should always be fresh, clean air there. Wash your face with cool water in the morning. Change your lifestyle. Adjust your diet, exclude fatty, fried foods, fast food, and canned food. If you have bad habits, then it's time to get rid of them. Smoking and alcohol are very harmful to health, so you need to give them up as quickly as possible.

How to douse yourself correctly?

When your feet get used to the cold effects, you can smoothly move on to the next stage of hardening - dousing. Dedicate two weeks to preparing for the procedure. Morning and evening, rub your body with a towel soaked in cold water. Increase the rubbing time daily and wet the fabric more with water.

When the body is ready, start dousing.

• Fill a large bucket of cold water in the evening and leave it in the bathroom so that the liquid warms up a little.
• In the morning, carefully pour it over your hands and feet and wipe your body with a wet towel.
• Continue training throughout the week, gradually making the water colder. After 7 days, start dousing yourself with water completely.

In the evenings, it is useful to regularly take a contrast shower. It improves blood circulation, heart function, stimulates metabolic processes and strengthens the immune system.

First, stand for 10 seconds under hot water, then the same amount of time under cold water. Systematically increase the time by 1-2 seconds until you reach 30 seconds.

Regular dousing gives a person energy and vigor. When your body is well prepared, you can try dousing yourself in the fresh air in winter, but only after your doctor’s approval.

Regular training of the body gives results. A person stops catching colds often and feels healthy and rejuvenated. Then it's time to start more serious studies.

Is there any other way to harden yourself in winter? Common methods:

• rubbing with snow;
• wiping with ice;
• winter swimming

You can first wipe yourself off with snow in your room. Take clean fluffy snow into a bowl and rub the body from top to bottom, carefully working all areas. Do the manipulations quickly. Then immediately rub your skin with a dry towel. After a few weeks of preparation, the procedure is allowed to be done outside.

Wiping with ice is carried out in the same way as with snow. If there is no pure ice, you can prepare it yourself and use it for hardening.

The most extreme way is diving into an ice hole.

• Before it, you definitely need to thoroughly warm up all your muscles. Experienced “walruses” advise taking a short jog near the river.
• Then you should wet your hands and feet, wash your face and immerse yourself in water up to your neck.
• Ten seconds of bathing is enough to get started. Get out of the water, dry yourself thoroughly with a towel, put on winter clothes and drink warm tea.

By regularly bathing in ice water, you can increase the duration of the procedure and eventually stay in the ice hole for a minute or more.

In order for the baby to be healthy and strong, his immunity must be strengthened from the first days of life, using gentle hardening methods. They consist of regular ventilation of the room, daily walks in the fresh air, and air baths. A little later, you can start wiping with a damp towel and dousing with cool water. To avoid harming your child, coordinate your actions with your pediatrician and listen to his recommendations.

When the baby grows a little, his body, strengthened by dousing, will be ready for temperature changes. Then try an intensive method of improving immunity - hardening with snow.

• Prepare your child before going outside. Give him shoes that are easy to remove.
• First, run with your baby and play in the snow to keep him warm.
• Then take off one boot and place the child’s foot in the snow for a couple of seconds. Dry it with a towel and put on your baby's shoes.
• Then do the same manipulations with the second leg.

It is necessary to resort to hardening children in winter systematically. Gradually increase the period of contact of the feet with the snow, and after a few months the baby will be able to run barefoot in the snow for 3-4 minutes.

The key to the safety of winter hardening is the regularity of procedures and a gradual increase in time. This is the only way to increase the body’s resistance to cold and avoid sudden vasoconstriction and other health problems.

It’s easy to achieve excellent results if you do hardening with the whole family, setting yourself up for positive emotions. When teaching your baby to harden, stick to common sense. If he is not comfortable and he is capricious, don’t force him. This means that his body has not undergone sufficient preparation. You need to go back a few stages and try to conduct training in game form so that the baby is interested.

Hardening children: traditional and non-traditional methods.

Hardening children is a procedure that has been used by people for many centuries. Such procedures can improve health, strengthen immunity, and increase the child’s stamina.

But, like other similar procedures, hardening has its own characteristics and contraindications. In order for hardening to be beneficial, it must be carried out using the recommendations given.

How is hardening children useful?

• Hardening a child’s body is especially useful, because protective reactions are developed precisely in childhood. Unfortunately, parents often make the mistake of ignoring hardening. They dress the baby too warmly, even at moderate temperatures, and prevent him from getting his feet wet or eating ice cream.
• All this leads to the child becoming “greenhouse”. Parents cannot take care of such a child all his life. As a result, when entering kindergarten or school, the child begins to get sick often. All due to the fact that his body is simply not able to fight the effects of the environment
• Hardening is intended specifically to prepare the baby to meet the real world; they strengthen the protective functions of the whole organism. Hardening is indicated only for those children who do not have chronic diseases. In other cases, you should consult your pediatrician about the possibility of hardening.

• Goals and principles of hardening children

  Proper hardening has certain principles and goals.

  Principles of hardening children:

• The age of the child, his physical and mental characteristics should be taken into account.
• Subsequence. Hardening procedures should be carried out sequentially, gradually increasing the time of procedures and the load on the body
• Systematicity. This principle reminds us that hardening has its own regime
• Hardening should be carried out only if the baby has a positive reaction. It is impossible for a child to be afraid of such procedures, or to carry them out forcibly.

Hardening purposes:

• Strengthens immune system
• Keeps the body in good shape
• Strengthens cardiovascular system
• Improves the child's mood and has a positive effect on the psyche.

• What methods of hardening children are there?

  Depending on the resources with which hardening occurs, there are several methods:

• Air hardening
• Solar hardening
• Water hardening

Each of the above methods is effective in its own way. They affect the body differently and have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Traditional and non-traditional hardening methods. Non-traditional hardening for preschool children

• Traditional methods include those described above. Such hardening methods are time-tested and widely used in pediatrics. Traditional methods have clear contraindications. In other cases, they are all extremely beneficial for health.
• Non-traditional methods include those in which the effects of contrasting temperatures are most noticeable. Such methods have many contraindications and should be treated with extreme caution.
• Non-traditional methods of hardening include: wiping the body with snow, dousing with ice water, and exposing the human body to negative air temperatures. Such methods are not recommended for a child’s body, especially for preschoolers.

• Hardening children in winter. Benefits and harms

  During cold periods, hardening should be treated with caution. Such procedures cannot be carried out if the child has a cold. When the baby is healthy, you should not neglect hardening in winter. In order for hardening in the cold season to be beneficial, you must follow the following rules:

• In winter, it is necessary to increase the temperature contrast extremely carefully
• The time of hardening procedures should be reduced in winter.
• In order for winter hardening to be perceived positively by the child, it is necessary to carry out hardening actively
• Dress your child in winter in moderation. You should listen to the baby’s opinion, take into account when he is hot or cold
• You can stop hardening in winter only during colds.

• Air hardening of children. What does it mean?

• Air hardening is considered the most natural. It can be carried out even for children themselves early age
• Air hardening occurs even unconsciously: while walking with the child, ventilating the room, changing the baby’s clothes
• Parents should maintain fresh and clean air in the apartment and regularly ventilate the premises
• You should ventilate rooms especially carefully after sleep and before. The room temperature should be 22-23 degrees
• Even with small children, you need to regularly walk in the fresh air. The child should be dressed according to the weather
• Pediatric doctors strongly recommend that children, especially in summer time, stay outside as much as possible
• If the weather is good, you can arrange a nap for your child in the fresh air.

• Water hardening procedures

  Water hardening is considered the most effective. Children love them very much, especially in the summer. If parents are convinced feeling good child, you should not stop him from playing with water in the summer. It is recommended to visit the pool, river and sea beaches. But water hardening should be introduced gradually. Here are a few steps:

• Wiping with a damp cloth or washcloth.
• Pouring your feet with water at a low temperature.
• Contrast shower with a small temperature difference.
• Local baths (hands, feet)
• Swimming in the pool
• Swimming in open water.
• 
  

• Methods of hardening children of preschool and school age

  Methods for hardening very young children and schoolchildren are somewhat different. Non-contrast hardening is recommended for preschoolers. For schoolchildren who previously regularly carried out such procedures, hardening at lower temperatures is provided.

  An important feature is the child’s health and his habit of hardening procedures. If a child is healthy and has been performing procedures since childhood, then as they grow older it makes sense to complicate the procedures.

  Hardening - prevention of colds in school and preschool children

  Children of any age are susceptible to colds. Therefore, hardening procedures develop protection at any age. In terms of developing immunity, water hardening procedures are of greatest importance.

  Does hardening harm children?

  Hardening harms children only in the following cases:

• Sudden change in temperature
• Too contrasting hardening procedures
• The child has chronic or temporary viral diseases
• Personal intolerance to a certain hardening method

• Rules for hardening sick children

  As noted above, hardening - great way prevention of many diseases. If the child is often sick, there is no need to cancel hardening. It should be carried out at a time when the baby is healthy. And follow a few rules:

• Sick children need regular walks in the fresh air.
• In the summer, it is necessary for the feet to be as open as possible. If possible, let your baby walk barefoot on the grass.
• For sick children, it is recommended to begin hardening procedures with rubbing and contrast baths of the hands and feet
• According to pediatricians, enrolling a child in the pool will be an excellent contribution to his well-being.

If you have chronic diseases, it is better to consult your doctor about the possibility and methods of hardening.

• Physical education and hardening of children

  IN healthy body- healthy mind. Hardening is only one step in healthy way life. In addition, it is necessary to introduce the baby to physical activity. To do this, it is necessary to combine hardening with outdoor play. The procedure itself has a beneficial effect on the strength of the body and the endurance of the baby.

  Hardening procedures are important for children of all ages. They should be carried out in kindergartens and schools. But no one except parents will make these procedures regular and as useful as possible..