Throwback Tuesday (Or, Me Being Lazy)

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The following post was originally published on January 7, 2017. More than five years later, it has no likes, and only four comments, two of which are mine.

Despite those anemic numbers, it has always been one of my favorite posts. I told myself that if I ever started reblogging some of my previous posts, this would be one of the firsts, and so here we are.

I hope you enjoy it…

I was doing my required daily reading at the website “The Art of Manliness” (I’ve still got a lot of reading to do),  and I came across an article that talks about how James Bond would take a shower. He would start off with the water nice and hot, and then turn it down to cold for the last few minutes. This type of shower is known as a Scottish Shower.

It’s articles like this that make the Art of Manliness my go-to website.

The article provides some historical background on Scottish Showers and some of the alleged benefits of such a shower. Here’s one line from the article:

The Spartans, hard-asses that they were, felt hot water was for the weak and unmanly. 

Well, what guy doesn’t want to be Spartan-like? And what guy wants to think of themselves as weak and unmanly?

So the very next day I started taking Scottish showers.

It’s been a week now, and I thought I would share some of the benefits I’ve noticed during that time.

  • I feel a lot more confident. I was on an elevator the other day with a bunch of guys and I felt like I could body slam every one of them if I wanted to, since I knew I was the only guy on the elevator that probably had taken a Scottish Shower.
  • I’ve caught multiple women stealing glances at me on the train, which I’ve never experienced before.
  • My bench press doubled from 30 pounds to 60 pounds.
  • I’ve noticed people stepping aside to make room for me as I walked down the sidewalk.
  • I’ve started dropping the f-bomb a lot more, and I don’t care who’s within hearing range.
  • I just signed up for the NFL playoff package and the NBA and NHL season packages.
  • From scratch, I grew a full beard that would make a lumberjack jealous.
  • Out of the blue, I drove down to Atlantic City and played no-limit poker for six hours. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I didn’t care. I knew I could body slam every guy at the table if it came to that.

In other words, the Scottish Showers were making me more manly!

But as much as I’ve enjoyed these benefits, I’m not sure I will keep using this type of shower.

Can you imagine what I would be like after a month?

I might want to become an Accountant…

By the way, the Art of Manliness seems to have quite an engaged audience. The article about Scottish Showers has 199 comments. Here are a selected few people sharing their experiences with a Scottish Shower:

  • I just start right out with the cold water and jump in. No starting with hot. In my opinion, this is even more “manly.”
  • I do it every morning, no hot to cold bullshit – just straight-up cold showers
  • You’ll notice that it kinda HURTS to rub your skin vigorously when it is being doused with very cold water. this is a great thing if you are trying to build up your pain tolerance and overall toughness.
  • The ritual of taking a cold shower will show you the facets you are truly made up of and will very quickly and noticeably develop your willpower and discipline (if self-mastery is what you are into)
  • I believe that in actuality, exposing yourself to colder temperatures and inclement weather toughens you up, boosts your immune system, and generally makes you more hardy.
  • He (Hugh Jackman) got up early one morning and got into the shower and was hit with bone-chilling, Toronto-in-Winter water (no hot water). He said the rage he felt made him think that this was what it was like to be Wolverine and he found it got him pumped for his morning workout and has been doing it ever since.
  • As for those who question the scientific evidence, I say grow a pair and turn the knob!
  • It also keeps a shower beer a lot colder than a hot shower, and who doesn’t enjoy a nice beer in the shower?
  • I’m going to man up and go to full-on cold showers w/ no hot water whatever.
  • My granddad has taken cold showers all his life and he is so healthy and strong
  • It also helps me to recover from strenuous exercise (of the old-fashioned manly variety with very heavy weights)
  • Oh, and I’m a woman – does this now make me an honorary ‘manliness man’? 😉
  • Gives you a great virile, hard, tight body.
  • Ever since I have been taking cold showers over the past month I feel like a NEW MAN.

Now we are back to the present, and I have to admit I have not taken a Scottish Shower in over five years.

Maybe after reading this, I should get back into the routine. I could probably use a little manning-up.

*image from LifeHack

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

Published

116 thoughts on “Throwback Tuesday (Or, Me Being Lazy)”

  1. Okay, my husband has been practicing this “Scottish Shower” thing the last month and he’s been boasting about it every time… “Look, babe, you can’t do this I bet!” lol… little did I know that’s what it’s called and he probably saw it on YouTube Shorts or Reddit one day lol… I told him I’ve done it before (not by choice), I couldn’t figure out how to turn the water to “warm/hot” during an outdoor shower fiasco at a cottage lol… so I chose a cold shower rather than NOT to shower at all!

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  5. Quote from Jim Borden: “I started taking Scottish Showers, but all of the other professors in the business department wanted to know why enrollment numbers were going off the charts, rivaling my WordPress stats.”

    I worked at a summer camp for boys one year. One of the camp traditions was to jump into the freezing river as soon as we got up in the morning. These dips were called “polar bears.” Somewhere in that experience, I decided I would never take a cold shower again. After all, as the great philosopher George Costanza said, “Shrinkage.” 🤣

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  6. I’ve done this for years because I read it would tame the frizzy locks on my head & be good for my skin, never knew it was called a Scottish shower though (& I was born 9 miles away from the Scottish border).

    I find I get the same level of invigoration when I jump in a cool pool in summer. Mid jump I’d give anything to take it back, but once I hit that cold water I feel like I could take on the world, grrrrrr!

    Apparently Ice Man Wim Hoff is taking it to the next level, but I’ll stick with the shower & occasional swim.

    I’m all woman though definitely no womanlier (or manlier for that matter).

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    1. great way of describing that last second sense of regret! I don’t think I could take a cold plunge like that, but one of my sons loves to do so. I’d be worried about a heart attack…

      I hope the cold water controlled your frizzy locks and helped your skin!

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  10. I took this to the natural next level and have forgone bathing for a month. I am not sure it makes me manly enough to body slam fellow elevators riders, as now no one will get in the elevator with me…🤣

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  11. I want to assume the Art of Manliness is satire, but probably not, right? When I biked across country, at community parks I always took cold showers rather than insert four quarters for five minutes of hot water. Manly? More like cheap.

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  12. not into pain by choice and purposely inflicting it upon myself, and I happily offer my cold water to all of you. rather than practice the Scottish shower, I love to practice the Irish goodbye. )

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  13. This whole phenomenon probably started because the Scots, known for pinching their pennies,didn’t want to pay for the hot water. Just saying, it probably has more to do with being stubbornly cheap than being manly.

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      1. In the summer, I sometimes turn the water down cool at the end of a shower so I don’t get out and immediately start sweating. But I am trying to maintain cleanliness rather than manliness. I am about as manly as I need to be at this point in my life.

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  24. I met a man on the beach in the middle of winter who just came out of the water and he does it year round, every day. He may have been Scottish and he looked manly and healthy. I am on my way to the shower, so I may try it. Already doing something similar for my hair.

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  28. Lol Jim, seems you made up for lack of comments from 2017 now well over 100 I see. Probably this could have been your beginning of blogging before people who now follow you had yet to understand your sense of humor? 🙂

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