If you go straight from the ice-cold water to a warm sauna, you might be skipping some of the cold plunge benefits, Shah suggests. As he explains, the majority of benefits from cold therapy happen not just when you’re in the cold water but in the time period it takes your body to warm up again post-plunge.
“So if you’re going in the heat right afterward, it doesn’t give your body that extended 20 to 30 minutes of warming itself up,” he notes.
See, when your body naturally goes from cold to warm (also known as thermogenesis), your adrenal glands will release catecholamines (like epinephrine and norepinephrine), leading to increased metabolic rate and heat production1. If you speed up the process with a sauna, your body might not release those healthy compounds.
So rather than jumping out of your cold plunge and heading straight for the sauna, flip that routine around. If you want to go back and forth, that’s fine; just be sure to always end your session with cold.
This advice rings true not only for cold plunge tubs but also cold showers. See, you don’t want to start with a blast of cold water and then crank the faucet to warm shortly after. Instead, end your shower with cold water and let your body naturally warm up as you dry off.
