re: Infrared saunas and ice baths

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This time of year it's whatever the weather gives me. This morning, the water was 56 degrees. It was 38 degrees late last week. In the summer, I'm mid 50's with some frozen bottles of water, though sometimes it gets so hot at night I can't do anything to get it below 60. I use a 100 gallon stock tank from TSC.

It starts getting real hard sub 40 degrees. The worst mornings are when you have to break up the ice to get in, or if it's 33 degrees and raining, but I still do it. It's a mostly daily ritual to push myself. I can sit here right now at lunch and look forward to tomorrow morning's dip, but it's a whole other ballgame when I wake up. It's easy to hit snooze and curl back up, and I'm guilty of doing it, but I feel so much better throughout the day if I push myself to step out the door and into the water. You are very right about the mental aspect being the most important.

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Yeah, 40 is where they start separating the men from the boys. You're hardcore if you are rolling out of bed into it and then not warming up. I'm doing the end-of-shower thing for about 2 minutes. Depending on the season, that probably ranges from 52-58. I don't warm up after it, but I can't really imagine just rolling straight into it.

You are doing 3-8 minutes even when it's sub 40?

2-4 minutes when it's that cold. Just depends on my mood and fortitude that morning. Some days are easier than others.

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Huberman says you just shouldn't do ice bath within 4 hours of weight training if hypertrophy and strength is your main goal. Pretty easy to get the benefits of ice bath without diminishing your strength/hypertrophy gains.

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what benefits are those that are supported by any real data?

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Deliberate cold exposure causes a significant release of epinephrine (aka adrenaline) and norepinephrine (aka noradrenaline) in the brain and body.

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so...the feel good aspect we talked about before. plenty of other ways to get the same release without hampering the health benefits of exercise.

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Building Resilience & Grit

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stupid. Discipline builds these not an ice bath.

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cold exposure causes the prolonged release of dopamine.

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so does eating chocalate and fricking fat girls...dont see yall lining up for that.

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In the short-term, cold exposure increases metabolism as the body has to burn calories to increase core body temperature.

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only until you warm right back up, so what ~5-10 min max? LOL im sure thats worth it over the extra muscle you could be building that would burn more calories around hte clock, not to mention all the other health benefits of muscle.

he recommends

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11 minutes per week TOTAL.

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so that 11 min plus lets say 20 min shivering maybe and i say maybe burns extra 50 cals across a week? :rotflmao: so worth blunting the hypotrophic effects of lifting for that extra 50 cals


he says

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cold water immersion demonstrated positive outcomes for muscle power, perceived recovery, and decreased muscle soreness

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wrong on muscle power and its perceived recovery only, not real recovery as proven by multiple studies i already linked


i have said before...i look at cold water immersion like long distance running....if you really like it...do it. if it makes you feel good....do it. but dont act like its so so healthy or it changes your physique etc because it doesnt. CWI actually hurts long term health due to blunting hypertrophy.

muscle mass is one of the leading indicators of all cause mortality. the more you have, the longer you live in general. Im sure yall will bring up steroid abusing bodybuilders to try and prove a point, but we are talking natural guys.

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so...the feel good aspect we talked about before. plenty of other ways to get the same release without hampering the health benefits of exercise.

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Good grief man, it’s been said and pointed out that you can avoid the negative affects on your workout simply by doing the ice bath fist thing in the morning BEFORE you exercise. But you seem dead set on shitting on this so good for you I guess.

I do cold plunges in the morning right when I wake up. I’ve had an incredible benefit with my anxiety, something I’ve dealt with for many years. My body feels physically better, I can tell all day long when I have or haven’t done one. My quality of sleep has also improved, dramatically. I wake up naturally at around 5:15 everyday and fall asleep pretty quickly. Don’t toss and turn as much. I didn’t cold plunge for 2 weeks because our ice maker broke and all of these thing’s reverted back to where they were before I was doing them and when I started back I once again felt regulated.

What are people using for their plunge set up?

I picked up a used IR sauna and put it in a spare bedroom. I don't know if it helps recovery but anecdotally it reduces the pain from DOMs, maybe by the increased blood flow. I also get really dry skin in the winter and it releives that. Mine gets to 150F and I stay in it 30 minutes or until my heart rate is around 120.

Anyone bought one of those pop up steam saunas like Saunabox? I’d like to pick one up but they all seem like China junk.

I think CWI may benefit or harm depending on the circumstances used and goals.

From an athletic performance perspective, CWI is not likely to be helpful if training intensity and volume is kept in a range that allows the athlete to fully recover. This will give you the best chances to develop hypertrophy, strength, and power.

However, if intensity or volume of exercise is such that full recovery will not otherwise occur in time (endurance athletes, post athletic competition), then CWI likely will aid recovery. This may allow for the development of more aerobic capacity/performance over time for endurance athletes.

This is separate from the mental benefits that many experience.

This combination can be easily incorporated at home using portable setups like Polar Bath's Ice Bath Tub with a Water Chiller alongside an infrared sauna unit for a complete recovery and relaxation routine.

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