In the realm of wellness practices, few have captured attention quite like cold plunging. What was once the domain of elite athletes and biohackers has become a cornerstone of modern recovery protocols. Yet beneath the enthusiasm lies a more nuanced truth: cold therapy, like any powerful intervention, demands precision. Not more time, not colder water—just the right dose, at the right frequency, for your body.
Full transcript from Dr. Josh Axe's video on cold plunge and sauna routines. Click any timestamp to jump to that moment in the video.
0: 00 hey everyone welcome to Dr Josh ax show I your host Dr Axe and each and every week on this show we dive deep into the science and principles behind how to grow in Body Mind spirit and take your health and your life to the next level today I'll be talking about cold plunging which has gained massive popularity for its surprising health benefits but I'll also be talking about are those benefits really as great as they seem and is cold plunging great for everyone also talk a little bit about heat therapy contrast therapy and compare when you should cold plunge and when you shouldn't when you should use heat therapy like infrared sauna and when you should contrast and go back and forth between the two for results we're going to be doing a deep dive into cold plunge today I guarantee you're going to find out some surprising information on things like is cold plunging good or bad for hypothyroidism is it good or bad for autoimmune disease is it good or bad for athletes I'll answer all that and more on today's episode also before before I
1: 00 on today's episode also before before I dive into the content make sure to subscribe to the channel and hit the notification Bell so you don't miss a single thing you know we're covering topics like this every single week along with a lot of other uh topics such as spiritual growth uh growth of of your mindset and more so make sure not to miss out all right so what is cold plunging well generally speaking cold plunging involves immersing your body in cold water typically at the temperatures between 50 to 59 ° F that's around 10 to 15 ° C and the purpose is to improve physical and mental well-being well as I mentioned the optimal temperature for most people is going to be around that 50 to 59 ° Fahrenheit and the reason why that is the ideal temperature for most people is this range is cold enough to trigger the body's beneficial responses without being dangerously cold now some people do cold plunge I've seen them
2: 00 people do cold plunge I've seen them cold Plunge in the 40s or 30s or lower um it's actually not what I recommend uh here's the thing I'm going to teach you today about cold plunging more isn't better okay um you want to do the right amount for you or which might be a lot or might not be much at all but that's the thing remember this is true more isn't always better more can sometimes be too much for your body and that's true with a lot of people and so I'll cover that today now if you are just starting to cold plunge and you fall within the people which I recommend to cold plunge you should start with about 1 to two minutes a couple days a week and work your way up to five minutes and no longer than 10 minutes now the reason for this is is short durations help the body adapt to the cold without causing too much stress and that's a big principle behind Cold plunging the right way or doing any types of what we call hormesis which is good stress on the
3: 00 hormesis which is good stress on the body or certain types of stress could be heat stress could be cold stress could be the stress you're going to have during exercise or actual emotional stress all of those things can be used for good if they're in the right dosages remember this if I were to go and say okay I want to go and try and run a marathon or try and bench press 300 lb okay and if I haven't worked my way up over time I'm just going to get injured and you can do the very same thing with cold plunging or Having excess heat you can actually injure your body injure your immune system or skin via excess cold and you don't want to do that and so you really want to be wise about building up your tolerance just like you would build up your tolerance if you were training for a marathon you start at a small mileage like around 3 miles and work your way up eventually to that 26 over time now the frequency that I recommend of cold plunging for most people people is between 1 to 3 days a
4: 00 people people is between 1 to 3 days a week you typically don't need to do it every day I see a lot of people doing it every day and it's important to understand that that excess cold while it has benefits there are also side effects on the body which all get into and this one to three days a week allows for your body to recover from the stress again go back to this weightlifting scenario you don't lift the same muscle group every single day typically now I do want to say when you're younger your body can tend to get away with it if if you're a male specifically in your mid 20s and you're really really fit well you can sometimes train every single day in the same body part and get away with it but eventually at some point it becomes too much and so that's why again more isn't better now let me talk about some of the benefits according to studies when it comes to cold plunging first it reduces inflammation cold water can reduce inflammation and speed up the the recovery process specifically of your muscles and also can increase
5: 00 your muscles and also can increase circulation the cold causes blood vessels to constrict and then dilate which can improve blood flow it also can be immune boosting if it's done in the right dosage as cold exposure can enhance immune function by increasing the production of white blood cells and improving lymphatic circulation Studies have shown that regular cold exposure can reduce the incidence of illnesses like colds and upper respirator infections as well now I want to share an interesting study done on cold therapy now this isn't on cold plunging this is on cold showers but you're going to understand the principle here a study in the Netherlands found that participants who ended their warm showers with between 30 to 90 seconds of cold water took 29% fewer sick days compared to those who took only warm showers additionally participants who combined regular exercise with with cold
6: 00 combined regular exercise with with cold showers saw a 54% reduction in sick days so you get even bigger benefits when you combine cold therapy light cold showers with regular exercise sessions and we know when you're exercising your body is producing heat especially when you're doing weight training and hit training some other benefits of cold plunging can include even bumping up your metabolic rate as much as five times and some Physicians now are recommending it for type 2 diabetes to support your metabolism now a study published in the Journal of thermal biology in December of 2023 found this they found a significant reduction in participants heart rate blood pressure and common stress biomarkers such as cortisol after cold plunging and they noted that participants reported better moods 3 hours after immersion now there also are some stress relieving components cold exposure can reduce stress levels by lowering cortisol we of course we know
7: 00 lowering cortisol we of course we know that to be one of those common stress hormones that gets too high in many people today uh improved mood the cold triggers the release of endorphins which we know are part of the runner's high or what we call these feel-good neurochemicals also increased resilience overcoming the discomfort of cold water can boost mental toughness if you want to know personally what I think what I believe to be one of the two biggest benefits of cold blung it is the mental toughness aspect when you do hard things like get in a body of cold water it allows you to believe that you can do more hard things and it gives you more confidence which a lot of people really need and so that's one of the things I love the most about cold plunging is you're doing hard things which will lead you to do more hard things in life now there's another study I particularly like here when we look at Cold plunging and that is on how it affects hormones such as dopamine this study showed that a cold Plunge at 57
8: 00 study showed that a cold Plunge at 57 degrees caused a 250% increase in dopamine levels and a 53% increase in noradrenaline levels that lasted for several hours now I want to say this can be good but also not so good for some people get you know excess dopamine and more adrenaline isn't good now if you're a person who needs that stimulation and let's say your life isn't that exciting I don't I'm getting more into the um more into the abstract here but if you're a person that needs more excitement in their life you you and and here's the problem is most the people that are Adrenaline Junkies who don't need this they're the ones that tend to probably gravitate towards cold plunging even more all that being said I think that there are some benefits here hormonally of increasing dopamine increasing adrenaline for a period of time however you want to make sure that if you are increasing hormones like dopamine and adrenaline you are getting
9: 00 dopamine and adrenaline you are getting plenty of rest if you're already overworked and you are in a fighter flight response constantly and then you are going in causing adrenaline to kick up uh even more and my point here is if you're a person that's very fatigued all the time already you're very tired you're on your phone all the time as well constantly scrolling this isn't necessarily going to benefit you in that way emotionally but for some people who need a little bit more excitement in their life and need a jolt during their day because their day is very monotonous this could benefit you now I want to talk about historic references to cold plunging ancient cultures like the Greeks and Romans use cold bass for therapeutic benefits now I also do want to knowe that most often though they combined cold bass with hot bass or steam rooms so they would usually do contrast therapy where you would get both together in a session but they did use bass in Greek and Roman cultures um
10: 00 use bass in Greek and Roman cultures um let me talk about who should cold plune healthy adults if you a healthy adult with no major medical conditions cold plunging can be great for you okay and especially if you're a person that works out regularly and if you're a person that gets extremely hot when you sleep you're always burning up hot cold plunging can be great for those people so here's the big thing if you have excess body heat cold plung and you're healthy cold plunging can be very good for you if you're an athlete and you want to recover for performance I remember the first time I heard about doing ice bass uh were uh when I was watching I think a football game with my dad and I saw these guys in a locker room afterwards it might have actually been a movie but they were in an ice tub and I asked my dad why I did that my dad said well it's good for you know they recover faster after ice bass and then I remember watching a lot of I I was a triathlete and I remember watching a lot of the tour to France cyclists like like Lance Armstrong and others and when I would watch them they would
11: 00 and when I would watch them they would tend to do sometimes cold therapy ice bass after their their workouts and so we do know there are some great studies on the uh benefits of cold therapy post exercis uh for for athletes now I do want you to think about this when somebody's doing a tour to France they are riding sometimes a 100 miles in a day okay um the these are very long bike rides and so uh when you are generating that much uh when you're doing that much volume of exercise or we're talking about crossfitters or professional football players um they're generating a lot of heat typically for Two Plus hours and so when they generate that much heat bringing coolness to the body can help with recovery helps it cool off faster however if you're a person that is not working out regularly and your body is already cold I want I have a common
12: 00 already cold I want I have a common sense question for you do you think cold plunging would benefit you in the same way no it's different okay it is different and so I do want to mention that here are the people who should not cold plunge and I might ruffle some feathers here and even surprise some people because here's what happens you have a lot of people get on Instagram influencers or social media influencers and they say everyone should cold plunge and so and then you're maybe somebody who's watching this or listening to this and you think okay well if some and is cold plunging whoever the ne the latest celebrity is I'm going to cold plunge I just have to warn you it's not good for everyone and a lot of these influencers that are cold plunging are doing something and they don't realize what it's actually doing to the body I haven't seen this with a lot of scientists and a lot of experts some doctors on YouTube and podcasts and social media saying hey I I cold plunge every day and I'm doing it in 30 ° and I'm do and I'm you know and and taking it further and fur telling all of their patients and all their
13: 00 all of their patients and all their clients or anyone listening or watching hey everyone should cold plune that's not true and that's a good way to get hert here's the thing I can tell you about practicing and working with tens of thousands of patients everyone is uniquely different you are unique and different and so if you fall in the category of athlete high body temperatures you sleep hot at night constantly you're warm all the time you uh you're you're generally healthy you should C cold plunging could be a really really good thing for you incredibly beneficial however if you're a person with one of these conditions you typically want to stay away from cold plunging people with heart conditions okay the shock of cold can strain the heart okay if you have a major heart condition those with rods disease this condition causes extreme sensitivity to cold so so there's a major sensitivity there here's another one um IBS with diarrhea if you are cold internally and
14: 00 diarrhea if you are cold internally and you're one of those people that are cold all the time you have cold poor circulation your limbs are cold you're just cold a lot you shouldn't be cold plunging by itself now I'll get into something else you can do where you can cold plunge but you shouldn't do it as a standalone again ibsd that's IBS with diarrhea that tends to be your cold internally um people with hypothyroidism need to be very very careful of cold plunging there's only one way you should cold Plunge and I'll mention that here in the next section but generally people with hypothyroidism should not cold plung in Chinese medicine hypothyroid is known as a chi and yang deficiency means your body temperature is cold what what's one of the ways that people test themselves for hypothyroidism by taking your body's internal temperature if it's not in the 98 if it's not 98. 6 if it gets down around 90 in the 97s well that tends to mean you have low body temperature and hypothyroidism how is getting your body cold that's already cold constantly going to help you
15: 00 cold constantly going to help you increase that temperature which is something you want to do it's not so I believe that cold plunge is contraindicated for hypothyroidism adrenal fatigue and just generally speaking if you have a cold body temperature in Chinese medicine it's known that if you have if you cold plunge that it starts pulling things from your body have you probably heard of medications pulling nutrients from your body right well certain activities can pull nutrients as well for for instance if you are a triathlete or marathon runner doing a lot of Endurance Sports it pulls certain amino acids out of your body like El glutamine if you're a weightlifter it'll start pulling certain amino acids like methionine Lucine valine and some of those other Branch chain amino acids so certain activities pull certain vitamins minerals uh peptides proteins and other things even heat or cold it's pulled out of your
16: 00 cold it's pulled out of your body and certain conditions thrive in different types of environments and so sometimes you want to warm your body and sometimes you want to cool your body and so this is important remember now now before I get into well let me get into this now okay so this is I I this is there's a lot of wisdom here there is a a well-known Chinese medicine practitioner her name is Sandra Chu and here's what she says um if you practice cold immersion and begin to experience new issues like frequent gas or bloating any digestive issues or any new unusual aches or pains or you begin to feel cold more often like a lot colder or you feel more fatigu these signs these These are signs that your body is being overwhelmed with too much cold okay she also says extreme cold draws on your kidney Yang and shei bank account okay so kidney in Chinese medicine tends to refer more to not just the kidney but the adrenal glands okay
17: 00 the kidney but the adrenal glands okay so this starts to pull from your adrenal glands now remember the study earlier I mentioned on dopamine and nor epinephrine epinephrine this a form of it's like adrenaline okay so what what's producing those things in the study earlier with cortisol that can be your adrenals okay so too much cold starts to pull from those adrenal glands and also the Yang energy is your body' s ability to regenerate and create new and healthy tissue okay now it also can be inflammation if you have too much but the right amount it could keep you from building muscle so here's another example studies show that you should not cold plunge right after weight training Okay the reason is it is anti-anabolic okay so it keeps your body from building muscle if you wait 68 hours after it's okay but generally speaking if you do it right after exercise it's going to keep
18: 00 right after exercise it's going to keep you from building more muscle and that's Yang energy that's that regeneration of the cells and tissues so here's what she's saying extreme cold draws on your adrenals and kidneys and in some cases can keep your body from fully regenerating and kidney yangi is the system that basically pumps as I mentioned adrenaline supports your adrenal function and thus your overall energy and when you use cold immersion to activate your dopamine and adrenaline an immune system you are drawing on this account okay you've got money in your bank account well you're drawing on it and the euphoric exilation might feel like hey this is worth the expense somehow however this is also why others report feeling awful afterwards because they've drawn too much of those kidney Yang funds over time that maybe they didn't have enough money in the bank account or adrenaline in the bank account in the first place now I do want to mention when I'm talking about cold immersion here I'm not talking about
19: 00 immersion here I'm not talking about cold immersion following heat immersion or doing contrast therapy because the one can sort of cancel one the other out in terms of the uh some of the side effects and actually lead to the benefits which I'll get here in a minute so by the way when I'm saying if you have hypothyroid or adrenal fatigue or some of these kid conditions that you shouldn't cold plunge I'm saying you shouldn't cold plunge by itself if you add heat to it some of you can then go ahead and cold plunge now let me hit on a few other conditions it's important to remember when we're talking about cold plunging one thing to consider is cold plunging around your menstrual cycle for women out there women may experience different responses to cold plunging depending on their menstrual cycle phase it is generally advised to avoid cold plunging during the ludal phase and menstration due to increased cold sensitivity and the potential for in increased menstrual cramps this is also
20: 00 increased menstrual cramps this is also why I actually recommend heat or an infrared heating pad during those phases not cold now the follicular phase which is the first half of your cycle might be a better time for cold plunging as the body is more resilient to temperature changes during those times it's also a great time for doing those very hard workouts it's when your body is most resilient and when hormesis that those stretch stressors your body can tolerate and can adapt to in the most appropriate ways okay so I now want to talk about my recommendations for cold hot and contrast therapy recommendation so I remember I've been alluding to this throughout this episode and that is this if you have hypothyroidism cold body temperature adrenal fatigue poor circulation you don't want to cold plunge by itself however you can cold plunge if you combine it with heat for some of you now I want to walk through
21: 00 some of you now I want to walk through generally speaking the benefits of cold plunge the benefits of heat therapy like infrared saunas and the benefits of contrast therapy and that could be doing a sauna to a cold plunge or a cold plunge to a hot tub and alternating those or just doing one before or after the other so the first is cold therapy here are the benefits cold therapy reduces inflammation it reduces swelling it numbs pain it speeds up recovery from acute injuries enhances Muscle Recovery after intense exercise okay cold therapy is most appropriate for acute sprains and strains of muscles post exercise recovery and reducing inflammation here's what you when you want to avoid cold cold therapy as a standalone if you have a major cardiovascular condition if you have rain ODS disease cold intolerance kidney chiyang deficiency hypo ISM infertility
22: 00 chiyang deficiency hypo ISM infertility and poor circulation are all reasons why you should not do cold therapy also digestive distress would be another one for heat therapy its big benefits are relieving muscle tension and spasms improving circulation reducing joint stiffness and promoting relaxation it's most appropriate for chronic pain like arthritis fibromyalgia muscle tension stress relief weak digestion and for menstrual cramps that's where heat therapy really shines you want to avoid it for heat directly on an area for acute injuries inflammatory conditions if you have a heat intolerance or if you can't sleep at night due to a high body temperature you got to be careful with submerging yourself especially in a body of hot water for that long and getting your body too hot now the next thing I want to talk about is contrast therapy which really has some amazing studies surrounding in it and contrast therapy is where you do
23: 00 it and contrast therapy is where you do something like you get in an infrared sauna for 40 minutes and then you do a cold plunge for 3 minutes okay or you take a hot shower for 5 minutes and you end with 60 seconds of cold water or you have a hot a cold Plunge in a hot tub and you go back and forth each for three times for at 3 minutes each okay that's contrast therapy I remember when I was in high school my my trainer I I sprained my ankle once and I was wanted to get back for a really big game my senior year and we iced my ankle for 48 hours and then we did hot cold afterwards for the following week and I really noticed a difference and I got back on the field faster and so I experienced contrast therapy and by the way I want to mention of all of these therapies I tend to practice Co contrast therapy myself the most uh when I look back back of what the ancient Greeks and Romans did they tended to combine hot
24: 00 Romans did they tended to combine hot and cold together now I do think there's times as I mentioned where if you're an athlete doing cold therapy can be good by itself if you've got another event coming up following the next day okay so that makes a lot of sense for some people H you know heat therapy for people with chronic medical conditions you sometimes want to do that as a standalone I think for most people though we would benefit the most from doing both hot cold and then doing a little bit more of one or the other based on how your body responds and listening to your body okay the benefits of contrast therapy include both benefits that you're going to experience from hot and cold therapy it enhances circulation reduces muscle sorness improves joint mobility and speeds recovery also it's most appropriate for Muscle Recovery joint pain like arthritis Sports recovery enhancing circulation and healing
25: 00 enhancing circulation and healing injuries that you've had for a longer period of time you're going to get more blood flow I saw one study showing it helps bring more healing and growth factors reduces edema and swelling faster than uh hot or cold alone so lots of benefits there of contrast therapy and the you want to avoid this for if you have a major cardiovascular condition if you have an extreme intolerance to cold or heat or in for certain nerve conditions so there's very little where contrast therapy is n recommended and I want to share with you when I had a spinal infection I didn't walk for a year I tried these all all three of these therapies I did cold plunge by itself I did hot by itself and I want to tell you I noticed the greatest healing benefits from recovering from my chronic back pain I had and from healing the issue I had from going back and forth between a cold Plunge in a hot tub or from my SAA to the cold plunge I did back and forth three times each and I notice by far the biggest recovery and
26: 00 notice by far the biggest recovery and if you're a person with neck pain low back pain joint pain I think you'll notice if you would go back and forth and you have a place you can do that so I work out when I'm in Nashville at Lifetime Fitness and in the winter they leave the pools open so I will do hot tub cold plunge and go back and forth and do it there I also have a cold Plunge at my house and an infrared sauna so I will do one or the other there back and forth as well but I really think doing the combination and listen you might do cold PL you know later in the day and heat in a hot tub earlier in the day and that might be beneficial as well now I like going back and forth and alterating together but I do also like even if let's say you do really want a cold plunge you feel like you benefit from it but you notice maybe you know that maybe you're not the ideal um demographic for this well then you may add some heat as well to your body and that's going to help with your recovery so all that being said it's important to remember this is personalized medicine just because some social influencers out
27: 00 because some social influencers out there doing cold plunge every single day doesn't mean that you should now again for many of you you're going to benefit greatly from cold plunging but for some of you to really benefit it without having the side effects you want to also incorporate heat into your regimen so remember this when it comes to cold plunging or even heat therapy it's a principle called hormesis and it's using stress to strengthen your body just like weight training just like running by the way this is true in the plant kingdom did you know that most plants have their medicinal properties due to a stress response let me give you an example adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha ginsing corep mushrooms these amazing mushrooms or herbs or spices or Roots tend to have their benefits because they deal with a certain type of stress they create chemicals to deal with that stress and then you eat the food and those
28: 00 then you eat the food and those chemicals now help you adapt to those stressors that it was able to repel let me give you an example uh oil oregano as a plant okay oregano creates uh when they have when there are insects that are going to come to attack it oregano creates these types of essential oils these volatile compounds to protect it from Bugs and pests probably as good as or better than most plants think about this with other plants such as grapes okay so grapes and blueberries both this is true for both of these if you use irrigation okay and and there's water and these blueberry and grape plants have plenty of water they actually um are less nutrient dense um the reason is is that they don't have to work very hard they don't have to create more antioxidants to protect themselves if you do something called dry have you heard of dry Farm wines okay have you heard of dry Farm blueberries or it's the same principle so if you go and you don't give
29: 00 so if you go and you don't give irrigation and you let it deal with the sun and you don't overdo it okay so listen blueberries and grapes they both need some water and they need some sunshine but not too much but also if you uh give it too much water it may not it really does it's really not stressed at on that way and needing to grow its roots deeper to go and find more water and get more water when plants like blueberries and grapes have to send their Roots deeper and deeper into the ground what it actually does to the plant to the grape and the berry itself is it creates more Resveratrol and bioflavonoids these antioxidants that then when we consume makes us more resilient to aging right it's the same thing for those plants they grow their Roots deeper and they become more resilient to aging they'll last longer they'll create better fruit as well um when they have to do that so no you want stress cold plunging heat therapy weightlifting these are good forms of
30: 00 weightlifting these are good forms of stress if it's not too much for your body to handle again this is called hormesis where your body has to its weightlifting okay you did 20 lb dumbbells this week well maybe next week you can do 22. 5 or the 25 Pounders and you're going to work your way up over time but you're not going from 20 20 lbs to 50 lb bicep curls you need to work your way up over time and also not put too much stress on the body so let's talk about what time of day is ideal to cold plunge well first off cold plunging in the morning can enhance alertness and productivity throughout the day by increasing dopamine and norepinephrine levels however if you are exercising in the morning specifically weight training and you cold plunge afterwards it's going to create some problems where you're not going to build as much muscle Studies have proven this now however if you cold plunge and then you go do your workout now you want to make sure you're thoroughly warmed up by the way getting on a treadmill or doing
31: 00 the way getting on a treadmill or doing some cardio doing something to warm your body before you get into heavier sets but you can do that and not have that side effect if you do it right before weight weight training um in the evening if you do cold plunging let's say right before dinner or right after it can disturb your digestion somewhat okay also it may affect your sleep because then your body tries to heat itself up quite a bit now if you do it for a very short period of time and it's in the middle of the day your body will be fine with that uh but again just a few things to consider in terms of time of day a few Alternatives I want to mention to if you don't have a cold plunge using a bathtub and filling it with cold water in ice cubes or even taking just a cold shower can mimic the effects of cold plunge I actually believe if you don't also have a hot tub or an infrared sauna or an infrared blanket or a way to heat your body up afterwards if you're just a person that's not a pro aete or a crossfitter or somebody who isn't generating that much heat I think that
32: 00 generating that much heat I think that you might be better off for many of you just taking a warm hot shower and then doing a you know a 60sec to 2 minute uh cold shower now I will say as well consistency and gradual adaptation are key to achieving the max benefits according to the Mayo Clinic so again doing those cold showers over time could really add up to a lot of benefits um I also want to mention cold showers can provide similar benefits such as increased alertness improved mood reduced inflammation and improved immune function however full body immersion in a cold plunge is more effective for Deep Muscle Recovery and overall physical resilience but again there are still lots of benefits there of cold shower so here's some dos and don'ts do remember start slowly gradually decrease the water temperature and increase the duration second listen to your body if you feel too uncomfortable or experience pain stop immediately third warm up
33: 00 pain stop immediately third warm up after have a warm towel or blanket ready to use after your plunge or if you're part of the demographic I shared hypothyroid cold body temperature cold extremities use a heating pad afterwards get in an infrared sun or do that before do something to balance that out and you'll still get a lot of the same benefits remember don'ts avoid prolonged exposure listen more isn't better staying in 20 minutes you're just going to make yourself sick or hurt yourself you never want to do over 10 minutes don't plunge alone always have someone nearby in case you need assistance and always avoid if you're sick if you feel unwell skip the cold plunge uh cold plunge session to avoid additional stress on your body here's the thing to remember it's hormesis it is stress a type of stress that can be good but if you're under a lot of stress it's not going to benefit you okay it's going to make you worse in a lot of cases and so if you're under a lot of stress uh again now I do think
34: 00 lot of stress uh again now I do think going back and forth and adding heat maybe that can balance and out and you can do but generally speaking if you're sick you're much better off doing an infrared sauna than a cold plunge so listen I am a big fan of cold plunge when it's done for the people that are within that right demographic and for the people that aren't well hey maybe consider adding heat to the regimen and that can balance it out and it can be okay for you as well I want to say hey thanks so much for tuning in here to the Dr Josh a show remember each and every week I'm diving deep into the science and principles behind how to grow in Body Mind spirit and take your health and your life to the next level hey make sure to subscribe like and share listen so many people are out there cold plunging and they don't know these principles and truths that it's a form of medicine that some people should use and others shouldn't so hey do me a favor help me help the other people all the people out there that don't know how to do this the right way and I just want to say thank you to all of you who are constantly sharing this you're on Mission with me to help save and transform lives and thank you so much
35: 00 transform lives and thank you so much for subscribing commenting and liking I'll see you on the next episode
Transcript auto-generated by YouTube. Verbatim — duplicates intentionally preserved.
Cold plunging involves immersing the body in water typically between 50-59°F (10-15°C). This range is deliberate. Cold enough to trigger your body's beneficial stress response, yet measured enough to avoid pushing into dangerous territory.
When cold water meets skin, a cascade begins. Blood vessels constrict, then dilate. Circulation improves. White blood cell production increases. Your immune system awakens. But here's what most miss: this is hormesis at work—beneficial stress that strengthens, not depletes.
"More isn't always better. More can sometimes be too much for your body."
Start where your body is. Not where Instagram suggests you should be.
For beginners, 1-2 minutes is the entry point. As your body adapts—and it will—work toward 5 minutes. The ceiling? Ten minutes maximum. Beyond that, you're not amplifying benefits; you're accumulating stress without recovery.
50-59°F Optimal temperature range for most practitioners 1-3× Days per week for sustainable practice 5-10 min Target duration once adapted
Frequency matters as much as duration. One to three sessions per week allows your body what it needs most: recovery. Daily cold plunging might feel like dedication, but the body doesn't distinguish between good stress and bad stress when it comes to cortisol load. Both demand recovery.
Cold exposure (our deep dive on cold exposure) triggers three primary mechanisms worth understanding:
Reduced Inflammation. Cold constricts blood vessels, limiting inflammatory response in muscles and joints. Post-exercise, this means faster recovery and less delayed-onset soreness.
Enhanced Circulation. The vascular gymnastics—constrict, then dilate—trains your circulatory system. Over time, this improves cardiovascular resilience and tissue oxygenation.
Immune Activation. A study from the Netherlands found that participants who took cold showers reduced sick days by 29%. Not from avoiding illness entirely, but from shortening duration and severity. Your immune system becomes more responsive, more efficient.
"This range is cold enough to trigger the body's beneficial responses without being dangerously cold." — The hormetic sweet spot
Not everyone should the benefits of cold plunge. Not every day is the right day.
Those with hypothyroidism may find cold exposure suppresses an already sluggish thyroid. Autoimmune conditions can flare under excess stress—cold included. Athletes in heavy training blocks might benefit more from heat therapy, which supports parasympathetic recovery rather than adding another stressor.
The question isn't "Can I handle the cold?" It's "Does the cold serve me right now?"
Cold and heat aren't competitors. They're partners in a larger conversation about stress and adaptation.
Contrast therapy—alternating between cold plunge and sauna or infrared heat—leverages both ends of the thermal spectrum. Heat dilates vessels, flushes metabolic waste, activates heat shock proteins. Cold constricts, reduces inflammation, triggers norepinephrine release.
Together, they create a rhythm: stress, recover, stress, recover. The body learns to toggle between sympathetic activation and parasympathetic restoration. This isn't about toughness. It's about teaching your nervous system flexibility.
Start small. Respect your baseline. Whether you're new to cold therapy or returning after a break, your body deserves a measured approach.
Begin with water around 55°F. Stay for 90 seconds. Notice how you feel—not just during, but hours after. Do you feel energized or depleted? Sharp or scattered? Your body's response is your best data.
Increase duration by 30-second increments weekly. Add a second session only after you've adapted to the first. Remember: hormesis builds resilience through recovery, not accumulation.
"You don't lift the same muscle group every single day. The same principle applies to cold plunging—your body needs recovery from stress."
Start at 50-59°F for 1-2 minutes, 1-3 times per week. Build gradually to 5-10 minutes maximum. More time or colder temperatures don't equal better results—they equal more stress.
Allow recovery between sessions. Daily cold plunging can overtax your adrenals and immune system. Two to three sessions weekly provides stimulus without burnout.
Consider contrast therapy for comprehensive benefits. Pair cold plunge with sauna sessions to train nervous system flexibility, improve circulation, and balance sympathetic and parasympathetic responses.
