Hey guys, it's Michael Kummer here. In today's video, I want to talk about the
benefits of combining cold plunging with sauna bathing, or more generally speaking,
combining intentional heat with intentional cold exposure. Now, I should mention that I
have a lot of resources on my blog that goes into the details of the benefits of infrared,
the benefits of ice baths, and cold plunges. The benefits of combining both with all the
scientific research behind them, so check that out. I also have a couple of reviews
on my blog that discuss the Cold Plunges that I use, the Saunas that I use so check all of that
out. I'm gonna link it down below in the description. Now, before we get started,
make sure you subscribe to this channel, and you click on the little alert button so you get
notified when I publish more videos like this. Now, besides talking about the benefits of
combining cold plunging or ice bathing with Sauna, bathing, or heat exposure. I'm also
gonna cover how long you should do both of those things to get the most benefits and also
in what order. Because you know, the traditional approach obviously, is to go from hot to cold,
but there are different ways of doing it. I'm gonna discuss a little bit more the details
of why certain orders make more sense depending on the goals you have. So let's talk about
the combined benefits. Both cold exposure and heat exposure are hormetic stressors,
meaning they trigger hormesis. In a nutshell, what that means is that what doesn't kill you,
makes you stronger. So the body gets exposed
to stress through a certain stressor, adapts to that stressor, and becomes more resilient
and better adapted on the other end. And that applies to both cold as well as heat
exposure. I've noticed that since starting cold plunging over a year ago, I'm more resilient in
the sense that I don't get cold as often. I can tolerate the cold. Much, much better
than before. I am less sick. I'm just more robust and resilient overall and sauna bathing or heat
exposure. That's the same thing, basically just from a different angle. I know more less or less
heat sensitive. So, you know, we live in Georgia, it gets hot and humid and summer, and I just feel
more comfortable outside than I was before. Before I was already, I want to be in my,
you know, AC-controlled home and, you know, I don't want to be too cold or too hot. Now
I'm significantly more resilient I feel like, and. I feel better in either of
those extremes. Number two benefit, both of them increase blood flow and lower inflammation,
in a different way. Sauna bathing is a vasodilator, meaning that if your blood
vessel dilate and it immediately increases blood flow. If you have acute inflammation,
maybe you got injured or something. That might sound counterproductive because many people
think that. Well, if they have a sprained ankle or in, you know, inflamed somewhere, you know,
put a piece of ice to reduce the inflammation. But very often that's actually counterproductive,
and sauna bathing increases blood flow, and increased blood flow means you get more nutrients,
more oxygen to the affected tissue so it can heal quicker. And so your inflammation goes
away quicker. It doesn't reduce inflammation immediately because it increases blood flow
instead of decreasing it, but it promotes healing and recovery, and so your inflammation
goes away quicker over time. Cold plunging, on the other hand,
restricts blood flow, and so if you are, if you have increased blood flow due to inflammation,
it goes into the Cold Plunge, it reduces blood flow, and so your inflammation goes down. That
might be good in some cases, like if you're actively bleeding somewhere if you've torn a
muscle and you wanna reduce the bleeding, then you know, cold exposure is actually
a good thing because it reduces the amount of blood that leeches into your tissue and,
you know, then clogs everything up. So, so both ways, you know, can reduce
inflammation. One is more of a delayed response in terms of heat exposure. Cold exposure is an
immediate effect by reducing blood flow. And so if you think now, well, so how can I use this?
You know, in terms of exercise, a good example is if you're in CrossFit athlete and you have
three workouts a day in between those workouts, I would probably jump into the Cold Plunge,
you know, to reduce my, the pump, to reduce the blood flow and to, you know, reduce some of the
inflammation incurred by the previous workout, so I'm ready for the next one. But if you're done
with the workout for the day, I would probably jump into the Sauna to relax and recover and
increase blood flow to get nutrients into all the affected tissue. And so you can combine both
strategically depending on what your goals are. Number three, both cold plunging and sauna bathing
improve or boost your immune system temporarily. The way they do it is cold plunging. It causes
the release of so-called shock proteins. And so those proteins get released in response to the
well cold shock, and they support your immune system to fight off pathogens, and infections,
remove damaged cells and proteins, et cetera. And sauna bathing has a similar effect but
via the release of heat shock proteins. So both of those extreme stressors boost
your immune system temporarily but from a different angle. Whenever I
feel like my body is fighting something, I haven't really gotten sick in a long time,
but sometimes I feel that there is something inside of me that my body is currently
fighting against without me really being sick and I typically notice that when I work out. So
when I push towards my red line, I can tell that if my red line is significantly lowered
than usual, that's, you know, an indication that my body is, is dealing with something.
And whenever that happens, I go into the Sauna and then into the Cold Plunge. And I do that for maybe
two or three days and usually, I'm perfectly fine back to baseline, and by having my body supported
by having boosted my immune system temporarily to fight off whatever my body needed to fight off.
So cold shock proteins, heat shock proteins, they modulate other immune factors, you know,
killer cells, et cetera. Then I'm gonna go more into detail on my blog post. So check
that out. But the bottom line is both can boost your immune system from a different perspective
or from a different angle, I should say. Number four, both heat exposure or sauna and
cold plunging promote fat loss, but again, using a different mechanism. For example,
when you are in the Sauna, your heart rate is likely gonna go up. You know, you are warming up,
your heart rate increases, and it's like doing a mild cardio workout. I, when I'm in the Sauna,
and I look at my heart rate monitor, my heart rate is like at a pace of maybe,
you know, up to 130 I have seen. So that's like if I, you know, during a brisk walk or
a light jog or something. So I'm actually doing a cardio workout while sitting in the Sauna without
actually moving. And by getting your heart rate up, you know, it stimulates fat burn,
especially if you do it in a fasted state. If there is no fuel that your body has available
to burn, your body is likely gonna tap into fat. As a source of energy and,
you know, that increases your fat loss and your weight loss after all. Now,
cold exposure on the other hand promotes fat loss via two mechanisms: one is you start shivering if
you get really cold, you start shivering. And that shivering response means your body
is actively burning fuel to keep you warm. And that's one of the reasons why when you
got out of the Cold Plunge, don't try to warm up immediately. Don't take a hot shower. Don't,
you know, even, you know, don't dry off. You know, let it let your air dry. Just do whatever it takes
to continue shivering because that burns fat. The second aspect of cold exposure is that it
activates brown adipose tissue and burns fat without a shivering response. So those things,
those two things together mean that exposing yourself to uncomfortable temperatures while
you're in the Cold Plunge. Actually, burn fat without you having to go for a workout.
And if you combine both, obviously if you go from hot to cold and then just, you know, shake it off,
literally, just let it shiver after you've got out. Now, after you've gotten out of the Cold
Plunge, you can leverage both the cardiovascular workout and the Sauna, as well as the shivering
and the activation of your brown adipose tissue as part of your Cold Plunge experience. Number 5
both sauna bathing and cold plunging reduce stress. Now with sauna bathing,
it's somewhat obvious. You know, most people feel relaxed when they're in their Sauna. You know,
it causes a release of endorphins, et cetera. So it's very much a relaxing experience for the most
part. Unless you stay in way too long and it's too hot, then you might actually your
body might respond with stress. But overall Sauna is a very relaxing
experience very good to reduce stress and just to relax. Cold plunging, on the other hand,
is an active stressor when you get in into a Cold Plunge, especially during the first few times. You
might get into full-on fight or flight response, so that's obviously the opposite of relaxation.
But the thing is, as you learn how to deal with your sympathetic response, as you learn
how to leverage breathing, for example, to down-regulate your sympathetic response and to
get back into a parasympathetic response. As you learn how to be okay and calm in the Cold Plunge,
that's a very powerful tool to help you reduce stress and better deal with stress overall.
I have noticed that as part of my Cold Plunge experience, as I have learned to deal with the
stressor of being in a situation where I absolutely did not wanna be where my
brain was like: "..Get out. You're gonna die if you stay here." As I've learned to
deal with that. I also learned to apply the same technique, deep breathing, and you know,
just down-regulating my sympathetic response in other areas of my life. So cold plunging has
actually helped me reduce my stress overall, even though in the, in the moment it was very
much a stressful situation. But again, if you didn't combine the relaxing effects of
sauna bathing with the skill to manage your stress in a very cold environment. You can
overall significantly reduce your stress and learn how to better manage stress.
Number six, both hot and cold exposure help you boost your mood by releasing endorphins:
norepinephrine, dopamine, and some of the other hormones that make you feel good and that boost
your mood. I can tell it anytime I get out of the Sauna or the Cold Plunge, I feel better.
I feel at peace. I feel I just feel good. And in particular when I combine both sauna
bathing with cold plunging, it like gives me the double dopamine effect, and I,
I just feel good about it. Number seven, both of these tools can improve your sleep. Now,
there are some caveats to that because sauna bathing or heat exposure increases
your core temperature at least temporarily. But once you've gotten out of the Sauna, there is
a cooling off effect where your body, where your core temperature actually drops below baseline,
and that's important because a drop in core temperature is required before you can fall
asleep and get into deep sleep. So that's why a hot shower or a Sauna before bedtime is a great
idea to fall asleep quicker and to sleep better at least during the second half of the night.
Cold plunging, on the other hand, is more associated with giving you a boost in energy. So
if you Cold Plunge right before bedtime, your core temperature might drop while you're in the plunge,
but then there is a heating up period that might actually negatively impact your sleep. And so,
It depends a little bit on timing. I've noticed that if I cold plunge in
the earlier afternoon or in the morning, I still sleep better at night. And I think that's closely
related to my ability to calm down, to settle down, to calm my mind, and to better manage
stress. And so it's, it might not be the cold per se, but the skills that the Cold Plunge has
taught me, that helps me then to sleep better. So what I would recommend is if improving sleep
is your priority, maybe a cold plunge in the morning, learn how to manage stress, learn how
to be okay in a very stressful environment, and to calm your mind. And then do the Sauna, in the
late afternoon or evening before bedtime to drop your core temperature and fall asleep quicker.
Another question that many people ask is, so how long do I have to stay in the Cold Plunge or in
the Sauna to get the maximum benefit? Especially if we wanna combine both of those things. There
was a very good study from a Scandinavian Metabolic Scientist called Susana Solberg,
and she discovered that if you stay in the Cold Plunge for 11 minutes per week,
and you can do, you know, split it up in segments of two minutes maybe, or you can do
six and five minutes. Like this week, I did a six-minute cold plunge and a five-minute
cold plunge a few days later. So I had my 11 minutes. And as far as sauna bathing is concerned,
57 minutes appears to be the sweet spot to get the most benefits. You can obviously do more.
But you might see diminishing benefits if you do more. And so 11 minutes and 57 minutes per
week appears to be the sweet spot, and you can break that up into segments. You don't have to
stay 57 minutes in the Sauna in one shot. I usually do 30 minutes and then another 30
minutes. I usually accumulate 60 minutes. Sometimes they're doing a third session
for 90 minutes, and the same with cold plunging. Just, you know, split it up across the week. Now,
one thing that's important though is that with some of those stressors,
depending on what the benefits are that you're trying to achieve, more is not
always better. For example, I've seen a study that discovered that following a certain Sauna
protocol only once a week causes a sixteen-fold release of growth hormone. But if you do that
protocol more often, or if you stay longer in the Sauna, you don't get the same effect anymore.
So they are diminishing returns. And for this particular example, the protocols suggested to
do four Sauna sessions, four Sauna sessions per day, two 30-minute sessions in the morning.
So you would do 30 minutes, then take a five to 10-minute break. Cool off a little bit and not 30
minutes. And then in the afternoon, you repeat for 30 minutes. Quick break, 30 minutes. So two hours
in total in the Sauna with a few breaks in between sessions one and two and three and four. Causing
a sixteen-fold increase in growth hormone. If you do that more often, you don't see the
same effects anymore, and that's because your body gets used to it. Your body adapts. That's,
you know, part of becoming more resilient. So it depends on a little bit what your goals
are. If you wanna get the most increase in or release of growth hormones. Do it once a week.
A week very intensively. And it doesn't have to be Sauna, you know it. This is very likely just a
general response to stress. You could do the same with cold plunging, even though I haven't seen any
study that figured out exactly how long and how often you need to do this. You could do the same
with exercise and with other types of hormetic stressors that cause your body to respond with
a release of growth hormone to that stressor. And now let's talk a little bit about the order
in which you should Cold Plunge and Sauna bathe Now, the traditional approach, also known as the
Nordic cycle, means you go from hot to cold, so you stay in the Sauna, you go to the Cold Plunge,
and then you can, you know, go back and forth several times, but you end in cold.
And the reason why you end in cold is that it gives you a boost in energy. If you've
done this Nordic cycle for a couple of times and you end in heat, You're likely gonna come out,
and you need a nap because you are done. You are so relaxed, you know, you probably,
you know, might want to eat and then take a nap. If you end in cold, you're invigorated, you're
energetic, and you can continue doing whatever you wanted to do during that day. Unless it's,
you know, before bedtime, then I might argue, maybe do the end in, in warm, what I usually do,
hot to cold as well, but so, I do cold too hot. And the reason why I do this is that I
don't wanna fall into any routine. I wanna always keep my body guessing
what's next. And sometimes, especially if you, if I do that regimen, if I didn't have time in the
morning and I still want to get my cold plunge in. You know, and it's already late, and I don't wanna
negatively impact my sleep. I go to the Cold Plunge, and then I jump into the hot shower.
So I in hot or I go to the Sauna, or, you know, so my point is, it depends on what goals you're
trying to accomplish. If you wanna be energetic after your session, end in cold. If you wanna be
sleepy and relaxed, end in hot. If you wanna keep your body guessing, you know, do both,
you know, change it up a little bit. That's what I do. I never wanna fall
into a routine. I never want my body to get used to anything. I want my body to
be stressed every single time because I, I do, I use those stressors intentionally. And
the same goes with how often I do it. In the beginning, I cold plunged every single day,
so to get into a routine to get used to it. But then I figured, I actually don't wanna get
used to it. And also sometimes I don't do it for a couple of days and then I go in again. I'm like,
whoa, this is so cold. And I'm like, yeah, that's exactly what I want. I don't want to
get used to anything. I don't want to feel comfortable when I'm in a Cold Plunge.
I wanna be stressed, you know, at least to a degree. And I wanna feel, you know, that
hormetic stress so my body can adapt and become more resilient. If you like this video, give it
a thumbs up. If you didn't like it, let me know what I could have done better. Until next time.