The title doesn’t state that this piece will be about emerging science or facts surrounding the use of hot and cold for Lifetime Athletes. Just my opinions.
I’ve always been interested in cool to cold plunges as well as saunas and the like. I remember as a kid when we would go on hiking and camping trips I usually found a way to jump into a stream or lake for a little refreshment and personal hygiene. And among the many treehouses and “forts” we built in the woods were a few sweat lodges as well. So I was doing all this stuff before it was cool, or hot, or trendy.
I am not alone in those pursuits. By far. There has always been a faction of the population who I observed to do the same. Although I never saw this to be the majority.
My athletic experiences exposed me to the cold tank, or ice bath. And my work in fitness and rehabilitation involved numerous affiliations with facilities having saunas, steam rooms, and hot tubs.
In the last decade, the popularity of high and low thermal exposure increased, and I explored the literature a great deal. I had a cold tank in my back yard and an infrared sauna in my basement. I went over to a friend’s place on occasion where he has a luxurious, custom-built traditional sauna (he’s a skilled carpenter).
I, like many at this point, was very interested in the purported health benefits of these endeavors. We’re all familiar with some of the possibilities that cold plunges and saunas can offer. The literature may potentially be less solid on cold versus heat, but this may also be related to the depth of research being much greater regarding sauna.
There is the potential that cold exposure can upregulate the immune system, help us to build more thermogenic (calorie burning) brown fat, excite the CNS, and give us confidence that we can “do hard things.”
Heat exposure can improve cardiovascular function, enhance tissue repair and inflammation management via the release of heat shock proteins, and (indirectly or eventually) aid in relaxation and sleep.
There are more attributes of these interventions than the ones I mentioned. But most of us will recognize those.
Just like almost everything, there are downsides to each end of the temperature continuum. Cold, if done long enough, has been shown to curb inflammation, blood flow, and nerve conduction velocity. But in prolonged exposures it can partially blunt the adaptation response to training, particularly with resistance exercise and muscle protein synthesis. And it can be a shock to the cardiovascular system which may be risky in extreme circumstances or with untrained or poorly adapted individuals.
Heat exposure can raise internal temperature and assist with detoxification processes, as well as making collagen more extensible and creating a temporarily more mobile state. But in high exposures it can overstress the cardiovascular system as well as contribute to dehydration.
Here’s where my opinion comes into the discussion. Temperature variation can be extremely beneficial for humans. It can facilitate natural processes in durability and versatility. But it is CONDITIONAL. It all comes down to a couple of determinants which must be applied to the individual.
- How extreme (hot or cold) is the exposure?
- For how long?
- At what time of day are you doing it?
- During what season?
I’ll address each of those considerations separately. Again, this is only my opinion so take it for whatever you think it’s worth.
It may seem quite obvious, but extremes of temperature variance represent intensity. 34 degree water is exponentially colder than that which is 58 degrees. Yet both are statistically significant in that they are lower than your resident 98.6 degrees. Likewise, a 215 degree sauna feels a hell of a lot (the concept of burning hell used intentionally here) more intense that one that is 175 degrees.
Just like with exercise selection, we have to approach thermal intensity with intelligence. What’s “right” for us? What are we going for? What’s safe? If our goal is to tolerate higher intensities, we need to work up to them slowly. It’s never wise to overshock the body. You wouldn’t get under a 400# bar in the rack and drop into a deep squat unless you built up to that over years. That same judgment needs to be applied to hot and cold.
Duration of thermal exposure is our next concept. If I use the training parallel, and we think about workload, this can be very illustrative. Workload is mainly the impact upon the body of intensity x duration. In other words, how hard (or hot or cold) for how long (workout or plunge/sauna duration) is our critical concern. A high intensity workout that is very brief doesn’t have an overly high workload impact on the trained individual. And a low intensity session of marathon duration will have a relatively high workload impact. It’s the same with hot and cold. We need to meter our durations based on the actual intensity (temperature) as well as our objectives and health status.
When you’re looking to curb inflammation and accelerate recovery so you can hit a hard session again soon, such as in peak season, prolonged cold may be desirable. But when you want max adaptation from training (such as in the off season), a briefer and less cold dip is better. If you’re shooting to make your sauna a bit of a workout in and of itself (although this is inferior to exercise) stay longer and/or go a little hotter per your tolerance. But if you just want to get a little sweat on and loosen up a bit, less can be more.
Here’s the thing with cold. If you seek Wim Hof type benefits, stay until you are chilled, shivering, and will have some minor difficulty getting out. But of course be safe. If you just want to drop your core temperature slightly and get some refreshment…not too cold for too long is excellent.
With heat, you have to get the dose right, because if you overdo it, you can be wasted for the rest of the day, or worse. Be careful of seeing how much you can take, or trash talking people in the sauna. Probably a good idea to avoid saying “Let’s see if any of you weak b****es can outlast me!” In such a case you might be the last one to exit, but doing so on a stretcher is not the goal.
Time of day is an interesting component in the thermal exposure game. On the surface, it would seem that cold in the morning to activate and heat in the evening to relax is the way to go. Most of the time, that’s probably great. But “it depends” is of course essential here. You may want to grab a quick sauna after a light morning workout just to limber up fully. Don’t take it to a tiring level. Or following a hard session in the afternoon, a cool dip (especially on a hot day) looks attractive. The context here is the outcome you might be seeking such that the thermal exposure is truly additive to your training goals and overall day.
Now here’s the topic I’ve really been wanting to broach. Time of year. Season. As you know, I like to use ye ole ancestral lens and consider evolutionary biology when I’m thinking about training, nutrition, and lifestyle. What would make sense for our primal roots?
I’m sure you’re very familiar with my stance on outdoor and seasonal training. I eschew the modern concept of same-same-same all the time. Living in a 70-degree (or thereabouts) controlled-temperature indoor environment 24-7-365 isn’t right. It’s not natural for the human animal. Being a BEAST requires climactic variability, even at the equator. But chipping a hole in the polar ice cap and diving in (sorry Hof) during mid-winter doesn’t seem right. Nor does taking a sauna after a workout in a summer climate that is 100×100 (degrees x %humidity, or very close to that). Ancestrally speaking, that would never have occurred because it would have surely imposed an imminent death risk.
I can recall some very hot summer days when I took a sauna. Just didn’t feel right, or necessary. Almost like the proverbial adding of insult to injury (microtrauma of training). I’ve also done a few polar plunges. Even used to take a sledge hammer and bust several inches of ice off my cold tank and then slide in during early winter (it froze solid in midwinter). Also not instinctively attractive.
I don’t know if it’s common sense or not but I crave, and recommend, going for cold during the warm months of the year and seeking heat during the cold ones. This is definitely regionally dependent but from April through October, I use and advocate cool to cold water exposure. It’s the opposite for winter, when heat just plain feels good. There is a natural rhythm to these behaviors and I find them to be a bonus I look forward to, as opposed to dreading.
I’ll also let the intensity of my heat or cold mirror the seasons. The hottest sauna (for me) feels best in December and January. And the coolest water looks attractive in July and August.
I tend to program accordingly for the athletes that I coach, including our Training Tribe. We use post-workout cooling in the summer and the occasional hot tub, sauna, or steam room in winter.
Here’s another area where my thinking has evolved. I’m not into long durations as much as I once may have been. I like a brief dip of just a minute or two (depending on how cold the water is). Mainly for refreshment and to knock down body temperature and get recovery going. And with heat, I’ll do just enough to get that purging sweat and looseness but not enough to feel drained. I’d rather get my major training effect from training itself and keep the thermal stuff as an enjoyable adjunct. Plus, it takes less time and keeps things efficient…which I like. I sometimes chuckle at the ridiculous 3-hour morning routines of some of the rich and famous. They just have more time on their hands than they know what to do with, despite their claims.
In summary, I’m very much an advocate for heat and cold “therapy.” Done the way I do it, these things are natural, enjoyable, and they probably help my health and fitness. If I’m on a hike in the mountains on a warm day, I’ll almost always jump into a refreshing pool at a stream or waterfall for a moment. And after skiing on a beautiful winter day, I rarely pass up a sauna opportunity. Maybe you do the same. Or maybe you’re interested in giving all this a try. Or perhaps you do things a bit differently. It’s all good. If heat and cold exposure help you to look, feel, and perform your best – no matter how you do it – that’s what we’re all about.