Recovery: Cold Plunges and Saunas

📖 3 minute Read

Probably the two, most emerging recovery practices around are Cold Plunges and Saunas, both offering unique benefits regarding for the person using them.
Lets look at what both offer and how to incorporate them into your recovery routine.

Lets get started with cold plunges.
In Essence what Cold Plunges do to your body is they cause the blood vessels to constrict and keep the blood from rushing to the leg and arms. By doing so, it rather forces the blood towards the central body, resulting in decrease of natural inflammation, that occurs after training. This brings us straight to the first benefit cold plunges offer: A decrease in inflammation. Here are some more to consider.

• Pain Relief: Cold Plunges may provide this by numbing nerve endings and reducing the perception of pain.

• Improved blood flow: Cold Exposure causes the blood to rush and surround your vital Organs, by doing so the heart is forced to pump more efficiently resulting in an improved blood flow.

But how to incorporate Cold Plunges?

At best, use Cold Plunges after your workout to get that muscle recovery and decrease soreness. Also make sure not to wait too long to get in, you shouldn’t wait longer than two hours.
Now as there is no solution for all it is on you to find out what works best fro you! Make sure to look for how often and how long each time you should do and then just experiment!

Moving on with Saunas.
The Exposure to heat in a sauna causes the blood vessels to relax, and obviously make you sweat.
Let’s look at some benefits a Sauna provides:

• Reducing stress levels: By the heat causing circulation and you normally just sitting there, a sauna may promote relaxation, well being, etc.

• Reduced Joint Stiffness and muscle Soreness: through the increased blood flow by the heat, joints get more relaxed.

• Stronger Immune System: By raising the body temperature an simulating a fever and “training” the body in dealing with high body temperatures.

Now how to incorporate Saunas?

Again, experiment first! You can generally incorporate it any time during the day but for recovery obviously after the Workout as well. Working out after a sauna isn’t the greatest of ideas, also make sure to find out for how long you should sauna!
You also combine the two! For a good recovery it is recommended to sauna first an then go into the ice bath, as the sauna increases blood flow and heart rate, while cold plunges slow down heart rate and make the blood vessels contract.

Sources:
1^st: https://th7bodylabs.com.au/sauna-before-or-after-ice-bath-which-should-i-do-first/

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