On this month’s edition of the Trying New Things column, we are diving into our most ambitious activity yet. I had very little experience and even less knowledge about cold plunges and saunas but was fortunate enough to try both at Washington Park CrossFit.
What is it?
A cold plunge is a small bath with temperatures ranging from around 60°F to as low as 40°F. Some cold plungers can last around 30 seconds, while others can hold out for as long as 10 minutes.
A sauna is a small heated room, around 150°F to 200°F where participants are meant to sit, stretch and sweat in dry heat. Depending on the temperature of the sauna and the experience of the user, the length of time spent in a sauna ranges from 5-30 minutes.
At Washington Park CrossFit, the cold plunge and sauna were conveniently set up side by side, and I was given an allotted amount of time to jump back and forth.
Why Would You Do That to Yourself?
This is the question I pondered before I convinced myself to jump in. Why would someone put their body in such an uncomfortable position? Are the health impacts of cold plunging and saunas worth it?
In short, yes. Thousands of studies have found that cold plunges and saunas can assist in muscle recovery, soreness, inflammation, sleep and even mood. It’s worth noting that most accounts say that both plunges and saunas grow easier with time.
Insights & Impression
My first stop was to try the cold plunge. For the sake of accurate reporting, I stayed in for six minutes which was absolutely as long as I could bear.
Immediately after plunging in (I did not wean myself in, just right to my chest to start), it was painful. It took around a minute to grow comfortable with the temperature, then at around two minutes, it started to feel kind of good. Strange to enjoy what I would have considered to be a form of torture prior to trying, but nonetheless, the rest of the six minutes traded off for around a minute of pain with a minute of comfort.
Then, I jumped right over to the sauna. I had some experience with saunas in college – the morning after we stayed out a little too late, my friends and I went to the sauna and sweated out the hangover (yes, it works).
Sauna after cold plunge was a different experience since the heat brought me back to feeling a normal temperature in around 10 minutes.
Beginner Friendly?
After getting through the initial “this has to be some sort of sick joke” narrative, it was all in all a short amount of time and made me feel great. Mental walls aside, this activity is an effective way to recover and is not physically straining if done responsibly.
It is really easy to stay in a sauna too long and go from feeling completely fine to woozy with heart palpitations in a matter of seconds. As I mentioned in Trying New Things: Hot Yoga, trust your body when it tells you it’s had enough.
Did I feel like I was working out?
I was absolutely 100% aware that I was in the cold plunge and sauna while I was in them. This is not exercise in the way yoga and crossfit were, but it certainly is not for the faint of heart. In less than 20 minutes, I had put myself through a difficult yet rewarding challenge. Be sure to head over to Washington Park CrossFit and try their cold plunge and sauna for a recovery after a CrossFit class.
If you can’t quite wrap your head around this one, it’s alright! I will continue to try new health and fitness initiatives so you don’t have to and, hopefully, one of these activities will bring back the joy of working out!
