SAUNA AND ICE BATH: THE PROTOCOL WE USE, AND WHEN NOT TO

Sauna and ice bath is the most popular thing in our recovery wing, and the most misused. Most people either wing it entirely or copy a protocol off the internet without asking whether it suits what they did in the gym that day.

So here is the actual protocol we use, why it is shaped that way, and — the part almost nobody talks about — when you should skip the cold entirely.

The Protocol

Heat first, cold second, repeat, finish cold.

• Sauna: 10–15 minutes. Long enough to properly warm through and start sweating. You should be uncomfortable by the end, not wrecked.
• Ice bath: 2–3 minutes. Get in to your shoulders if you can. Slow, controlled breathing from the moment you enter.
• Repeat for 2–3 rounds.
• Finish on the cold.

That is it. Total time, about 40 minutes.

A few things that make it work better:

Breathe slowly in the cold. The gasp reflex when you first get in is normal and it passes in about twenty seconds. Long exhales are the whole skill. If you are hyperventilating for three minutes you are not getting much out of it beyond being cold.

Do not chase the clock. Three minutes is not a target you have to hit. Ninety seconds done properly beats three minutes spent panicking and gripping the sides.

Warm up naturally afterwards. Resist the hot shower straight away. Letting your body do the rewarming is part of the point.

Why Finish Cold?

Mostly because of how you want to feel walking out.

Finishing cold leaves you alert and sharp — good for a morning session or a mid-afternoon reset. Finishing warm leaves you relaxed and sleepy, which is better if you are heading home to bed.

If you are using recovery in the evening and struggling with sleep, flip it and finish in the sauna. That is not a mistake, it is a different goal.

Now The Part Most Gyms Skip

Here is the honest bit, and it might cost us a few ice bath bookings.

If your goal is building muscle, do not ice bath straight after lifting.

The research on this is reasonably consistent. Cold water immersion immediately after resistance training appears to blunt muscle growth — a 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis found resistance training alone produced strong hypertrophy, while the same training followed by cold water immersion produced small to negligible gains. The proposed mechanism is that cold dampens the anabolic signalling that tells the muscle to adapt.

Worth being precise about two things, because this gets oversimplified online:

• It affects muscle size more than maximum strength. Strength gains appear to hold up better than hypertrophy does.
• It is about the cold specifically, and the timing specifically. Sauna does not carry the same concern, and neither does an ice bath several hours later or on a different day.

So this is not "ice baths are bad." It is "do not put cold on top of a lifting session you want to grow from."

So When Should You Use It?

Cold works best when the priority is feeling good tomorrow rather than adapting from today.

Good times for the full contrast protocol:

• Rest days and easy days
• During a race week, or a heavy block where you have to back up day after day
• After conditioning — Sweat, Peak, a hard HYROX session, a long run
• When you are sore, stiff and want to train again tomorrow

Times to leave the cold out:

• Straight after a heavy Compete or Train session, if size is your goal
• When you are already run down or getting sick
• When you are genuinely cold and miserable already — winter in Christchurch is not the time to force it

Sauna on its own is the easy answer after lifting. You get the heat, the wind-down and the sit-still-for-fifteen-minutes benefit without the interference. Then save the full contrast session for the next day.

If you lift and do conditioning in the same session, use common sense: if the session was mostly about the barbell, skip the cold. If it was mostly about the engine, go ahead.

Safety, Briefly

We are coaches, not doctors, and cold and heat exposure are genuinely stressful to the body.

• If you are pregnant, have a heart condition, high or low blood pressure, or any circulatory issue, talk to your doctor before starting.
• Never use the sauna after drinking.
• Do not push through dizziness, nausea, chest tightness or numbness that does not fade. Get out.
• Build up. Your first cold exposure should not be three minutes.

Our team will walk you through how everything works on your first visit. Ask — that is what we are there for.

What We Have On Site

Our recovery wing has the lot under one roof:

• Private sauna suites for up to two people, each with its own shower
• Communal ice baths
• A Normatec compression lounge for the boots

Most Hybrid memberships include unlimited use of the communal ice baths and Normatec. One-off recovery sessions start at $35 if you are not a member, and there are unlimited recovery memberships if it becomes a habit.

The Honest Summary

Contrast therapy is not magic and it will not replace sleeping properly or eating enough. What it does well is help you back up — day after day, week after week — which is the thing that actually drives progress over a training block.

Use it on your conditioning days, your rest days and your heavy weeks. Keep it away from the lifting sessions you want to grow from. Breathe slowly, do not chase the clock, and finish in whichever direction matches how you want to feel afterwards.

If you want to try it, our 21-day trial is $99 and includes the recovery suite alongside every training class — the easiest way to work out whether it earns a permanent place in your week.