[sleno]

There's a general principal that stressing the body and mind often begets strength.

Lifting heavy weights stresses your muscles and you get stronger.

Running long distances or short distances intensely stresses your heart and makes your heart stronger.

Doing something you're scared of (public speaking for example) stresses your psyche and makes you stronger.

So sauna and cold plunge both fall into this category of controlled stress that would unsurprisingly have some benefits.

Some of the best athletes of all time use it consistently in their regimen, including LeBron James (40+ and still one of the best players in the NBA).

Even if the cold water was nothing but a sort of pain-endurance test, that's good for your psyche in a similar way doing scary things like public speaking is good for it.

All these things together, I would bet cold plunge is probably good for you. Definitely that it is more likely good for you than bad for you. What do you have to lose? If there's a cold bath around, I'll jump in.

[Kirby64]

Cold water plunges or cold water immersion have conclusively shown to reduce anabolic signaling [1].

If you’re training to become fit and build muscles, there is definitely a downside. It has benefits in terms of recovery, but that comes at the cost of anabolic response. It makes sense for athletes who have consistent training and need to perform for games, but not for the average person who just wants to look more fit.

[1]: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4594298/

[sleno]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing this, made me revisit the huberman podcast on this topic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq6WHJzOkno

He echoes what you said, summarizing: "If your goal is hypertrophy and strength don't do cold immersion until 4 hours or more after your workout".

If we can trust the studies Huberman cites, you can get many benefits from cold plunge and also avoid that post-workout caveat if it's relevant.

[Kirby64]

I personally would not trust Huberman. Just look at his blatant shilling of questionable products for sponsorship (AG1, being the best example). Look at the studies he cites, I suppose, but there’s plenty of low quality studies that can be cited to try to prove a bad opinion.

[aradox66]

This is specifically about cold plunge immediately after strength training, there's no evidence this applies as a tradeoff in a more generic way.

[Kirby64]

Cold water immersion or whatnot immediately after training or exercise is generally when it’s used. Similarly, if you did it right before exercise it would hamper exercise and increase injury risk purely due to lower blood flow through muscles. Could be mitigated by extra warming up, but certainly a pain.

From a practicality standpoint, cold plunging and such are generally done at the same place (and coincident) where you exercise.

It’s similar to aerobic exercise immediately after strength training. Sure, you can do these things far away from each other (cold plunge in morning, train in evening)… but how much time are you going to dedicate to going to the gym?

[aradox66]

I dont understand where your view comes from. I've never seen a gym with a cold plunge. I cold plunge in natural bodies of water or my back yard, and I do it whenever I want - intentionally separated from my strength training.

[Kirby64]

It's rarer, but it's the same type of amenity for a gym that has a sauna. Not all gyms have saunas either, but a certain type of gym does.

Frankly, I don't understand your view either. The vast majority of folks do not have access to a natural body of water that is cold enough, especially not year round. And having a plunge tank available at your home is a considerable expense, either in recurring ice cost or in the type of machine that can actively cool water.

The lowest barrier to entry is having access to it at an external facility. I lived in an apartment where that had a cold plunge next to the regular pool (which was also next to the apartment gym), for instance.