Cold plunging, or cold water immersion, is when you strategically expose your body to cold water. Temperature, timing, duration, frequency, and methods of cold plunging vary, but the basic idea is to partially or fully submerge your body in cold water, starting with 30 seconds to a minute and working your way up to longer durations of 5-10 minutes.
There are many ways to do a cold plunge. You can fill up a bathtub with cold water and a lot of ice. In cooler months, if the water is cold enough, we’ve even seen people jump in their pools.
However, the ideal method is to use a proper cold plunge tub.
You can buy a plunge tub and set it up at your home. However, most people don’t want the hassle of finding a suitable place to put it, the maintenance, or the hassle of getting the tub to the ideal plunge temperature, etc.
That’s why many people prefer to go to a gym that has recovery rooms with cold plunge tubs in their membership fees. Bonus if the gym also has infrared saunas so you can do contrast therapy, which we’ll explain a little further down.
You might be wondering why you would want to cold plunge and subject yourself to the torture of sitting in icy cold water. We know it sounds less than appealing to most, but there are many cold plunge benefits you don’t want to miss out on.
Some people cold plunge as part of their post-workout routine to help reduce inflammation, lessen soreness and stiffness, and boost the recovery process after intense training, potentially reducing muscle soreness and fatigue. Others take a dip solely for the mental benefits cold plunging is believed to provide. We’ll go over more specific key benefits of cold plunging a little further down.
Cold Plunging: The History of Cold Water Immersion and How the Cold Plunge Tub Trend Started
Videos of people soaking in cold water and raving about the health benefits of cold water immersion are something we’re sure you’ve seen a lot of in the past couple of years. However, the practice of cold water immersion for recovery and health optimization isn’t a novel concept.
Athletes have long utilized ice baths to expedite recovery, and thanks to the influence of figures like Wim Hof, whose teachings on the potential health benefits of cold exposure have captivated a global audience, cold plunging has been a popular wellness trend for quite some time now.
But the practice of cold plunging actually dates back thousands of years. We’re talking all the way back to 1600 BCE (possibly earlier) when ancient Egyptian medical texts mentioned the use of cold therapy to treat injuries and inflammation.
In ancient Greece, Hippocrates—often called the “Father of Medicine”—also promoted cold water treatments to relieve pain and reduce fevers. So did the Romans, who are said to have put cold plunge pools (they called them frigidariums) into their elaborate public bathhouses due to the benefits they believed cold immersion could have in promoting overall health and vitality.
Fast forward to the 19th and early 20th centuries, when Hydrotherapy clinics emerged in Europe and North America, prescribing cold baths for a range of ailments, from muscle injuries to mental health conditions.
Around this time is also when a more mainstream shift occurred, with further research into the potential benefits of cold therapy started to be explored, and more structured, therapeutic applications of cold immersion began to emerge.
Today, cold water immersion for post-workout recovery, athletic performance, and overall health has evolved into a mainstream wellness trend. You can’t scroll your social feed for long without seeing everyone from a-list celebrities to social media health and wellness influencers and even neuroscientists jumping into a cold plunge tub and raving about the benefits of cold plunging for post-workout recovery, mental clarity, stress reduction, and overall well-being.
Due to countless success stories and a growing body of evidence that supports the benefits of cold water immersion, cold plunge tubs are finally becoming more mainstream in America.
Benefits of Cold Plunge Tubs
We know it sounds less than appealing to sit in icy water, but it’s certainly something to consider. While more research is needed, there are many potential physical and mental health benefits of cold water immersion.
Some benefits of cold plunging that we’ve seen floating around are a bit of a stretch and honestly not backed by much, if any, solid science. Cold water therapy as a way to lose body fat is a good example. While there is some evidence that cold plunging might help boost your metabolism (we’ll explain why next), you can’t just jump in a cold plunge tub every day and expect to do nothing else to lose weight.
However, there are well-documented benefits of cold immersion therapy, especially for post-workout recovery, that could have an indirect positive effect on your weight-loss efforts, as well as provide a host of other physical and mental benefits.
1: Cold Plunge Optimizes Post-Workout Recovery
The goal after a tough workout is to get your body into recovery mode as soon as possible. If you don’t already know, you don’t build muscle during your workout. That happens later, during recovery. Without a strategic post-workout recovery routine, you will never see the full potential of your training efforts.
Cold water immersion is an excellent way to speed up certain aspects of recovery and help your body bounce back faster after intense exercise. One way is that cold immersion helps ease stiffness and muscle soreness, which will help get you back to training sooner and with less discomfort.
When you plunge into cold water, your blood vessels tighten, which might help reduce inflammation and limit the muscle damage that naturally occurs during weightlifting or strenuous endurance workouts. Once you warm back up, your blood vessels dilate again, sending freshly oxygenated blood to your muscles. This further supports tissue repair and helps flush out metabolic waste like lactic acid.
2: Cold Plunge Improves Overall Athletic and Workout Performance
When your body isn’t overly sore and stiff and is fully recovered, this will automatically lead to better athletic performance. However, cold plunges go beyond just managing soreness and inflammation.
Cold plunging can also support long-term performance gains. Regular cold exposure helps train your circulatory system to be more efficient, strengthens your nervous system’s stress response, and can improve sleep quality, all of which play a role in stamina, endurance, and energy, directly impacting your performance potential.
Additionally, for athletes or anyone who trains most days of the week, incorporating cold plunges may help reduce the risk of overtraining and extend peak performance periods. And because it forces your body to adapt to environmental stress, it also strengthens the systems that regulate temperature and stress response—both crucial for performance under pressure.
3: Cold Plunge Supports Better Mental Health, Focus, and Stress Resilience
One of the most immediate effects of cold immersion is the mental shift many claim it provides. The shock of cold water triggers a release of dopamine, norepinephrine, and endorphins. These are all neurochemicals that lift your mood and enhance focus.
Many claim that after stepping out of a cold plunge tub, they have an immediate “high” that lasts for hours. But the mental benefits might not stop there. Over time, regularly exposing yourself to controlled discomfort can also build mental toughness because it trains your brain to stay calm and focused under stress, which supports better resilience in everyday life.
4: Cold Plunging Helps Lower Stress and Improves Stress Response
After the initial shock your body experiences, cold plunging then activates the parasympathetic nervous system. This helps bring your body into a calm, restorative state more quickly.
Over time, this practice can lower baseline cortisol levels (your stress hormone) and improve your ability to respond to stress without staying stuck in a fight-or-flight loop. In other words, you become more adaptable—not just physically, but emotionally too.
5: Cold Plunging Helps Promote Better Sleep
Cold exposure can indirectly support deeper, more restful sleep. After a cold plunge, your body works to re-establish thermal balance, which can help regulate circadian rhythms and promote a drop in core body temperature—one of the signals your body uses to initiate sleep.
Many people also report better sleep due to improved recovery, reduced inflammation, and decreased stress after consistent plunging.
6: Cold Plunging Supports Immunity
There’s growing evidence that regular cold exposure can positively influence the immune system. Cold plunges stimulate the production of norepinephrine, which plays a role in regulating immune function.
Some studies also show an increase in white blood cell count and natural killer cells after repeated cold exposure. While it’s not a cure-all, adding cold plunges into your wellness routine may support your body’s ability to defend against illness.
7: Cold Plunging Has Potential Positive Effects on Metabolism and Weight Loss
You might have read that cold water plunging is a tool people are using to lose weight. While cold plunging alone won’t lead to significant weight loss, it can potentially activate key mechanisms that may play a small supporting role in fat-burning and metabolic health.
Your body has two types of fat. You have white fat, which is the bad fat you don’t want. It’s what stores excess calories and accumulates around the organs, contributing to inflammation and disease risk. It also has another type of fat called brown fat. You actually want this type of fat. Brown fat is a type of fat tissue that burns energy to generate heat.
When you’re immersed in cold water, your body works to stay warm by activating brown fat. It is believed that this activation can temporarily boost your metabolic rate. Considering a healthy metabolism is an essential part of maintaining energy balance, hormone regulation, and fat-burning efficiency, anything you can do to support brown fat activity may be beneficial.
There are also some theories that cold plunges burn extra calories. This is at least partially based on the idea that shivering mimics a mild workout, therefore increasing overall calorie burn. Some research also suggests that repeated cold exposure may improve insulin sensitivity and help with blood sugar regulation.
While these effects cumulatively could contribute to better metabolic function and weight management, cold water therapy should be seen as a supportive tool, not a standalone solution for metabolic health or weight loss.
The Basic Process of Cold Plunging and Ideal Times and Durations to Cold Plunge
Cold plunging is simple in theory; you immerse your body, either partially or fully, in really cold water. But to get the most out of cold plunging, here is “good-better-best” in terms of timing, technique, and duration.
Whether you’re chasing better recovery or just trying to build a cold exposure habit, how you approach the plunge matters. If you’re ready to try cold plunging, knowing the right way to approach it is key to maximizing the benefits.
Here’s what to expect and how to use a cold plunge tub safely and effectively.
Where to Cold Plunge
While you can fill a bathtub with cold water and ice, the experience isn’t quite the same. Not only is it time-consuming and a bit of a hassle, but the temperature in a basic tub setup is hard to control and tends to warm quickly.
Comfort and control matter when you’re pushing your limits. For consistency, safety, and comfort, it is best to use a clean, professional-grade cold plunge tub, which you can purchase for your home or find at modern gyms with recovery rooms.
These tubs are designed for cold water immersion therapy and are typically temperature-regulated, filtered, and designed for full-body immersion. If you’re investing in your own cold plunge tub at home, just make sure it maintains a stable temperature and allows for quick in-and-out access.
There are other methods of cold therapy, such as simply taking a cold shower, using ice packs, or whole-body cryotherapy. We’ll compare cold plunge tubs with a few other cold therapies next. But for the remainder of this section, we’re gonna stick to the basics of how to use a cold plunge tub since most experts agree these tubs provide the optimal atmosphere for cold therapy.
The Best Time to Use a Cold Plunge Tub
When it comes to the best time to use a cold plunge tub, it’s all about matching the timing to support your lifestyle and goals.
Post-workout is one of the most effective times to cold plunge—especially if your goal is faster recovery or reduced soreness. Cold exposure causes blood vessels to constrict, which helps flush out metabolic waste and reduce inflammation. Then, once you warm back up, circulation rebounds, bringing oxygen and nutrients back into the muscles to support repair.
There is actually an ideal order and timing to contrast therapy when combining cold plunges with sauna use into your post-workout recovery routine. If you want to learn more, read “The Post Workout Recovery Routine You Need.”
Now, you might have heard that if you’re strength training or bulking and hope to gain a significant amount of muscle, you should not cold plunge. Some studies claim cold plunging can hinder muscle gains, but only if you jump in too soon.
More research is needed to support this theory, but some believe you need to give your body at least a couple of hours to go through the natural inflammatory response that supports growth. If this is a concern, just wait a few hours after your session before plunging. Then, on lighter training days or rest days when recovery is the sole focus, you can plunge whenever you want without worry.
Other great times to cold plunge include:
- First thing in the morning – Many find that the energy boost, improved focus, and heightened alertness that cold plunging provides is a great way to kickstart the day—especially if you’re someone who doesn’t tolerate caffeine well or prefers a more natural mental boost.
- Midday – If you find yourself experiencing a mid-day mental slump or energy crash, you might want to take a dip on your lunch break for a mental reset. A short plunge can help clear brain fog and elevate mood without relying on sugar or stimulants.
- Rest days – Cold plunging on rest days is a great way to support consistent recovery and reduce baseline inflammation. It also helps keep your nervous system resilient and conditioned to manage stress, even when you’re not actively training.
Regardless of when you cold plunge, while there are some pretty instant benefits, to fully benefit from cold water therapy, consistency matters.
Not only is this how you gradually build tolerance and extend your time in the water, but it’s also how you start to see the more profound benefits—like better circulation, reduced chronic inflammation, improved mood stability, and increased mental resilience.
Just like training, real results and benefits build over time.
Ideal Cold Plunge Tub Temperature
If you’re plunging at a facility, the temperature will usually be set to the ideal temperature, which is somewhere between 50–59°F (10–15°C). That’s cold enough to activate the body’s natural recovery and stress-response systems without going into shock.
If you’re plunging at home, use a water-safe thermometer and start at the higher end of that range. Some experienced users go as low as 37–39°F (3–4°C), but this is advanced territory and not necessary for most people to see results.
Avoid going below 50°F until you’ve built up tolerance, and always listen to your body.
How Long to Stay In a Cold Plunge Tub
We’re sure you’ve seen some people sit in an ice bath for 10 minutes straight and thought to yourself, there is no way you could tolerate the cold for that long! The good news is that you don’t need to go to extremes to benefit.
It doesn’t take long to start experiencing the effects of cold exposure. In fact, some people say that something as small as switching your water to cold at the end of a shower for a few seconds or dipping your face in a bowl of ice water can trigger the vagus nerve and help calm the nervous system.
It certainly can’t hurt to incorporate these methods, but a cold plunge tub offers a more controlled and effective way to immerse the body and consistently see results.
For partial or full-body immersion, the key is to start small. Aim for 30 seconds to 2 minutes, which is more than enough when you’re first getting started. You don’t want to shock your system or risk overdoing it too soon. It takes time for your body and nervous system to adjust.
Once immersed, focus on slow, deep breathing to regulate your stress response and stay in as long as you can, building up your tolerance every few sessions until you feel comfortable going longer. With consistency, most people work their way up to 3–5 minutes, which is where most of the recovery and performance benefits tend to plateau.
Some athletes or hard-core plungers go even longer, but you don’t need to push extremes to see results. Remember to listen to your body! More is not better if it comes at the cost of safety or comfort.
How Often Should You Cold Plunge?
How often you should cold plunge depends on your needs and goals. If you’re using cold plunging to support workout recovery, 2–4 times per week is a solid starting point. Even one cold plunge session each week is better than none.
However, during times of more intense training or for ongoing mental benefits such as stress support, you might want to take a dip daily.
Overall, the key to cold plunging is consistency, not intensity. Even 1–2 sessions a week can make a difference when paired with quality training, sleep, and nutrition.
Pro Tip: Try Contrast Therapy (Heat-to-Cold)
If the facility you visit offers both a cold plunge and an infrared sauna, you should consider contrast therapy, which is when you alternate between hot and cold. This is done using a sauna (for best results, an infrared sauna) and a cold plunge tub.
Going from hot to cold exposure, ideally for several rounds, can further boost circulation, reduce inflammation, and help your body flush out toxins more efficiently. Try spending a few minutes in the sauna first, then go directly into the cold plunge. Repeat the cycle 2–3 times if time allows.
Want a full breakdown of how and when to incorporate contrast therapy into your post-workout recovery routine? Click here for a step-by-step breakdown of the exact steps you need to take for optimal post-workout recovery and why each matters if you are hoping for optimal results from your dieting and training efforts.
What To Do After You Cold Plunge
After a cold plunge or a contrast therapy session of heat-to-cold, after your last cold dip, it’s important to gradually rewarm your body to both avoid shock and maximize benefits.
Dry off with a towel, get dressed in warm, dry clothes, and then take 5-10 minutes to do something that will stimulate circulation and help your body regain balance. Gentle stretching, yoga, or a quick walk are all great options.
When Not to Plunge
Cold plunging is a form of stress (and a good one when done correctly), but layering it on top of too much physical or emotional strain can potentially backfire. You might want to skip the cold if you’re already feeling run-down or have been exposed to extreme cold in other ways that day.
Additionally, people with cardiovascular conditions, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, arrhythmias, or a history of stroke, should consult with their healthcare provider before using cold plunge tubs. Sudden exposure to cold can constrict blood vessels and raise blood pressure, which may increase the risk of adverse cardiovascular events.
People with Raynaud’s disease, asthma triggered by cold air, or certain neuropathies should also use caution and seek medical guidance before plunging, as cold exposure may exacerbate symptoms or create additional complications.
If you are pregnant or have a compromised immune system, you should also check with a medical professional to ensure cold therapy is appropriate.
Cold Plunge Tub vs. Other Forms of Cold Therapy
There are several ways to expose your body to cold, but not all methods offer the same benefits—or the same level of control, consistency, and comfort. Here are some other popular cold therapy options and how they stack up to a cold plunge tub.
Ice Baths
Probably the most well-known DIY option for cold therapy is an ice bath involving filling a bathtub with cold water and ice. While they can be effective, the downside is they’re time-consuming and often challenging to temperature regulate.
Water temperature fluctuates quickly, and it isn’t easy to control or maintain the ideal therapeutic range without constantly adding ice. There’s also the hassle of setup and cleanup.
Unlike ice baths, cold plunge tubs are specifically designed for full or partial-body immersion at precise, consistent temperatures. High-quality models, especially those found in performance gyms, often include filtration systems, self-cleaning technology, and programmable controls to keep water clean and temperature-regulated. This not only creates a more sanitary experience but also makes it easier to build a consistent routine that actually works.
Ice Packs
Targeted cold therapy using ice packs can be helpful for acute injuries, pain, or swelling. But this isn’t the same as cold water immersion. Ice packs don’t offer the same whole-body vascular response or neurochemical benefits. Ice packs are best reserved for spot treatment for specific issues rather than a tool for total-body recovery or mental resilience.
Cold Showers
Switching your water to cold at the end of a shower can be a great entry point, especially for building tolerance. However, water temperature varies widely from home to home, and you’re typically only exposed to cold water one part of your body at a time—making it harder to achieve the same systemic effects.
While cold showers may help wake you up, boost circulation, and trigger a mild stress response, the benefits tend to be more short-term and limited in comparison to full-body immersion in a cold plunge tub.
Whole Body Cryotherapy
Cryo chambers use cold air (often around -200°F) for very short periods, typically 2–3 minutes. While some athletes and wellness enthusiasts swear by it, research on its long-term benefits is still limited.
Additionally, cryo chambers are far less accessible, and visits can get pricey fast. Unlike cold plunge tubs, which are now offered at many high-end gyms and included in memberships, it’s rare to find a gym that has cryotherapy on-site.
This usually means you’ll need to make an extra stop at a dedicated facility—and pay per session, which adds up quickly. Considering consistency is key with cold therapy, accessibility and affordability matter. That’s why cold plunge tubs are often the more practical and effective long-term option for most people.
Conclusion
Cold plunge tubs aren’t a passing wellness trend; they’re a long-standing recovery tool and resilience practice that’s been used for centuries and are now backed by both science and positive user testimony.
While more research is needed on the benefits of cold water immersion, consistent cold plunging is shown to help reduce soreness, speed up recovery, support stress resilience, and even improve sleep and mood. This can be beneficial for any adult looking to optimize their overall health, but especially for gym-goers and athletes.
To learn more about our recovery rooms at Raw Athletic Club in Port St. Lucie and Stuart, Florida, click here or book a gym tour!
From premium equipment to custom personal training programs, executive locker rooms, top-tier recovery amenities with infrared saunas, and a smoothie bar featuring only the highest quality protein, everything at Raw Athletic Club is designed for those who want to maximize gym time and optimize their training experience.
If you’re committed to real results and want a gym environment that drives motivation and growth, Raw Athletic Club is the place for you. Click here to check out membership options, or stop by one of our locations to start your journey today!
