Ice bath and sauna; benefits of alternating hot and cold

Training of Blood Vessels

Combining a sauna with an ice bath can be thought of as a workout for your blood vessels. When you are in the sauna, your body temperature rises, which causes your blood vessels to expand. This helps improve circulation and helps reduce high blood pressure.

When you sit in an ice bath after the sauna, your body temperature drops. This causes your blood vessels to rapidly contract, further stimulating blood flow. This cycle of expansion and contraction trains your blood vessels and improves their flexibility, leading to a healthier heart in the long run.

Improved Circulation

The alternation between the heat of the sauna and the cold of the ice bath provides stimulation to your circulation system. This not only improves the supply of oxygen and nutrients to your cells, but it also helps remove waste products from your body. This improved circulation contributes to healthier skin, better muscle performance and can even help relieve painful joints.

Boost for your Immune System and Metabolism

In addition, the combination of a hot sauna session and the cold bath also strengthens your immune system. Both raising and lowering your body temperature, causes your body to produce more white blood cells.

These white blood cells protect you from infections. While it may sound nice to warm up in the sauna after a cold dip in an ice tub, you are missing out on some health benefits. The process by which your body warms itself is called thermogenesis. This process increases your metabolism, which causes your body to produce energy more efficiently. If you sit in an ice bath in a hot sauna after cooling down, you hinder this process. So we recommend using the sauna first and taking an ice bath last.

Stress disappears like snow in the sun

A sauna-ice bath combination is not only good for your body, but can also have positive psychological effects. The heat of the sauna helps to reduce the production of stress hormones and release endorphins. After a relaxing session in the sauna, dive into the refreshing ice bath. This cold shock gives you an adrenaline boost. The process of this hot-cold therapy provides all the ingredients that contribute to a feeling of happiness.

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