Heat and cold exposure same day protocol

A same-day heat–cold contrast session can be done as three to five rounds of about 20 minutes in the sauna followed by roughly five minutes of cold exposure—a protocol Huberman places on a recovery day and says he typically does about once a week. Build up gradually and keep both the heat and cold at a safe, tolerable intensity. 1 2

• Recovery, metabolism, and growth hormone: He describes the session as a way to support recovery. He also says that repeated sauna bouts done on one day about once weekly can produce large growth-hormone increases, which he connects to metabolism and recovery. 3 4
• Cold timing after resistance training: Avoid cold-water immersion immediately after strength or hypertrophy training; he says it may interfere with the adaptations sought from training. Cold showers may be different, and he says he is not aware of data showing the same effect from showers. 5

For same-day contrast, schedule it away from your resistance-training session rather than immediately afterward. 6