Most of what we get asked, by a mile, is the same two questions. How long do I stay in? And: does the order matter?
This is a long answer, written once, to link in every WhatsApp thread we've ever been in.
The short version
Three rounds. Start hot. Ten to fifteen minutes in the sauna. One to three minutes in the ice bath. Rest a minute. Repeat. End on heat if you want to sleep; end on cold if you want to think.
Four times a week, for a year.
The longer version
Heat
At 80–100°C the body behaves as if you are doing steady cardio. Heart rate climbs into the 120s. Skin vasodilates. Blood plasma volume rises. A specific family of proteins — the heat shock proteins — gets produced; they repair damaged protein structures inside cells and, the thinking goes, buffer future stress.
Ten to twenty minutes is a session. Fifteen is a good default. If you're new to it, start at eight.
Cold
Cold water does something different. A large, fast spike in noradrenaline. A drop in inflammation. A sharp re-engagement of the parasympathetic system in the minutes after you get out.
Two minutes at 5–8°C is plenty. Three minutes is the upper end of most sessions. Longer is rarely more useful, and often less.
Contrast
The alternation is where most of the literature is most confident. Heat, cold, repeat. Most of what's interesting about the practice lives in the transitions.
Three protocols we actually use
Morning (20 minutes, focus)
- 10 min sauna
- 2 min cold plunge
- 8 min sauna
Use daylight-aligned. Good for alertness, early focus, decision quality through the first half of the day.
Post-workout (25 minutes, recovery)
- 15 min sauna
- 3 min cold
- 7 min sauna
Caveat: if you did heavy resistance training and you're in a hypertrophy phase, wait 4+ hours between training and cold. For endurance or general wellness, any time is fine.
Evening (30 minutes, sleep)
- 8 min sauna · 1 min cold
- 8 min sauna · 1 min cold
- 10 min sauna · finish
Finish on heat. The post-session drop in core temperature mimics the body's natural sleep cue.
Safety, briefly
Don't drink alcohol in the sauna. Don't jump into a cold plunge if you've been drinking. If you have cardiovascular disease, talk to a doctor who's read the Finnish literature before starting. Hydrate. Listen to the body. The sauna isn't going anywhere.
That's it. The rest is just turning up.