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April 12, 2025 3 min read
You see it all over social media: Influencers plunging into ice baths and posting sauna selfies. Gotta film it or it didn't happen, right?
These days it seems like everyone’s doing something “biohacker-ish”: Cold plunges, saunas, cryotherapy, red light therapy, ice baths, and more. But the truth is many of them are chasing likes, not results. Concerned with the latest algorithm trends than what actually builds muscle.
And that's the problem...
Many are sharing valuable information but without the most important context: When it comes to heat and cold exposure, timing is everything.
Use them at the wrong time, and you’re blunting your muscle growth and strength gains. Use them right, and you’ll recover faster, grow bigger, and come back stronger than ever.
Let’s break it down with a simple cheat sheet you can use to get the most out of these powerful recovery tools.
Cold exposure and heat exposure aren’t fads. They’re legit performance tools used by elite athletes for decades. Both cold and heat exposure can improve your quality of life, but they work best when used strategically.
Let’s start with the cold...
Cold plunges reduce inflammation, speed up recovery, and make you feel like a savage. But they also blunt the muscle-building signal if you use them too soon after training.
Immediately after resistance training. Cold exposure dampens mTOR signaling, the same process your body uses to trigger hypertrophy.
And we've known this for years. A 2015 study showed that cold water immersion attenuated (reduced) long-term gains in muscle mass and strength. It also blunted the activation of key proteins and satellite cells in skeletal muscle up to 2 days after strength exercise(1).
PRO TIP: If you’re going to do a cold plunge on a lifting day, wait at least 4–6 hours after your session to avoid blocking the anabolic response.
Now let’s talk about heat...
Heat exposure may actually amplify hypertrophy, especially if timed right.
Saunas and cold plunges aren’t magic. They’re not shortcuts. They’re not status symbols. They’re tools, and they work best when you know exactly when to use them.
Get the timing wrong, and you’re stealing gains from your future self, blunting hypertrophy, slowing strength adaptations, and undoing the hard work you just did. But get the timing right and you recover better, lift more, and grow faster.
That’s what separates people who train for Instagram from those who train for performance.
After you've hit the gym, the sauna, and the cold plunge, the most important factor in your recovery toolbox is sleep. Deep, uninterrupted, muscle-building sleep.
Sleep isn’t a luxury. It’s your #1 growth tool.
Without it you’re not growing, you’re just spinning your wheels. So if you’re serious about progress, you need to focus on getting good sleep.
RESTED-AF is formulated to help kick your body into recovery overdrive while you sleep. The kind of recovery that builds muscle, sharpens focus, and resets your system for another round of war. With two delicious flavors to choose from, we're sure you'll find one you love!
References:
(1) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4594298
(2) https://www.mdpi.com/2813-0413/2/2/14
(3) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0531556521002916
(4) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8122786/
(5) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32814462/
(6) https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1105
(7) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/22423982.2024.2419698?needAccess=true
(8) https://examine.com/research-feed/study/0mjwe9/?srsltid=AfmBOoqv2gh6sj2-9BtHY5sYA4WDh5oD35x-tJfGJ_HG8iBgXI5zztrf
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