Sauna vs ice bath, which comes first?
People ask this as if one wins. They don't, heat and cold do genuinely different things, and the honest answer to "which first" is usually decided by budget, not biology. Here's the straight comparison.
Sauna
Does: deep relaxation and heat adaptation. Frequent use is linked in large cohort studies to lower cardiovascular mortality (Laukkanen, 2015).
Costs: $4,000–15,000 to buy; often a 240V circuit; a real running cost per session.
Feels like: a warm, calming wind-down.
Ice bath
Does: a sharp lift in mood, energy and alertness (Forsten, 2025) and short-term soreness relief, not a cure for anything.
Costs: $150 (ice tub) to $6,000 (chiller); no electricity for a plain tub.
Feels like: a jolt awake, then a clear-headed calm.
Which to buy first
Cold, almost always, because it's cheap to try. A portable ice bath and a few bags of ice cost under $200 and tell you within a month whether you'll keep it up. A sauna is a $4,000+ installation you don't want to commit to on a hunch. Prove the habit with cold, then add heat.
The real answer: both, in sequence
Most people who stick with either end up wanting the other, heat then cold, in rounds, is the contrast-therapy ritual, and it's more enjoyable than either alone. Worth knowing: there isn't strong evidence that alternating beats cold on its own (Bieuzen, 2013), you do it for the experience, not a proven synergy. If that's where you're heading, plan it from the start with our contrast therapy protocol so the two pieces work together.
The ice bath side, in stock
Cheaper to try than a sauna, and this one chills itself.
The OG Plunge Tub
An in-stock cold plunge that chills and filters itself, the ice-bath side without the ice run.
from $4,990 · $4,990–$6,840 across 12 options, choose on the product page
In stock. Price is for the unit and excludes delivery.