Andy Galpin says something in this conversation that I find myself thinking about constantly: "If you're biohacking hopping, which is like every month you're doing something new, your physiology has no possible way of understanding what's going on." That's not just a practical observation. That's a fundamental truth about how adaptation works — and it applies to every thermal protocol we study in this knowledge base.
The core claim here is simple but counterintuitive: doing less, more consistently, outperforms doing more, constantly. Your body adapts to specific stressors through repeated exposure. Introduce a new one every month and you're not building resilience. You're just creating noise.
What strikes me about Galpin's framework is how cleanly it maps onto everything Rhonda Patrick has documented about sauna frequency. The dose-response relationship she found — two to three sessions per week providing measurable cardiovascular benefit, four to seven sessions per week providing profound benefit — only works because those sessions are repeated. Consistent. Predictable. Your body learns to expect the stress and prepares for it in advance. That's adaptation. That's the mechanism.
The cold plunge research shows the same pattern. One morning plunge feels shocking. Ten mornings in a row, and your vasoconstriction response sharpens, your norepinephrine spike becomes more efficient, your recovery window shortens. The intervention didn't change. Your physiology did — because you gave it time to respond.
The honest tension in this space is around cold exposure and muscle growth. Galpin is careful here — "post-exercise cold exposure may hinder muscle growth for some individuals" — and that caveat matters. The inflammation that cold suppresses after a hard session? That inflammation is part of the adaptation signal. You can't blunt the stress response and then expect the full adaptive benefit. This is a real disagreement in the literature, and it doesn't have a clean resolution. Context matters: are you optimizing for strength, recovery speed, or longevity? The answer changes the protocol.
Here's the connection that surprised me: Galpin's point about mineral deficiency isn't just a nutrition footnote. Electrolytes — sodium, magnesium, potassium — are what your nervous system uses to regulate the very stress responses that thermal protocols trigger. If you're mineral depleted, your cold plunge response is blunted. Your sauna session hits harder than it should. You're driving with an empty tank and wondering why the car feels sluggish.
Pick two modalities. Commit for sixty days. Track how you feel, not what you read. For most people, that means morning cold exposure three times per week and evening sauna two to three times per week — let the contrast do the work, and let your body catch up. Add the sea salt to your morning water. Then stop reading about recovery for a month and just do it.