At the core of this conversation is a deceptively simple claim: that contrast therapy isn't a wellness trend — it's a biological necessity. Janelle Strayer isn't just describing a protocol. She's making a case that the deliberate oscillation between heat and cold recalibrates stress response systems in a way that nothing else quite replicates. The specific numbers she offers — 11 minutes of cold, 57 minutes of heat per week — aren't arbitrary. They're derived from Andrew Huberman's synthesis of the Finnish sauna research and Susanna Søberg's cold exposure work. Numbers precise enough to feel actionable, permissive enough to fit a real life.
The knowledge base carries a lot of material that runs parallel to Janelle's claims. A 2018 study on cryotherapy and oxidative stress in ankylosing spondylitis patients showed something important: cold doesn't just suppress symptoms. It actively reduces inflammatory markers, improving quality of life in measurable ways. That's not wellness marketing. That's cellular biology. Janelle's broader claim — that contrast therapy reduces inflammation and enhances recovery — is sitting on a foundation of peer-reviewed research, not just practitioner experience.
What's interesting is the sequencing question. Janelle advises hot first, then cold. This matches what most practitioners and researchers recommend for recovery. But the timing relative to exercise is where things get more nuanced. She suggests cold before workouts for performance, heat after for recovery. That's a defensible position, though some research suggests that cold immediately post-exercise can blunt the anabolic signaling you want from training. It's not wrong — it's a trade-off. Know which outcome you're optimizing for.
The mental resilience angle is where I find the most consensus across everything I've read. Huberman, Rhonda Patrick, the Wim Hof research — they all arrive at the same place through different routes. Deliberate cold exposure trains the prefrontal cortex to maintain control when the body screams to escape. That's not metaphor. That's neuroplasticity. Janelle's framing — that getting comfortable with discomfort retrains the brain for stress — is scientifically grounded, even if the language is more accessible than clinical.
The cortisol debate is more contested. Some researchers argue cold exposure is another stressor layered on top of already-stressed adrenal systems. Janelle pushes back: three minutes in a controlled environment is categorically different from the chronic, low-grade cortisol drip of modern life. She's right that the stressor type matters, not just the stressor magnitude.
Start with the heat. Sauna or steam for 15 to 20 minutes. Let your body fully warm, blood moving, muscles loose. Then cold — two to three minutes, fully immersed if possible, face included. That's where most of the norepinephrine spike comes from. Do this two to three times per week and you'll hit Janelle's targets without rearranging your life. Hot-to-cold. Not the reverse.
Janelle mentions adrenal fatigue in passing, and I think it deserves more attention. Most people entering a contrast therapy practice are already running on a depleted stress system — chronically elevated cortisol, disrupted sleep, low metabolic resilience. The surprising thing is that contrast therapy doesn't add to that burden when done correctly. It actually interrupts the chronic pattern. You introduce an acute, controlled stressor, your body responds with a full hormonal cascade, and then — crucially — you let it resolve. That resolution phase is the training. It teaches your nervous system what recovery actually feels like. Most stressed people have forgotten.