Long before contrast therapy had a name, people understood its power. Finnish families alternated between the the science of sauna and frozen lakes. Russian banyas paired steam with cold plunges. Japanese onsen traditions moved between hot springs and cool pools.
Ben Falk demonstrates this practice at its most elemental: a wood-fired sauna on a homestead, a natural pond in late autumn, and the deliberate movement between the two. No technology. No timers. No optimization apps. Just heat, cold, and the body's ancient capacity to adapt.
What emerges from this simplicity is a reminder that the most effective wellness protocols are often the oldest ones — and the most accessible.
The sauna phase serves a dual purpose. Physiologically, it raises core temperature, opens blood vessels, and promotes deep perspiration — the body's primary mechanism for releasing stored toxins. Cardiovascular output increases in a pattern that mirrors moderate aerobic exercise.
But the sauna also prepares the body for what comes next. The heat primes the vascular system for the rapid constriction that cold water demands. Without the heat phase, the cold plunge is a shock. With it, the cold becomes a meaningful contrast — a signal the body knows how to interpret and respond to.
Ben uses a traditional wood-fired sauna, which adds the meditative element of tending the fire. There is something grounding about the ritual of splitting wood, building the fire, and waiting for the stones to reach temperature. The practice begins long before you sit on the bench.
The transition from sauna to cold water is where the magic of contrast therapy lives. Blood vessels constrict rapidly. Noradrenaline surges. The lymphatic system activates. Every system in the body responds to the sudden change in thermal environment.
In late autumn and winter, natural water sources sit at temperatures ideally suited for this practice — cold enough to trigger the full autonomic response, but not so cold as to be dangerous for adapted practitioners.
The key is brevity. One to three minutes in the cold is sufficient. The goal is the stimulus, not the endurance.
Three to four rounds of hot-to-cold create a cumulative effect that deepens with each cycle. The first transition is the most intense. By the third or fourth round, the body moves fluidly between states — the nervous system has found its rhythm.
The session ends on cold, following what researchers now call the Søberg Principle. The body's effort to rewarm itself naturally extends the metabolic benefit for hours after the practice concludes.
What remains is a profound sense of calm, clarity, and physical renewal. It is not subtle. People who practice contrast hydrotherapy regularly describe it as the single most effective thing they do for their overall well-being.