The question sounds simple: should you cold plunge before or after a workout? The answer, from Dr. Thomas Seager, is more interesting than a protocol — it is a lesson in how to think about your own body.
Seager, a PhD engineer at Arizona State University and co-founder of the Morozko Forge ice bath company, has done more than a thousand ice baths. He holds the research carefully, but he holds individual experience more carefully still. This conversation with the Cold Plunge Podcast navigates both.
The most consequential finding Seager discusses: the timing of cold relative to exercise has opposite hormonal effects depending on order.
Cold after strength training suppresses the post-exercise testosterone and growth hormone response. The inflammatory cascade that cold blunts — the inflammation many seek to reduce for recovery — is also part of the anabolic signal. Cold too soon after training intercepts that signal.
Cold before training does the opposite. The cold-induced increase in luteinizing hormone — the signal that drives testosterone synthesis — arrives before training begins, and the exercise itself amplifies it further. Seager's case studies show meaningful testosterone increases in men who adopt a pre-training cold protocol.
Seager's most compelling contribution to this conversation is his explicit rejection of the idea that population-level research always supersedes individual experience. As a scientist, he respects the randomized controlled trial. As a practitioner, he has learned its limitations.
"Whatever protocol works for me is irrelevant for you," he says. "What I do is what works for my body. Your body is different." This is not anti-scientific; it is a sophisticated understanding of what science can and cannot tell a specific individual.
Population studies reveal averages and trends. They cannot tell you whether you are in the 1% that responds differently, or whether your particular combination of genetics, training history, and lifestyle makes the average finding inapplicable. The invitation is to treat yourself as an experiment — to track, observe, and adjust based on your own response.
When pressed for his own routine, Seager is characteristically precise: two to four minutes at 34°F (1°C), every morning, seven days a week. Over a thousand sessions and counting. No rest days for the cold practice itself.
This frequency reflects his conviction that adaptation is cumulative and that the hormonal signaling benefits of cold are most robust when the practice is consistent. Sporadic cold exposure produces acute effects; daily cold exposure produces baseline changes in the hormonal environment.
The temperature — 34°F — is lower than most recommendations, which sit in the 50–59°F range. Seager's Morozko Forge operates at this range by design. This is a personal choice, not a universal prescription. He is explicit about this.
For those without a strong preference, Seager's default recommendation is morning cold, before any training. This timing captures the luteinizing hormone stimulus before the workout, allows the testosterone response to support the training session, and places the post-plunge norepinephrine window in the most productive part of the day.
For those who train early and want to keep cold nearby, the alternative is to separate cold and training by at least four hours. This preserves the anabolic signal from training while still accessing cold's benefits on a different schedule.
The principle that runs through all of this: intentionality. Knowing why you are timing your cold practice the way you are, and tracking whether the outcome reflects the intention.