Transcription
All right, guys. I just got done with a workout here at uh correct gym in Austin. Now, I'm going to sauna and cold plunge. And in this video, I'm going to tell you why you're doing this wrong. I'm going to give you a sense of protocols here. How long to sauna, how hot to sauna, what you're doing wrong in the sauna, that could be negatively affecting your sperm if you're a dude, recent data that suggests that if you're doing the sauna at the wrong temperature, that might actually increase your risk of dementia, and why I think you're doing the cold plunge wrong. So, in this video, I'm going to break it all down for you. Let's get started. This is my how to sauna and cold plunge and why you're doing it wrong video. Let's go.
First things first, I got some water. We're testing heavy metals, microplastics, and waters. This is Icelandic, Icelandic water, and glass. I'm going to tell you guys about the results of this one soon. I've got a sauna hat. I'm going to tell you why. And I got some frozen meat in here. Why the heck am I bringing frozen meat into the sauna? Stay tuned. We're going to figure it out. First things first, though, I'm sweaty. I'm going to jump in the shower and then go in the sauna.
Okay, first things first. What are you doing wrong in the sauna? You want to get about 60 minutes a sauna time per week. But the temperature matters. There's a recent analysis by connect that shows that if the sauna temperature is above 100° C, which is greater than 212 degrees Fahrenheit, that's actually associated with a 2x increase in dementia risk. The whole reason that people like to sauna is because there are multiple studies like this one or this one or this one which show decreased rates of cardiovascular mortality, all-cause mortality, or dementia. You don't need really over 200 degrees Fahrenheit in general.
And when I go in the sauna, I'm going to wear a sauna hat. And what am I going to do for my balls? Well, that's exactly why I brought some frozen meat. Just happens to be some frozen Wagu heart from Radius in Austin, which is an awesome butcher shop. Those guys are rad. And uh this this frozen wagu meat is going to go on my nuts in the sauna. I'm going to keep my balls cold. Paul, this is ridiculous. You've gone too far. Actually, not. I'm going to show you guys multiple studies like this one and this one which show that when you're heating your testicles, you are decreasing your sperm count and decreasing sperm motility. It makes sense, guys. You understand this. And your testicles are in a sack that is called your scrotum. I wonder if YouTube is going to censor all this. That scrotum moves up and down to regulate the temperature. When you're cold, your testicles move closer to your body. When you're warm, they move away, right? Your body is trying to regulate that because there is a tight range of temperatures for spermatogenesis. Okay? You don't want your testicles to get too hot if you want your sperm to be healthy. You guys will say, "I don't want to have kids now anyway, guys. This is great birth control." Well, here's the deal. I have trouble believing that you can separate spermatogenesis from hormonal health. Because the cells that make your sperm are the same cells that make your testosterone and your testicles. And what I worry about is if you're negatively affecting spermatogenesis in your testicles, are you negatively affecting your hormones? So, you may not care about having viable sperm right now, but do you care about having enough testosterone? I do. So, I'm protecting my balls. Protecting my sperm, too, because I actually want to have kids in the near future. I'll keep you guys posted on that.
Now, how long am I in the sauna? It depends on your tolerance. 7 to 20 minutes. Basically, when I feel like I'm hot and I'm sweating and I can tell when I'm fully sort of at that moment, I just get out of the sauna.
Now, I'm going to do sauna and cold today. I'm going to do contrast therapy, which I like because it feels good, right? Right? You get catakolamines, you get dopamine. I don't like to do isolated cold plunge. I just got a workout in. Isolated cold plunging has been associated with actually decreased muscle mass gains. So if you want to do a cold plunge, don't do a cold plunge after your workout. If you're trying to gain muscle, you want to separate it ideally 6 to 8 hours. Now, nobody's done research on contrast therapy. I'm getting hot and cold. I'm actually not training right now to get huge muscles. I'm training for mobility, training for strength, training for speed. Mostly I like to surf. If you want to see my video of how I work out, I'll put a link here.
So, the testicles are a very valuable tissue in your body. What other tissues are very valuable in your body? Your brain. So, you might think, oh, you're making your brain hotter with the hat. Actually, I'm making my brain cooler. The hat on my head is protecting my brain, right? The hat on my head is insulating my brain. I'm keeping my brain cool. As it turns out, sauna has been studied in multiple cohorts, usually in Finland, Yuri Lakinan's work, Connect's work, etc. And if you get the right temperature of the sauna, it's associated with decreased all-cause mortality and decreased cardiovascular mortality. But if you go too hot, it's actually associated with a two times increase in dementia risk. How hot is too hot? 100° Celsius is probably the cutoff. That's 212 degrees Fahrenheit. So I know you guys are thinking, okay, Joe Rogan does 220°. >> Yeah, I was doing 220. >> Yeah, he had me doing 220 for a little bit, but you know what? I felt like it was burning my lungs. I felt like it was burning the inside of my mouth. >> Was it dry? >> Yeah, I felt terrible. I stopped doing it. >> Okay. I don't think there's data to support that, guys. I think you want to wear a sauna hat if you want to go that hot. And probably you only need to be 80 to 100° C, which is 178, 175° F to 200° F. >> I think the guy on the left in this picture passed out and ended up dying. >> No, he died. >> Yeah, >> I cooked my steak at 110 Celsius. Jesus. Holy [ __ ] >> I like a hot sauna, too, but I don't want to cook my brain. There's lots of evidence suggesting that Finnish males who use sauna 4 to seven times a week versus once a week have 40 to 50% lower cardiovascular disease incidents and 40 to 50% lower all-cause mortality. Those are striking numbers. So, it turns out that exercise or what we call the executive workout, which is getting in the sauna, is probably good for you to get your heart pumping, to use your blood vessels. This is valuable. I know that some of this stuff might seem crazy to you guys, but I think it's valuable to really understand the level at which sauna is optimal. Can you overuse it? Like so many things, the dose could make the poison here. How much cold is too much? What if you're eating your balls? It's going to affect your fertility for men versus women.
So, if you guys like stuff like this, if you really want to know what I'm thinking about, how I'm trying to get better constantly, check out my free newsletter. It's available on Sundays. I talk about all kinds of stuff like this. Tylenol and autism. How much you should work out? What workouts I do? Talk about cholesterol. Is your cholesterol too high? Should you worry about it? How to reverse insulin resistance? Serena Williams pushing Olympic. What do we think about this? So, free newsletter every Sunday. I'll put a link in the description. Check it out. I'll see you guys in there. And I'm going to keep sauna and cold plunging.
All right, guys. So, got a couple cold plunges here. This one says 52. So, that's about the temperature I like. I used to want to cold plunge at the coldest temperature and do heat as hot as I could do it. But, you know, I don't think we fully understand the data on cold plunging yet. I think that anything between 50 and 55 is probably ideal. The mistake that I used to make in the cold plunge is that I used to do it too much. And I think if you do too much cold plunging, there's tons of anecdotal evidence to suggest this is going to negatively affect your immune system.
So, I'm going back and forth between the sauna and the cold plunge. But, I'm only really going to go on the cold plunge for a minute or two. I'm not trying to get super cold. I'm not trying to get shivering necessarily. I can feel it. I was in the sauna and now I'm going to go on the cold plunge. And once I'm in the cold plunge, I can feel when my heart rate, which is high in the sauna, drops down and then I go back and forth. So, I'm not trying to kill myself in here. I think any sort of contrast at that level is going to be beneficial. When you're in the cold plunge, here's a great opportunity to work on your mental strength, right? I breathe deeply and I just try and relax, right? It's not that cold. It's okay. I like to put my head under, activate the malleian dive reflex. That makes it easier. And then while I'm in here, yeah, I'm just breathing deeply and sort of feeling how it feels. When I start to get super cold and I can feel that my pulse has dropped, then it's time to get out and go back in the heat. Consensus right now is that you want to do about 11 to 12 minutes per week total cold plunge. If you're in the cold plunge, 2 minutes, minute and a half between sauna sessions, you'll get, you know, 6 minutes or something. So, you do two sessions a week of contrast, you'll get to 11 minutes. Again, there's no real solid data there, but that's at least what people think about in terms of how much you want to cold plunge. And I think the benefits of cold plunging are mental benefits. There is a dopamineergic effect post cold plunging. Catakolam means you feel more awake and yeah, it just feels good. Once I go back and forth between the hot and the cold, I just feel kind of zen. It's a good feeling. So, I'm going to go back and forth today. I'm going to do three saunas, three colds. The last time that I get in the cold plunge, I don't get in there till the point of shivering because I'm going to end on cold. So, I'm going to go in the sauna for a shorter amount of time and just get kind of that that transition, that that contrast. Maybe I'll be in there for 45 seconds or a minute. Then I'm out showering and I'm done. And then I'm done with the gym. That's the protocol, guys. Again, hopefully this has been helpful and I will see you in the next video.