Freezing baths are passé—it’s the contrast of hot and cold that athletes and celebrities are now seeking
Dr Digvijay Salunkhe demonstrating the cold
Hot and cold don’t usually go together, but for athletes, it’s a new way to recover.
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Ice baths are not new—football legend Cristiano Ronaldo has been popularising the trend for several years, and in fact posted a video in December of himself in an ice-cold bath in freezing Lapland.
The times are changing, though, and an ice bath is practically passé. The latest wellness trend is contrast therapy, a form of hydrotherapy, which only one centre so far is offering. Hot and cold temperatures are combined to accelerate wellness. This entails sitting in ice-cold water for a few minutes, and then sitting in a sauna. A complete session involves alternating between the two for at least half-an-hour.
The hot treatments
It aids post-workout recovery, which is why this therapy is popular among athletes. But contrast therapy has other benefits too, including reduced inflammation and muscle fatigue, as well as lower stress levels, and improved functional mobility.
“The moment you enter the cold [water], blood rushes to your brain, heart, stomach, and bowel and it stays there for some time. Once you enter the heat, your blood vessels expand. Now your heart has an opportunity to push blood as far away as possible. This in and out of hot and cold acts as a circulatory flush, pushing out any kind of inflammation,” explains Dr Karan Jadhav, founder of Ureco, a contrast therapy centre in Khar West.
In the West, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lady Gaga, and Harry Styles have embraced contrast therapy. Closer home, Ali Fazal, Tiger Shroff, Rakul Preet Singh, Neha Sharma, Tripti Dimri and Karishma Tanna have taken the dunk.
The co-founders of contrast therapy centre Ureco, Dr Digvijay Salunkhe (left) and Dr Karan Jadhav. Pics/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
Dr Jadhav, Mumbai’s first certified thermalist instructor, is qualified to guide contrast therapy and his co-founder, Dr Digvijay Salunkhe, is also an athlete, having completed the annual triathlon Ironman Malaysia Langkawi in 2023.
“While training for Ironman, I would take ice baths with 15 cyclists in a small pool in Kolhapur,” says Dr Salunkhe. “This was only ice; there was nowhere to practise a combination of hot and cold therapy. If I did it at home, I would have to order a lot of ice, and once my cold bath was done, it would all go to waste,” he adds.
Apart from celebrities, Ureco also sees athletes heading there to recover. The centre is also popular with mental health patients.
Dr Jadhav says, “With contrast therapy, dopamine and norepinephrine go up. These two hormones also act as neurotransmitters which help a lot of mental health patients.” Often, contrast therapy helps to beat stress, panic attacks and anxiety, and gives you mental clarity.
It’s also practised for patients with chronic aches and pains, or autoimmune conditions like fibromyalgia or osteoarthritis.
Dr Jadhav cites the example of his oldest client, a 67-year-old woman with a back spasm who found relief with the therapy. “We also have clients who have undergone chemotherapy; it gives them relief from neuropathy [tingling in the fingertips],” he says.
“We also use UV filtration to ensure there is clean water each time someone takes the cold bath,” says Dr Salunkhe, adding, “It’s as clean as drinking water.”
At Ureco, you can opt for a 30-minute session for R3,000 or a one-hour session for R4,000. The centre also has packages that make weekly sessions more affordable.
But is this just another fad? It doesn’t seem so, as the recovery centre is becoming an accessible space for athletes. Ureco was also the recovery partner for the Mumbai Soccer Prodigies, and is planning to set up more centres this year.
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