The Experts Agree—Hydrotherapy Is a Highly Beneficial Addition to Your Wellness Routine
Here are four different ways to incorporate the practice into your lifestyle.
As far as wellness fads go, sitting in a warm pool being massaged by jets is quite pleasant when you compare it to popular longevity treatments like NAD+ drips and breath restriction exercise. Despite being a buzzy concept in the modern longevity movement’s quest to live longer and age slower, hydrotherapy—or using water to help treat common concerns like muscle aches, stress, and fatigue—has been around pretty much since the start of human history. The ancient Romans famously had their public bathhouses, while ancient Greeks are considered the inventors of contrast therapy.
While you might be familiar with, or even partaken in a sauna and cold plunge, it turns out there are a few things experts say we’ve been getting wrong when we submerge ourselves. I know, it’s just water, how complicated could it be? While you will still see some benefits if you just dunk yourself in cold water and call it a day, you won’t get the full scope of what hydrotherapy has to offer, says Marcus Coplin, ND, medical director at Murrieta Hot Springs Resort and The Springs Resort, and chief medical director at Bastyr University. Everything from how long you spend in the water to the type of water and even the order you do your treatments will influence how effective that treatment is, he says.
With that in mind, I asked the pros to reveal which hydrotherapy option will help you achieve your wellness goals and how best to practice it in order to reap the maximum benefits. Keep reading to learn four expert-approved ways to get wet.
Contrast Therapy
What Is Contrast Therapy?
While sauna and cold plunge might be the most well-known iteration of contrast therapy, any combination of exposing yourself to alternating temperatures—even a hot-and-cold foot soak, can help with recovery.
“You're exposing the body to two extremes of the stress spectrum,” Dr. Coplin explains. “The heat is increasing the red blood cells' ability to release oxygen to be used by the cells as fuel, increasing the entire metabolic capacity of the body.” The heat also expands your blood vessels, he says, allowing more blood to circulate throughout your system. When you then get into the cold, it contracts the capillaries, pumping all that metabolically rich blood back into your organs, which Dr. Coplin equates to “putting gas in the tank for these tissues.” The cold also helps get your lymphatic system moving, and the shrinking of the blood vessels helps alleviate inflammation by moving the blood away from those sore, swollen areas. Dr. Coplin does note that opting for wet or dry experiences will also impact the therapeutic benefits you see from contrast therapy.
“When you are immersed in water, there's a physical element to that,” he explains. “There's the pressure that the water exerts on the skin, which moves the lymphatic fluid from the skin into the capillaries. It creates a gentle pump for the body that way. Water is more directly therapeutic with that deep metabolic reset, whereas the drier experiences are more longer term.”
How Do I Do Contrast Therapy Correctly?
The ideal routine to reap these benefits, says Dr. Coplin, is to follow a heat, cold, rest, repeat program. Resting your body at room temperature after contrast is fundamental, he explains, because after heating up and cooling down, your body needs to rediscover its equilibrium. “It does that by activating the parasympathetic element of its nervous system, which is the de-stress element,” he explains. “If you're walking around with a low degree of chronic stress, putting your body into an intentional and targeted heat stress, and then cold stress, letting the body rest erases that chalkboard that's been slowly keeping tally of all those subconscious chronic stresses that your mind maybe didn't register, but your body certainly did.”
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t reap more benefits the longer you subject yourself to temperature extremes, meaning endurance is absolutely not the name of the game. “Go with what your body is telling you,” he says, meaning if you start to get dizzy or out of breath, then that’s your body’s way of saying it’s time to get out. He says his initial recommendation for contrast therapy is to do five minutes in a heat element, followed by 30 seconds to a minute in the cold, and then two to three minutes at room temperature resting, repeating that cycle three times.
While many biohackers have turned cold plunge into an endurance sport, Dr. Coplin says that can actually be detrimental to your goal. “You should always stay in cold water just long enough to where you can feel yourself relax into the discomfort. It doesn't need to be forcing yourself to stay in there.” And, there’s truly no reason to do more than three cycles, he says. In fact, it can be detrimental to your end goals. “It might overwhelm your body to the point where you're going to be tired and grumpy because your body is eliminating at a faster rate than it can handle.”
Hydrotherapy Circuit
What Is a Hydrotherapy Circuit?
For those that like a little variety, hydrotherapy circuits have been gaining in popularity as destinations for health-conscious guests across the globe. Depending on the locale, you can find everything from the usual saunas, steam rooms, cold plunges, and whirlpools, plus more unique experiences like the frost-producing shower at the St. Regis Resort in Long Boat Key or the icy walls of the Snow Room at the luxe Meraki Wellness Resort in Grand Cayman. In Denver, Coba has a 43,000 square foot bathhouse in the works that will feature indoor and outdoor water elements like a float pool, heat stone, and cold sauna that guests can access with a $50 day pass.
According to Meraki co-founder Peter Clarke, hydrotherapy circuits allow for more tailored treatments that better fit your needs. “You might be an elite sportsman and you may want to do something one way or you might be a total novice and never ever done it in your life,” he says. “They would want different things.” Maybe you know that your body responds better to a wet heat, like a steam room, but prefers a dry cold, like a cold sauna. Or perhaps you like the double whammy of wet that comes from a heated whirlpool and a cold plunge. Hydrotherapy circuits allow you to experiment with different elements of contrast therapy and find the modalities that work best for you.
How Do I Do a Hydrotherapy Circuit Correctly?
Some circuits are unguided, while others have attendants to move you through the flow and advise you on timing and order of treatments to best achieve your goals. According to Giota Strikoudi, wellness concierge and founder’s ambassador at Meraki, they advise everyone to start with the sauna, because it provides the most impactful heat treatment. “Sauna influences heart rate variability, a marker of autonomic nervous system regulation in the heart,” she says. “It's related to stress regulation, so on that aspect, sauna has the same benefits as low to moderate exercise.” From there, Strikoudi says you should head to a cold element, like an experiential shower, followed by the steam room to help re-moisturize the skin after the dryness in the sauna.
But the beauty of a hydrotherapy circuit is you can find what works for your needs. If a cold plunge is not something you can handle, hydrotherapy circuits provide alternatives that allow you to experience the benefits of cold therapy in a more manageable format. “The snow shower is lovely — it's much easier than the cold plunge because you're not submerging your whole body in the cold,” says Janet Monroe, a licensed massage therapist at the St. Regis Longboat Key.
The important thing is not what type of cold you do, but just that you do it. “You're missing a very powerful therapeutic if you don't do the cold,” says Dr. Coplin. “If you can get connected to your breath and get in the cold water for as little as 30 seconds, what you find is that each time you do it, you're more adapted to the cold. You're actually retraining your body's window of what comfort feels like, and that is that neurological reset, hormonal reset, circulatory reset.” Just don’t forget to follow that heat, cold, rest, repeat cycle no matter which elements you choose.
Hot Springs
What Are Hot Springs?
While hotspots like Colorado and California boast an impressive array of natural mineral hot springs to soak in, many Americans have less exposure to balneotherapy—the technical term for mineral water bathing—than their European counterparts. Balneotherapy combines the physical benefits of contrast hydrotherapy, says Dr. Coplin, along with trace amounts of mineral absorption, which can have a range of impacts on the skin, from arthritis relief to remedying inflammation, depending on the mineral. “Every mineral spring is unique—each is based on the unique path that water found its way up to the surface from these supercharged water reservoirs deep in the earth,” he says. “As it finds its way up, it's collecting different mineral profiles based on the sediment beds that it's moving through.” In the U.S., our most common minerals are sulfur, sodium, potassium, silica, lithium, and calcium, he notes.
“Mineral waters provide both transdermal mineral absorption, where minerals like magnesium are going into the skin and being incorporated directly into the intracellular space,” says Dr. Coplin,who is also board president of the Balenology Association of North America. “There’s also what we call the mechanical aspect of some minerals, like sulfur, which actually creates an enhanced opening of the capillary beds in the skin, improving the circulation into chronically inflamed skin and helping the body better deliver nutrients and oxygen to that tissue. For hundreds of years, sulfur hot springs have been used to successfully treat skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis.”
What Is the Correct Way to Maximize Hot Springs Benefits?
Just like the heating elements in contrast therapy, there’s no need to spend hours soaking in a steaming pool. Fifteen minutes will do the trick, and if the hot spring you are at has some sort of cool shower or stream nearby, do yourself a favor and do a 30-second dunk in the cold. While you might be thinking you need to find a hot spring with the specific mineral content that addresses your needs, Dr. Coplin says that there’s no reason to jet around the world in search of the “right” hot spring for you. “Everybody wants to know which is the best hot spring for them,” he says. “The real answer is that all of them are going to have a benefit. If someone who has arthritis goes to a sulfur spring they're still going to get a benefit. It's just maybe not as targeted and specific.”
Mineral Baths
What Are Mineral Baths?
If you’re not fortunate enough to live close to one of the Uninted State’s 1,600+ natural hot springs, your next best option is to create a mineral soak in your bathtub. Brands like Flewd and Esker offer formulas that are high in minerals like magnesium and loaded with beneficial aromatics and vitamins to soothe the skin and the senses. While baths lack the high heat benefit of most hot springs, says Andrea Colón, NMD, which are typically anywhere from 94 to 104 degrees, an at-home soak is a more accessible and convenient option for most.
“Soaking in mineral baths can alleviate muscle tension and stiffness,” says Dr. Colón. “Minerals like magnesium are known for their calming properties due to its ability to activate GABA receptors. GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that can help to regulate the nervous system and promote overall relaxation.” Magnesium tends to be the most common mineral for at-home bathing, says Flewd founder and CEO Michael Lupo, because it’s one of the easiest to work with (outside of lithium orotate) and least likely to irritate the skin. “With a lot of minerals you read about the benefits and it sounds great, but there are issues where it smells bad, or it doesn’t dissolve, or it leaves a film,” says Lupo.
Magnesium also has the most research around transdermal absorption (although all of our sources agree that more studies are needed). “Transdermal absorption relies on having the right convergence of warmth, water, and weight,” says Lupo. ”You need to have some kind of temperature increase to help open the pores. You also need the aspect of high water solubility. Magnesium chloride has one of the highest water solubilities out of all of the variants of magnesium. It also has one of the smallest molecular weights, which means it's much easier for it to get through your skin into your bloodstream through transdermal absorption.”
What Is the Correct Way to Maximize Mineral Bath Benefits?
While magnesium chloride is often thought of as the gold standard for mineral baths, the more common (and affordable) type of magnesium you usually see is magnesium sulfate, or epsom salts. “Both forms of magnesium have been associated with muscle relaxation, pain relief, and stress reduction,” says Dr. Colón. “But there are a few differences in how well they are absorbed”
You have a few options these days for the type of bath, with the most common being salts, like those found in Flewd’s muscle-melting Ache-Erasing Anti-Stress Bath Treatment, and liquids like Esker’s Liquid Magnesium Bath Enhancer, which features two types of magnesium and a gorgeous blend of palo santo, eucalyptus, and lavender essential oils. “If you have sensitive or dry skin, you may prefer the magnesium liquid which is better for moisturizing,” says Dr. Colon. “For someone with more oily or acne-prone skin, magnesium salts might be the better choice.”
Dr. Coplin says the best way to mimic a natural hot spring at home is to do a little bath alchemy. “I usually recommend people buy bulk epsom salt from the drugstore, and then get the beauty brand that they like that has some kind of trace mineral,” he says. “Put in three or four cups of your bulk salt, and then add your bath treatment, and that's where you can really create a beautiful experience that has a therapeutic benefit. Magnesium salt at that ratio helps drive those trace minerals more effectively, so you can enhance the therapeutic effect of the other minerals by increasing with the epsom salt.”
While you may think soaking longer would be better, Lupo says that transdermal absorption for magnesium happens at around 10 minutes, so anything after that doesn’t necessarily mean you are getting a higher absorption of minerals. Be sure not to wash off after your bath, as there may still be trace minerals on your skin that could absorb, says Dr. Coplin. Rinsing is fine, but skip the soap.
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Meet the Experts
Janet Monroe is a licensed massage therapist, Reiki master, and holistic wellness practitioner based in Sarasota, Florida. With three decades of experience in integrative wellness practices, she has been recognized for her contributions to the field, including induction into the Massage Therapist Hall of Fame in 2007. As a spa professional at The St. Regis Longboat Key Resort, she brings a deeply intuitive and personalized approach to healing that seamlessly blends luxury, relaxation, and a profound connection to well-being.
Dr. Marcus Coplin is a Naturopathic Medical Doctor, Medical Director at Murrieta Hot Springs Resort and The Springs Resort, and Chief Medical Director at Bastyr University. With more than 15 years of experience in integrative and rehabilitative medicine, he specializes in hydrotherapy, chronic disease management, and the therapeutic use of mineral-rich hot springs. Dr. Coplin also serves as Director of Hydrothermal Medicine for the Balneology Association of North America and represents North America within the International Association of Medical Hydrology and Climatology. Follow him on Instagram.
Dr. Andrea Colón is a Naturopathic Doctor (NMD) and founder of Reclaim Integrative Medicine in Newport Beach, California. She specializes in hormone optimization, gut health, and IV and peptide therapy — taking a root-cause approach to fatigue, hormonal imbalances, and chronic inflammation. A sought-after voice in integrative health, she is regularly featured in media and podcasts for her functional approach to women's wellness. When she's not seeing patients, she's on the Pilates mat or chasing her two Pomeranians, Rocco and Theodore. Learn more @drandreanmd and reclaimintegrative.com.
Peter Clarke is the Co-Founder of Meraki Wellness in Grand Cayman and brings a wealth of experience creating exceptional wellness and spa experiences. Known for his thoughtful approach and deep understanding of guest needs, he has built a career around delivering highly personalized experiences that combine attention to detail with genuine human connection. His commitment to wellbeing, service excellence, and creating meaningful moments continues to shape the vision of Meraki Wellness.
Giota Strikoudi is an Integrative nutritionist, registered dietitian, and wellness advisor. Throughout her career, she has supported clients in developing long-term lifestyle habits and a deeper understanding of their wellbeing. As Wellness Concierge at Meraki Wellness in Grand Cayman, she helps guests navigate their individual wellness journeys through personalized guidance, holistic insights, and thoughtful recommendations tailored to their goals.
Michael Lupo is the Founder of Flewd, a stresscare brand formulating bath soaks to help people find real relief from the most common symptoms of everyday stress. A beauty industry veteran, Michael spent years leading marketing and product development for award-winning brands, helping guide several through acquisition, before dedicating years to researching the science of stress and launching Flewd to deliver the effective stress-relief solution he couldn't find for himself. To this day, Michael still develops all Flewd formulas himself. Follow him on Instagram.
