How to Bathhouse with Marathoner and Alpinist, @roeske
11-time New York City Marathon runner and ice climber, David Roeske knows a thing or two about pushing through physical challenges. He’s made bathhousing a part of his routine after discovering the powerhouse performance benefits of heat and cold therapy. Dive into David’s recovery routine below.
Hey David, thanks for bathhousing with us. Please introduce yourself.
I'm a high-altitude alpine climber and distance runner. I dabble in a few other athletic hobbies like kite surfing, cycling, and stair racing. My day job is leading finance for a company that serves freelancers.
What's your go-to circuit?
I usually come late at night to the Bathhouse, after another workout, so I only have just over an hour, and I try to be efficient with my session.
I start with the Tropical Sauna for 20-25 minutes, until I see my heart rate start to really elevate on my Garmin running watch (it will go up to 120-130 when I'm getting really hot).
Then I drop into the Cold Plunge for around 10 minutes. This is never easy, but it definitely gets easier the more often I go!
I jump into the hot pool for a few minutes for that crazy, stinging-needle sensation you get when you've gotten really cold first in the cold plunge. I love that shock sensation.
Then I go to the Dry Sauna for about 15 minutes, before another short cycle in the Cold Plunge and hot pool.
I finish with a few minutes in the Steam Room.
All-in, I'm there for about an hour and ten minutes of maximum health stimulation (in my opinion!).
Why is bathhousing a part of your wellness routine?
A few years ago I started reading about the scientific benefits of both dry sauna and cold therapy. I was blown away with how much the sauna can increase natural human growth hormone secretion, which is huge for recovery from hard training.
I learned how dry sauna could naturally boost VO2 max and help climbers acclimate to high altitudes. These are just a few of the many health benefits I found. And cold plunging seems to have just as many positive health effects as well.
Combining them creates not only a hugely positive impact on physical health, but it also produces a flood of endorphins, so I leave feeling insanely good. It's very addicting!
If you could bathhouse with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be?
Wim Hoff or Laird Hamilton, the famous big wave surfer — both legends in using sauna or Cold Plunge for radical health and training effects.
What are your other favorite wellness practices?
Bathhousing fits in perfectly and compliments everything else I do for fitness and wellness, from clean, plant-based eating to getting plenty of regenerative sleep. Sauna right before sleep is the perfect recovery tool, for example.
While I don't do a lot of meditation otherwise, my time in the sauna is basically meditation, and brief digital detoxing. I feel like the heat puts me directly into a meditative, yet also more active and creative mental state which is very restful and refreshing.
If you could make a bathhouse playlist, what is one track that would be an absolute must?
I love the music at Bathhouse. It definitely helps induce the meditative state I zone into when I hit the sauna. I could see Cappadocia or Run Away by Ben Böhmer being a vibe if they came on while I was in the tropical sauna.
Tell us what you've been working on lately. Any fun projects coming up?
I just ran the NYC Marathon this last weekend, my 11th time running it. I used the sauna and Cold Plunge extensively over the last month to help recover from a pulled quad muscle I got during training, and to try to prepare for the unusual heat we had.
I ended up running 2:40 this year – while this was slower than my 2:33 last year, I don't think I could have done even that without tons of sauna time given how my strained quad kept me from training for most of the last month. Now I've shifted my focus to training for ice climbing this winter and spring races.
I find going to the cold plunge regularly helps my hands stay warm when I ice climb, and feet warm when I'm backcountry skiing, so it's a key part of my training.
Follow along with David on his Instagram.