Most people who walk into Maha Sauna have been in the water that morning. Hiriketiya breaks all day, and after two or three hours of paddling the same places tighten up every time: shoulders, hips, lower back.
What the heat does
Deep heat raises your core temperature and widens blood vessels near the skin. Your heart rate climbs the way it would on a brisk walk. Muscles that have been holding tension for hours stop holding it.
Five to fifteen minutes in the barrel is enough. Longer is not better.
Then the cold
The plunge sits between 3 and 8 degrees. One to three minutes. The shock triggers a surge that leaves most people bright and alert for hours afterwards, and it takes the edge off the soreness that would otherwise arrive the next morning.
Exhale as you get in. Everyone forgets this.
How to run it
Two or three rounds over ninety minutes. Heat, rest, plunge, repeat. Finish in the magnesium bath rather than the cold, so you leave calm rather than wired.