Infrared Sauna and Cold Plunge in La Jolla, San Diego

SDBody is a clinic. Our infrared sauna and cold plunge sit inside a physician-led practice at 7710 Fay Ave in La Jolla Village, minutes from the coast, with providers and diagnostic labs in the same building. That is the difference, and it matters more than the temperature of the water.

What Contrast Therapy Involves

Infrared saunas use infrared light to warm the body directly rather than heating the air around you, so they run at a lower ambient temperature than traditional Finnish saunas while still driving a strong sweat. A cold plunge is a short immersion in cold water. Alternating the two is what people call contrast therapy.

Sessions are simple. Heat, then cold, usually repeated, with rest in between. Most people come out feeling alert, loose, and noticeably calmer.

What The Evidence Actually Says

Here is the honest version, which the studios generally skip.

Sauna. Regular sauna use has been studied more seriously than most recovery practices, including large observational cohorts linking frequent sauna bathing with cardiovascular and mortality outcomes. Observational research shows association rather than proof of cause, and most of that work looked at traditional saunas rather than infrared. It is encouraging evidence. It is not a guarantee.

Cold water immersion. The clearest finding is on perceived muscle soreness after exercise, where cold immersion consistently helps people feel better. There is also reasonable evidence that cold immersion immediately after resistance training can blunt some of the muscle adaptation you were training for. If you are chasing hypertrophy, timing matters, and your plunge probably should not follow your lifting session directly.

Contrast therapy specifically. Popular, pleasant, and understudied. Most people who use it report a better mood, better sleep, and less stiffness. That is a reasonable thing to seek, and we are comfortable saying so without inflating it into a medical claim.

How To Get The Most Out Of A Session

Consistency beats intensity here. Two or three sessions a week that you actually keep will do more for you than one heroic session that leaves you dreading the next one. Go into the heat properly hydrated, give yourself a few minutes of rest between rounds instead of rushing straight from hot to cold, and breathe slowly through the first thirty seconds of the plunge, which is the part almost everyone finds hardest. Finish on whichever end leaves you feeling best, since there is no single correct order for general recovery.

Safety, and Why We Screen First

Heat and cold both put load on the cardiovascular system. That is much of the point, and it is also the risk.

Talk to us before your first session if you have heart disease, uncontrolled blood pressure, arrhythmia, a history of fainting, a seizure disorder, Raynaud’s, cold urticaria, are pregnant, or take medications affecting heart rate, blood pressure, or fluid balance. Alcohol before a session is a genuinely bad idea. Never plunge alone and never stay in past the point of shivering that you cannot control.

Our clinical team reviews your history at intake. If contrast therapy is not appropriate for you, you will hear that before you book rather than after something goes wrong.

Who Uses It at Our La Jolla Clinic?

• Athletes and gym regulars managing soreness and training load
• Patients working on sleep quality and stress, alongside our poor sleep and recovery pathway
• Patients in hormone care or medical weight loss who want the recovery side handled in the same place
• People who simply feel better on the days they do it and want it done somewhere with medical staff on hand

Why SDBody Rather Than A Recovery Studio

• Clinicians on site. Co-founders Dr. Shawn Vedamani, MD, Medical Director, and a board-certified anesthesiologist, and Dr. Alex Roher, MD, also a board-certified anesthesiologist, with Brooke Stearns, PA-C, as Lead Medical Provider. See our providers page.
• Labs if the fatigue is not just training. Three panels, Hormone, Core, and Advanced, were drawn on site. See diagnostic labs.
• More recovery options in the building. Red light therapy, PEMF therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
• Screening as standard. Not a waiver you sign without reading.

Visit Our La Jolla Clinic

SDBody La Jolla

7710 Fay Ave, La Jolla, CA 92037

Phone: (858) 401-2383

Monday to Thursday, 9am to 5pm. Friday, 9am to 3pm. Wellness services are also available Saturday and Sunday, which makes weekend recovery sessions straightforward.

A free-standing clinic in La Jolla village, close to Bird Rock, Pacific Beach, UTC, Torrey Pines, and Del Mar. Also available at our Mission Hills clinic.