The claim
“Cold plunges boost testosterone.”
Hot air. The studies that measured it found testosterone falling or holding steady after cold water. A few minutes in water below 4°C lowered total testosterone by about 19% in young men, and a 15°C soak after squats blunted the usual post-workout rise.
Updated Sep 24, 2026 · 1 study reviewed
Nothing solid supports it, or the evidence points the other way.
People say it in places like these
Huberman Lab podcast
Cold water raises dopamine, and through that it very likely increases testosterone.
See an example ↗The Conversation
Influencers credit ice baths with boosting their testosterone.
See an example ↗Morozko Forge blog
Three case studies offer convincing evidence that cold plunging raises testosterone.
The research found this
The closest test of a real plunge comes from Poland. Thirteen male physiotherapy students with no winter swimming experience sat for 2–3 minutes in a tub of water below 4°C, which stood inside a refrigerated truck at −15°C.Source 1 · Clinical trialSingle immersion in cold water below 4 °C: A health hazard in young healthy men?Teległów A, Cicha I. PLOS One, 2025.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ The dip took total testosterone from 21.22 to 17.27 nmol/L. That drop of about 19% left the average within the normal range. With no control group and blood drawn within 7 minutes of the dip, the study can't rule out that shifts in plasma volume drove part of the fall.
In a US crossover, 11 resistance-trained men did six sets of ten back squats at 80% of their maximum and then either sat in 15°C water for 15 minutes or rested. Thirty minutes later free testosterone was up 9.2% after rest and down 0.5% after the cold water. At 60 minutes the cold condition was down 10.4%, against 1.6% after rest.Source 2 · Crossover trialCold-water immersion blunts and delays increases in circulating testosterone and cytokines post-resistance exerciseEarp JE, Hatfield DL, Sherman A, et al.. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2019.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
Cold showers haven't moved it either. Eleven current or former college athletes took ten-minute showers at 17°C on four days in a row, and their salivary testosterone showed no significant change on average.Source 3 · Clinical trialA Four‐Day Cold Shower Protocol Does Not Increase Salivary Testosterone in a Small Cohort of Male Athletes: A Research CommunicationTraylor DA, Nunes EA, Lees MJ, et al.. Health Science Reports, 2026.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ Individual men went both ways.
The dial reads 81°H for four reasons
How the reading adds up
24 + 24 + 25 + 8 = 81°H
EvidenceWhat kind of evidence exists in people?
24/25Three small human studies looked for a rise and found none.Source 1 · Clinical trialSingle immersion in cold water below 4 °C: A health hazard in young healthy men?Teległów A, Cicha I. PLOS One, 2025.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗Source 2 · Crossover trialCold-water immersion blunts and delays increases in circulating testosterone and cytokines post-resistance exerciseEarp JE, Hatfield DL, Sherman A, et al.. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2019.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗Source 3 · Clinical trialA Four‐Day Cold Shower Protocol Does Not Increase Salivary Testosterone in a Small Cohort of Male Athletes: A Research CommunicationTraylor DA, Nunes EA, Lees MJ, et al.. Health Science Reports, 2026.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ Nobody has run a long-term controlled trial of cold exposure and testosterone.
ConsistencyHas the finding held up?
24/25Total testosterone fell after an ice-water dip, and free testosterone fell after cold water that followed squats.Source 1 · Clinical trialSingle immersion in cold water below 4 °C: A health hazard in young healthy men?Teległów A, Cicha I. PLOS One, 2025.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗Source 2 · Crossover trialCold-water immersion blunts and delays increases in circulating testosterone and cytokines post-resistance exerciseEarp JE, Hatfield DL, Sherman A, et al.. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2019.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ Four days of ten-minute cold showers left salivary testosterone unchanged on average.Source 3 · Clinical trialA Four‐Day Cold Shower Protocol Does Not Increase Salivary Testosterone in a Small Cohort of Male Athletes: A Research CommunicationTraylor DA, Nunes EA, Lees MJ, et al.. Health Science Reports, 2026.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
MagnitudeDoes the claim match the size of the effect?
25/25The claim describes a rise that no study has recorded. The largest measured change was a fall of about 19%.Source 1 · Clinical trialSingle immersion in cold water below 4 °C: A health hazard in young healthy men?Teległów A, Cicha I. PLOS One, 2025.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
DoseDoes the studied protocol match how people use it?
8/25The doses looked like real use, from 2–3 minutes in water below 4°C to 15 minutes at 15°C after training.Source 1 · Clinical trialSingle immersion in cold water below 4 °C: A health hazard in young healthy men?Teległów A, Cicha I. PLOS One, 2025.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗Source 2 · Crossover trialCold-water immersion blunts and delays increases in circulating testosterone and cytokines post-resistance exerciseEarp JE, Hatfield DL, Sherman A, et al.. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2019.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ None of the studies ran longer than four days, so months of regular plunging remain untested.Source 3 · Clinical trialA Four‐Day Cold Shower Protocol Does Not Increase Salivary Testosterone in a Small Cohort of Male Athletes: A Research CommunicationTraylor DA, Nunes EA, Lees MJ, et al.. Health Science Reports, 2026.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
The claim drifts from the data here
The claim runs opposite to the data. Cold water sets off a sympathetic surge that roughly doubles or triples noradrenaline.Source 4 · Crossover trialEffects of time-of-day on the noradrenaline, adrenaline, cortisol and blood lipidome response to an ice bathBraunsperger A, Bauer M, Brahim CB, et al.. Scientific Reports, 2025.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗Source 5 · Clinical trialEffects of long‐term whole‐body cold exposures on plasma concentrations of ACTH, beta‐endorphin, cortisol, catecholamines and cytokines in healthy femalesLeppäluoto J, Westerlund T, Huttunen P, et al.. Scandinavian Journal of Clinical and Laboratory Investigation, 2008.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ In the studies that measured testosterone, it fell or held steady.Source 1 · Clinical trialSingle immersion in cold water below 4 °C: A health hazard in young healthy men?Teległów A, Cicha I. PLOS One, 2025.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗Source 2 · Crossover trialCold-water immersion blunts and delays increases in circulating testosterone and cytokines post-resistance exerciseEarp JE, Hatfield DL, Sherman A, et al.. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2019.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗Source 3 · Clinical trialA Four‐Day Cold Shower Protocol Does Not Increase Salivary Testosterone in a Small Cohort of Male Athletes: A Research CommunicationTraylor DA, Nunes EA, Lees MJ, et al.. Health Science Reports, 2026.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
The biggest fall came from one brief, extreme dip in men who had never swum in winter.Source 1 · Clinical trialSingle immersion in cold water below 4 °C: A health hazard in young healthy men?Teległów A, Cicha I. PLOS One, 2025.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ Regular cold right after lifting also slows strength gains, which is covered under ice baths and muscle gains.Source 6 · Meta-analysisThe Effects of Regular Cold-Water Immersion Use on Training-Induced Changes in Strength and Endurance Performance: A Systematic Review with Meta-AnalysisMalta ES, Dutra YM, Broatch JR, et al.. Sports Medicine, 2021.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
Put it to use
Don't plunge for testosterone. If you lift, skip the cold soak right after training, since regular post-workout cold slowed strength gains in a meta-analysis of controlled studies.Source 6 · Meta-analysisThe Effects of Regular Cold-Water Immersion Use on Training-Induced Changes in Strength and Endurance Performance: A Systematic Review with Meta-AnalysisMalta ES, Dutra YM, Broatch JR, et al.. Sports Medicine, 2021.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
From our sister magazine
Sauna Monthly covers how to time a plunge around lifting
People also ask
Do cold showers increase testosterone?
In the one study that tested them, four days of ten-minute cold showers at 17°C left salivary testosterone unchanged in 11 male athletes.Source 3 · Clinical trialA Four‐Day Cold Shower Protocol Does Not Increase Salivary Testosterone in a Small Cohort of Male Athletes: A Research CommunicationTraylor DA, Nunes EA, Lees MJ, et al.. Health Science Reports, 2026.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
Does an ice bath after lifting affect testosterone?
A cold soak blunted it in one crossover. After squats, free testosterone rose 9.2% at 30 minutes with passive rest and fell 0.5% with 15 minutes in 15°C water.Source 2 · Crossover trialCold-water immersion blunts and delays increases in circulating testosterone and cytokines post-resistance exerciseEarp JE, Hatfield DL, Sherman A, et al.. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2019.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
Check these claims next
68°H
Stretched
“Sauna boosts testosterone.”
In most sauna studies testosterone did not change, and the null results include a week of two hour-long sessions a day and three months of regular use. Two studies found short rises right after the heat, and one of those rises came only when men were pushed to exhaustion.
22°H
Likely
“Ice baths after lifting weights blunt your muscle gains.”
Cold water taken right after strength sessions for weeks led to smaller gains in muscle size and strength in several trials, and three meta-analyses agree on the direction. Most studies put only the legs into water at about 10°C for 10 to 20 minutes.
74°H
Stretched
“A cold plunge raises your dopamine by 250%.”
The 250% figure is plasma dopamine after a full hour in 14°C water, and the same lab found no significant dopamine rise when it ran that hour four years earlier. Dopamine in the blood comes mostly from nerves and the gut, and it barely reaches the brain.
We cited these sources
- 01Teległów A, Cicha I. Single immersion in cold water below 4 °C: A health hazard in young healthy men?. PLOS One. 2025;20(5):e0324502. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0324502 PMID 40408371
- 02Earp JE, Hatfield DL, Sherman A, Lee EC, Kraemer WJ. Cold-water immersion blunts and delays increases in circulating testosterone and cytokines post-resistance exercise. European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2019;119(8):1901-1907. doi:10.1007/s00421-019-04178-7 PMID 31222379
- 03Traylor DA, Nunes EA, Lees MJ, Cudaback E, Phillips SM. A Four‐Day Cold Shower Protocol Does Not Increase Salivary Testosterone in a Small Cohort of Male Athletes: A Research Communication. Health Science Reports. 2026;9(5):e72432. doi:10.1002/hsr2.72432 PMID 42064114
- 04Braunsperger A, Bauer M, Brahim CB, Seep L, Tischer D, Peitzsch M, et al.. Effects of time-of-day on the noradrenaline, adrenaline, cortisol and blood lipidome response to an ice bath. Scientific Reports. 2025;15(1):1263. doi:10.1038/s41598-025-85304-8 PMID 39779795
- 05Leppäluoto J, Westerlund T, Huttunen P, Oksa J, Smolander J, Dugué B, et al.. Effects of long‐term whole‐body cold exposures on plasma concentrations of ACTH, beta‐endorphin, cortisol, catecholamines and cytokines in healthy females. Scandinavian Journal of Clinical and Laboratory Investigation. 2008;68(2):145-153. doi:10.1080/00365510701516350 PMID 18382932
- 06Malta ES, Dutra YM, Broatch JR, Bishop DJ, Zagatto AM. The Effects of Regular Cold-Water Immersion Use on Training-Induced Changes in Strength and Endurance Performance: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine. 2021;51(1):161-174. doi:10.1007/s40279-020-01362-0 PMID 33146851