Frequently Asked Questions
What services are offered at Polarity Wellness?
What is Contrast Therapy?
The body remembers what the mind forgets: that healing lives in extremes. Hot water opens us—vessels expanding, blood flowing freely through ancient channels. Then cold arrives, shocking us awake, tightening everything inward. This dance between opposites—repeated, ritualized—reduces inflammation, accelerates recovery, reminds muscles of their resilience. Athletes understand. So do monks. Temperature as teacher, sensation as guide.
The Salt Cave Retreat
Deep beneath the surface of our hurried lives, there exists a chamber where time moves differently. The salt cave—ancient as the sea it came from—waits. Here, the air itself becomes medicine. Each breath draws in minerals that once knew ocean tides, that remember when healing was simple, elemental. The walls exhale their gifts. Lungs expand. Skin drinks what it needs. The respiratory system finds reprieve. People come seeking what their ancestors knew instinctively: that the earth offers what we need, if we're willing to slow down and listen. Rebalancing isn't work. It's surrender. A remembering.
Cold Plunge Pool: Dive into Revitalization
Cold has always known things about the body that comfort never could. The plunge pool at Polarity invites what seems impossible: voluntary surrender to shock, to temperature's sharp truth. But beneath the surface of that first breathtaking moment lives something ancient—circulation awakening like spring rivers breaking through ice, inflammation retreating, every nerve suddenly, urgently alive. This isn't punishment. It's conversation between you and your most primal self, the part that remembers how adversity strengthens, how challenge clarifies. Athletes have discovered this. So have mystics. The cold doesn't coddle. It reveals. It revitalizes. It reminds us that sometimes, transformation requires us to dive in completely, gasping, awake, astonishingly present.
The DEXA Scanner: Precision Wellness Unveiled
There was a time when knowing your body meant simply inhabiting it. Now, we can see deeper. The DEXA scanner at Polarity offers something our ancestors couldn't imagine: precision mapped onto mystery. Bone density, muscle mass, body fat percentage—numbers that tell stories about how we've lived, how we're living, what might come next. This isn't vanity. It's cartography of the self. With this knowledge, fitness plans become personal, goals become possible, wellness becomes more than guesswork. The machine reads what the mirror cannot, measuring the invisible architecture that carries us through our days. In this marriage of science and self-care, we discover something profound: that understanding our bodies completely is the first step toward honoring them fully.
Sauna Sanctuary: Embrace the Warmth
Heat, humanity's oldest medicine, waits inside. The sauna sanctuary at Polarity understands what Finnish forests have known for centuries: that warmth is more than temperature. It's transformation. As you settle into the wood-scented air, something shifts. Pores open. Toxins release their grip. Stress—that modern companion we carry like stones in our pockets—begins to dissolve. The heat doesn't demand. It invites. And in accepting that invitation, the mind clears, thoughts slow to the rhythm of breath and heartbeat. This isn't merely relaxation. It's remembering how to be still, how to let the body do what it does best: heal itself when given permission, warmth, and time.
The Sauna-Cold Plunge Rotation
The ritual unfolds simply: Sauna, rinse, cold plunge. Ten to fifteen minutes in heat's embrace, then warm water rinsing away what the sauna loosened. Next comes cold—thirty seconds to five minutes of sharp awakening. Then rest, letting the body integrate what it's learned. Most repeat this dance two or three times. Not rules. Just rhythm. The ancient pattern of extremes meeting, teaching, healing.
The Essentials
One private bathroom awaits—shower, soap, the small dignities of preparation. Lockers hold what you've carried in from the world outside. Throughout your session complimentary water is available, because ritual requires hydrations. One reminder: bring swimwear. Even transformation requires certain details. The body, after all, travels between worlds but still needs covering.
What is the vibe of Polarity Wellness Spa?
Community and Care. For centuries, bathhouses meant community. Polarity embraces this tradition—people gathering, connecting, healing together. Yet shared space demands awareness. Keep voices low. Honor boundaries. Respect isn't optional here. Any harassment or disrespect ends your session instantly.
Session Time
One hour belongs to you—sixty minutes to move between heat and cold, stillness and awakening. First-timers should arrive ten minutes early. Time to change, to breathe, to understand the space before your session begins. The facility is intimate, shared with others on their own journeys. Be mindful in changing areas. Everyone deserves their full hour, unrushed, complete.
How many people are in each session?
Our capacity is four people, maximum. Space requires breathing room. Intimacy needs its boundaries. For larger gatherings or complete solitude, consider our group sessions or private buyout options.
Dress Code
Bathhouses once meant bare skin, unadorned and communal. Here, at Polarity things are different. Clothing is mandatory. Wear swimwear, whatever feels right getting wet. Just keep it appropriate for this shared, public space.
Tech-Free Space
Polarity asks for silence—not just of voices, but of screens. Leave technology outside unless necessity demands otherwise: medical professionals, first responders. Here, being present means being fully, quietly here.
Age Policy
Regular sessions welcome adults only—eighteen and older. Private rentals open doors wider: children twelve and up, accompanied by guardians who sign for them. Even wellness requires boundaries, responsibility and proper care. You can find the waver here.
The Temperatures
The cold waits at forty-six degrees Fahrenheit (8° C). The sauna answers with heat between one-eighty-five and one-ninety-five (80°-90° C). These aren't arbitrary numbers. They're thresholds where the body remembers what it's capable of.
How Long in the Cold?
The first rule is the oldest: listen to your body. Your body speaks clearly if you're willing to hear it. Shivering arrives. Heart rate climbs. Breathing changes rhythm. These aren't warnings to ignore—they're invitations to emerge, to warm yourself with nothing but time and towel, letting your own furnace do its ancient work.
Science confirms what seems impossible: thirty to ninety seconds submerged to the neck awakens brown fat, releases mood-lifting hormones, strengthens immune response. The benefits don't accumulate with endurance. Shorter plunges, repeated regularly, teach the body more than one long demonstration of will.
Beyond two or three minutes, something shifts. You're no longer training your physiology. You're testing your psychology, proving something to yourself that the cold already knows. There's a place for mental toughness, certainly. But wisdom understands the difference between strength and stubbornness, between what the body needs and what the ego demands. The cold doesn't require your suffering. Just your attention, your respect, and ninety honest seconds.
How Long in the Sauna
The principle remains constant: listen to your body. Your body, that reliable narrator of your own story, will tell you when enough becomes too much. Tingling arrives—in fingers, ears, skin—small electric warnings. Breathing quickens, loses its rhythm, becomes hyperventilation's desperate reach for air. These aren't suggestions. They're directions toward the door.
Science offers its wisdom too: ten to fifteen minutes per session serves us well. Beyond nineteen minutes, the benefits begin turning into burdens. Heat, like any profound teacher, has limits to what it can offer before the lesson becomes harmful.
Yes, we adapt. Over time, the body learns heat's language, becomes more conversant with high temperatures. But acclimation has boundaries. Push too far and the cardiovascular system strains under pressure it wasn't designed to bear. Proteins—those intricate molecules that make us possible—begin sustaining damage we cannot see but will certainly feel.
Respect the heat. It gives generously, but it also demands we know when to walk away.
Health Considerations
Heat and cold are powerful teachers, but not every body is ready for their lessons. Some conditions require caution, or outright avoidance.
The sauna's warmth, generous though it is, can harm those carrying cardiovascular disease, cardiac arrhythmia, blood pressure that runs too high or too low, fever, cancer, skin disorders, blood clots, varicose veins, or respiratory infections. For these travelers, heat becomes an adversary rather than an ally.
Cold water presents its own warnings. If you live with untreated myocardial hypertrophy, coronary artery disease, chest pain, untreated high blood pressure, other cardiovascular complications, or cardiac arrhythmia—the plunge may ask more than your body can safely give.
Pregnancy changes everything. The body's priorities shift, its vulnerabilities multiply.
These aren't mere suggestions. They're boundaries drawn by biology itself. If you're uncertain whether these ancient therapies suit your particular vessel, consult your doctor. Wisdom isn't just knowing what heals. It's knowing when to abstain, when caution serves us better than courage, when the bravest choice is simply to wait.
The Waiver
Before you enter, there's paperwork—the modern ritual of acknowledgment and consent. A waiver awaits your signature, a necessary formality in our careful world. You'll find the link here, ready when you are.
Running Late
Time has a way of escaping us. Traffic conspires. Life intervenes. If you find yourself running behind, there are paths forward. We can help you reserve another available slot—five dollars to remake the moment. Or simply arrive when you can and claim whatever minutes remain of your original hour. Even abbreviated rituals have their power. Even shortened ceremonies offer their gifts.
When Illness Arrives
Sometimes the body demands we stop, demands we stay still. If sickness finds you before your scheduled session, honor that call. Stay home.
The sauna's heat might promise relief—might even deliver it, temporarily soothing what ails you. But public space carries an obligation. What comforts you could endanger others who come after, seeking wellness and finding instead what you've left behind.
Let us know as soon as you realize you cannot come. We understand. Bodies fail us at inconvenient times. We'll work with you, ensure your reservation doesn't simply disappear. There's a cancellation policy—practical details for imperfect circumstances.
Healing sometimes means knowing when to withdraw, when a community's needs outweigh our own desires. The bathhouse will wait. It's been waiting for centuries. It can wait a few more days.
The Benefits of Contrast Therapy
One of the individuals researching this wellness approach is Andrew Huberman. He is on the forefront of the cold plunge therapy and we refer to his data and research often while this field of study evolves. Without question the gifts are many, and they arrive quietly, accumulating over time like interest on an investment in yourself:
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Anxiety loosens its grip; depression's weight becomes more bearable
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Mental fortitude builds—the steady kind that simply endures
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The immune system strengthens its defenses
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Arthritis symptoms soften
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Joint stiffness yields to new range of motion
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Athletes notice faster post-workout recovery
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Muscle spasms, sprains, and strains heal quicker
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Sleep deepens into something restorative
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Energy rises to meet the day
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The body ages differently—slowed, more respectful of time's passage
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All this from heat and cold, regularly visited, moderately embraced. Simple elements. Profound effects.