This story appears in the October 2025 issue of Utah Business. Subscribe.
Icy water might seem like the last place you’d want to spend your free time. But across Utah, a growing number of business owners are betting that customers will gladly take the plunge — literally — for its health and wellness benefits.
In 2017, while training for an ultramarathon, Sean Foster would end his long runs with a stop at the Provo River. In the brisk 52-55 degree water, he found a ritual that he says noticeably sped his muscle recovery, giving him an essential edge for his grueling training schedule.
Not only was he seeing the positive effects physically, but after a few weeks, his wife, Lauren Foster, remarked that Foster’s stress and anxiety had noticeably improved. This, they soon discovered, was a benefit linked to the cold plunges.
Foster was intrigued by the results he was seeing in his own body, and personal research led him to the Finnish ritual of sauna and cold plunge, also referred to as contrast therapy. “That got me very intrigued, because that was the first time I had heard of using a sauna in conjunction with the cold water,” he says. “We started trying to look for different ways to utilize a sauna, but we really didn’t have access to one.”
After discovering a friend of theirs had a sauna, Foster and Lauren tried their own DIY contrast therapy, where they would sit in the sauna and then spray each other off with a garden hose. “It was euphoric,” says Foster. “I went home that night, and I was like, ‘Okay, we’ve got to figure this out. We really need to have something for us.’”
The pair first bought a cattle trough and set it up in their backyard to use for cold plunges. As they made it a part of their routine, Lauren found that it helped her manage her stress-induced insomnia and Foster continued seeing his own benefits.
“All these little things kind of coalesced into our desire to try and make this more accessible for people,” says Foster.
Eventually, Foster and Lauren opened one of the first Nordic-style bathhouses in Utah. Their business, PLUNJ, was one of the forerunners of contrast therapy studios, but in the past five years, dozens more have popped up.
What is contrast therapy?
While contrast therapy has gained recent popularity due to athletes and influencers, the practice stretches back centuries: from Ancient Roman bathhouses where visitors would switch between the caldarium (hot room) and frigidarium (cold room), to the invention of the sauna in Finland more than 2,000 years ago.
According to the National Institute of Health, alternating between hot and cold treatments is believed to improve blood flow, bring more oxygen to tissues, and help the body heal faster. One study found that participants felt “more active, alert, attentive, proud, and inspired and less distressed and nervous after having a cold-water bath.”
Foster also believes the communal aspect of their studio is critical to receiving all the benefits available. Depending on the location, six to 10 people at a time can come to the studio to rotate between the 185- to 195-degree Fahrenheit sauna and the cold pool, which sits around 50 degrees. Each session lasts an hour, which allows users to go through the rotation two or three times.
“Community is a big piece of what drives our business at PLUNJ,” says Foster. “We were honestly nervous about opening up a communal-style bathhouse, but as we’ve continued to operate, we’ve seen that it’s been a big boon for us to welcome people here and have this community-driven atmosphere where people get to meet new people.”
The results speak for themselves, as Foster has seen everything from business deals to marriages result from visitors meeting each other at their studios.
Utah’s taking the dive
With a plethora of entrepreneurs and a strong market for health and wellness, Utah has been the perfect location for contrast therapy locations to set up shop. Foster compared the surge in contrast therapy studios to similar Utah markets, such as giant cookies and lush blankets. “We have a lot of people in Utah that are self-starters and are rearing to go on something that they want to see come to fruition,” he says.
Two of these self-starters are long-time friends since high school, Ryan LeMone and Todd Davis, who were inspired by their experience at PLUNJ to pursue their own vision. Opening in the spring of 2024, their Pleasant Grove CHILLR boasts red light therapy, compression therapy, and a hyperbaric chamber, in addition to the traditional sauna and cold plunge setup. “We’re not just an ice bath and sauna place,” says LeMone. “We’re a full recovery studio.”
Both CHILLR and PLUNJ owners also believe Utah has emerged as the epicenter of the contrast therapy scene, partly because of residents’ focus on health and prioritization of recreation.
Trending or lasting presence?
The icy tubs and steaming saunas may have started as consumer curiosity fueled by viral influencer videos, podcasts, celebrity endorsements, and online wellness influencers like Andrew Huberman and Joe Rogan. But business owners say they believe the draw runs deeper. “Social media is usually what pulls people in for their first time,” says LeMone. “But once they try it, it becomes more of a passion than a trend, because they see that it works. There are results. That’s why everyone’s sticking with it.”
The CHILLR owners point to a growing appetite for preventative wellness and for methods that require effort and commitment rather than quick fixes. “You have to work at it. It’s a mental game to get in here and do the ice tubs; it’s not easy,” says LeMone.
For Utah entrepreneurs, the contrast therapy landscape is dynamic and uniquely suited to the state’s go-getter culture. Whether it’s a fad or a lasting fixture, the cold plunge boom has already made its mark. In Utah, taking the plunge has never been hotter.