Adding a post-workout sauna can help with muscle recovery, give you an endurance boost, and improve overall performance.
If you’re reading this blog post, you are probably already aware of some of the benefits that heat has on the body. Maybe you’ve even experienced some of the benefits in your own sauna or are looking to experience it in the future. Here are some of the benefits:
Muscle Recovery
The most well known benefit of using a sauna after a workout is muscle recovery. The heat of the sauna encourages relaxation and healing. Which is beneficial after a long strenuous workout, or even the quick and short workouts! Pain and injury to the body causes your muscles to weaken and atrophy over time, which is why it is so important to give your body time to recover. Heating your entire body in a sauna can help to strengthen your muscles and reduce the possibility of further injury. In her extensive research on heat exposure and its effects on performance enhancement, Dr. Rhonda Perciavalle-Patrick, Ph. D. coined the term “hyperthermic conditioning.” Hyperthermic conditioning describes any situation where the body’s core temperature rises. Anytime you deliberately acclimate your body (independent of aerobic physical activity) to heat it is referred to as hyperthermic conditioning., minimizing pain in muscle recovery.
Endurance Boost
Whether you are an athlete or not, an increase in endurance during a workout is going to be beneficial to your overall health. By acclimating your body to the heat of a sauna (hyperthermic conditioning), you are preparing your body to heat up while working out. Your body will then make adjustments, boosting your overall ability to workout at a higher level for a longer period of time.“There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that heat acclimation whether through exercise or sauna use promotes physiological adaptations which results in increased muscle mass, endurance, and stress tolerance. Additionally, heat stress has shown positive results on improving focus, memory, learning, and growth of new brain cells.” A little bit of heat on the body can be a good thing, increasing blood flow to your heart and muscles which strengthens endurance and builds muscle mass.
Increase in Overall Performance
Using a sauna not only improves physical fitness performance, but they also improve our mental performance. Our bodies and minds need time to rest and recover, and sitting in a sauna for even just 15 minutes could be exactly what you need. Studies are proving this to be true. “In one study, when a small group of well-trained distance runners sat in a sauna for 30 minutes after training four times a week, they improved their performance in a run to exhaustion test by 32 percent and decreased their 5K time by nearly two percent after just three weeks.” And if you are an athlete, you know that half of the challenge is physical and half is mental. Our bodies and brains are connected.
