How Saunas Help with Exercise Recovery
You might have heard that sitting in a sauna can help with exercise recovery. What does that mean and how does it work? Read on to find out how this ancient healing technology can help the modern day athlete.
What is Exercise Recovery?
Working out puts your muscles and your systems under stress. A little bit of stress is good for your fitness, as it will cause your body to adapt and become stronger. Constant stress, however, will put too much strain on your systems and can lead to injury, fatigue, and disease. That’s why almost any workout program you see includes strategic rest days. A good example of how this process works is how muscles build. When a person lifts weights, it creates tiny tears in their muscles. Once they finish and give their muscles a chance to rest, the muscles begin to repair themselves, becoming stronger in the process. Saunas can help speed up this recovery process. Saunas are so great for recovery that some elite athletes are known to use saunas for recovery about 1-2 times per week.
Recovery Requires Blood Flow
Why do saunas help with muscle recovery? Saunas increase blood flow. More blood pumping through your body increases the amount of oxygen and nutrients are delivered throughout, including to your muscles. And guess what? Nourished muscles repair faster. Increased blood flow also makes the elimination of muscle waste more efficient, which also supports faster recovery.
Saunas Reduce Pain
If you’ve ever done a challenging workout, you’ve probably experienced some sort of muscle soreness or pain. Sitting in the sauna can help alleviate this pain, too. When your body warms while sitting in the sauna, it helps decrease muscle spasms and relaxes the body to turn off pain perception, helping to reduce the sensation of pain.
Saunas Decrease Stress
A key aspect of recovery is the absence of stress in the body. When the body is feeling stressed, it works against the process of repair. While it’s commonly known that sitting in the sauna can help you zen out, the science behind this is that a sauna session can decrease cortisol, the hormone that’s elevated when you’re stressed (mentally and physically). Too much cortisol slows the body’s healing process.
Saunas aren’t the only way to support recovery; hot tubs and ice baths are great as well. Click here to learn how hot and cold therapies can benefit your recovery.
Click here to view our indoor and outdoor sauna options. Any of the experts at Hot Water Productions at 2511 S. Townsend Ave. in Montrose, Colorado, can help you find the best home sauna for exercise recovery.