There are many health benefits that you can enjoy when you buy a sauna. If you are into sports for the love of it, to be in good shape and health, or both, then spending just a short time relaxing in an infrared sauna before or after a workout can provide you with many physiological benefits, such as increased blood flow and better cardiac efficiency. Since some of the effects of being in a sauna mirror the effects of exercise, it can help to provide your body with a smooth transition, helping you to warm up or to keep you a little warm while you cool down slowly. 

Another important, but less talked about infrared sauna health benefit is that regular sauna use can actually make your body more tolerant towards heat as it resets your body’s thermoregulation thresholds. This is how regular sauna use helps you to better cope with internally generated heat. This is especially important for individuals who take part in endurance sports who often do these exercises in hot conditions in order to prepare for actual competition. For instance, long distance runners or bike riders, biathletes, triathletes and Iron Man competitors. If spending time in a sauna works for these super athletes, certainly it can help you to be well prepared for your next tennis match on a hot summer afternoon.

How Does Heat Acclimation Boost Endurance? 

If you are an athlete, you are more than aware of the advantages you can reap when you have increased endurance. However, anyone can benefit from a higher level of endurance since it serves as a gauge for many aspects of your general health, including heart health. 

Regular exercise, particularly when done at high intensity, is one method to enhance your endurance and boost your body temperature during each workout.  

The act of hyperthermic conditioning, otherwise known as “acclimating yourself to sauna heat rather than through aerobic exercise,” also increases endurance because it brings about transformations in your body that can help you to perform well in any athletic activity when your body temperature is heightened. 

In a nutshell, when you subject your body to moderate amounts of heat stress, it slowly becomes acclimated to the heat, resulting in a variety of health benefits as your body transforms. 

These bodily transformations include increased plasma volume and blood flow to your heart and muscles, which boosts athletic endurance. Additionally, your body benefits from increased muscle mass because of the greater levels of heat-shock proteins and growth hormones. 

According to a study conducted in New Zealand, participants who had a 30-minute sauna session at least twice a week for three weeks after their workouts increased blood volume, plasma and red blood cells. Ultimately, the study showed that sauna use increased endurance by more than 30 percent. 

Other physiologic transformations that happen from hyperthermic conditioning include: 

• Improved cardiovascular mechanisms and lower heart
• Increased blood flow to skeletal muscle (known as muscle perfusion) and other tissues
• Increased efficiency of oxygen getting transported to muscles
• Lower core body temperature during exercise
• Reduced rate of glycogen depletion due to improved muscle perfusion
• Higher sweat rate and sweat sensitivity as a function of increased thermoregulatory control
• Increased red blood cell count

Can Regular Sauna Use Increase Growth Hormones? 

Our bodies naturally produce Human Growth Hormone (HGH), which is an interdependent, foundational biochemical that deals with serious muscle loss and atrophy that usually happens with aging. It goes without saying that the higher your HGH levels are, the healthier and stronger you will be.  

When you reach the age of 30 and beyond, your body goes into a phase called “somatopause”. This is when the body starts to experience levels of HGH start to drop off drastically. This dip in Human Growth Hormone is what prompts your aging process, so it is crucial to maintain your HGH levels as you age. 

Unfortunately, some athletes take drastic measures to boost their HGH levels such as injecting Human Growth Hormone for its performance-enhancing potential, even though it is a banned substance (and technically it’s cheating) in almost every professional sport. Injecting yourself with HGH is also not recommended because of the potential side effects, the cost and, above all, its potential to do more long-term harm than good. 

Anyway, as you know now, exposing yourself to such risk is unnecessary since there are natural ways to enhance your HGH when you buy a sauna. Using an infrared sauna while committing yourself to high-intensity exercise and intermittent fasting is a good strategy to boost your body’s human growth hormone levels as well as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is advantageous for your brain. 

How Does Sauna Use Can Encourage Muscle Growth And Longevity?

When the body releases HGH, this is a form of hyperthermic conditioning that increases muscle growth. Also, it lowers the amount of protein degradation that organically happens both when you use and do not use your muscles. This results in an increase of net protein synthesis in your muscles, which eventually encourages muscle growth. 

Another way heat stress prevents protein degradation is by setting off heat shock proteins (HSPs), which your body’s cells use to counteract potentially damaging stimulus.

In situations when a cell is exposed to a hostile environment, the DNA separates in specific regions and starts to read the genetic code to generate these stress proteins. HSPs are what the doctor ordered since they help to prevent and repair damaged proteins. 

Studies have revealed that when rats were exposed to intermittent heat sessions, they had a healthier and stronger boost of heat shock proteins that are linked to 30 percent more muscle regrowth when compared to the researchers’ control group. The levels of HSPs lasted for up to 48 hours after the heat session and could lead to a higher level of heat shock proteins even when an individual is not exercising. When you do exercise, heat acclimation can trigger a greater release in HSPs than normal. 

This proves that hyperthermic conditioning can increase a person’s heat shock proteins which they can reap the benefits from such as muscle growth and so much more. Also, heat exposure has been shown to increase the lifespan of flies and worms by up to 15 percent, which may be due to higher HSPs. One specific HSP, the HSP70 gene, has been linked with increased longevity, which indicates that there may be anti-aging benefits when you regularly expose your body to heat stress. 

In conclusion, if you are an athlete or even just someone who enjoys playing sports or bodybuilding, you might want to buy a sauna to help you relax post-workout. Keep in mind that as you are relaxing to ease your muscles, your infrared sauna continues working hard to give you an endurance boost, increase your growth hormone levels and enables you to perform at your peak potential.

Are you ready to take your game to the next level? Call JNH today at 800-528-3110 to discuss your options. You know that you want to buy a sauna. Now it’s a question of which one?