So you’re thinking about trying out the sauna at your local fitness center? Or maybe thinking about installing one in your home for the privacy and luxury of an at home spa feel? Why not take a few minutes to learn about 10 great benefits of using a sauna to make this decision that much easier. While I could think of more than 10 incredible reasons to use a sauna for your health, I have compiled them into 10 of which I think are the most compelling. Enjoy!
- Relax your body
- Flush toxins
- Relieve Stress
- Cleanse your skin
- Induce deeper sleep
- Recreational and Social benefits
- Burn calories
- Help fight illness
- Improve Cardiovascular Performance
- Feel Good
- Relax Your Body: Most everyone has heard of those great little hormones we call endorphins, right? The ones that are released after a great workout, eating delicious foods, and even after sex. Well these endorphins that cause such positive effects are also released in our bodies from the hot temperatures that are experienced in a sauna. The hot atmosphere increases blood flow throughout the body to eliminate lactic acids and toxins released during physical activity helping our muscles to feel relaxed and rejuvenated.
- Flush Toxins: Saunas and steam rooms are great devices for removing toxins from your skin and regenerating your health and energy. Research has been done to confirm that using Sauna Therapy to sweat out toxins from the skin is one of the most effective methods. Why is sweating so important? Our sweat contains more toxins than urine alone! The sweat glands in our skin can provide as much detoxification as one or both of our kidneys. So why not hop in the sauna, sweat a bit, and release some of those toxins.
- Relieve Stress: Stress relief is one of the most common uses for saunas, and this comes as no surprise! Stress in our daily lives can have quite the negative affect on our health. Taking time to relax in a sauna or steam room can provide stress relief and health benefits in a number of ways. For one, it is a warm and distraction free place giving time to decompress, relax, and enjoy the alone time or time with a partner. Time in the sauna also releases endorphins, improves blood circulation, and relaxes the muscles in your body. This triphecta helps produce a natural ‘feel good’ vibe and is perfect for any stress relief needs.
- Cleanse Your Skin: Saunas or heat bathing is one of the oldest forms of beauty and health wellness. Saunas help to activate deep sweating in our bodies. When we deep sweat, this helps to cleanse our skin and release any dead skin cells on our body. Sweating also helps release any bacteria from our skin and within our epidermal glands. Medical studies have demonstrated that sweating can eliminate most toxins through our skins and reduce the pressure put on our liver and kidneys. Sweating can also be used as a way of energizing our skin. When we sweat, we “bathe skin cells with a liquid rich in nutrients”. Bathing our skin in sweat on a regular basis deters the breakdown of collagen and delay the onset of wrinkles and sags.
- Induce Deeper Sleep: As we learned earlier, the use of saunas increases endorphins released in the body. As we our bodies get closer to bed-time they start to naturally decrease in endorphin production. This natural and relaxing decline is essential in facilitating a deep sleep. Speak with any sauna enthusiast and they can assure you of the calm and relaxing sleep they experience after!
- Recreational and Social Benefits: while many people enjoy the quiet and distraction free benefits of having a sauna at home, there are also many who use the sauna in a public setting. These locations can be an incredible outlet for socializing with friends, family, and others. The atmosphere of a sauna is conducive to an open, intimate, or quiet conversation.
- Burn Calories: There is a lot of misinformation out on the web and through different health forums regarding the amount of calories burned from a sauna session. Some claim that you can burn between 300-1000 calories during just one 30 minute session! Now it would be amazing if you were able to kick back, relax, and burn off that many extra calories in a sauna… but unfortunately it’s just not that extreme. Now that we have that out of the way, there is some truth to burning calories in the sauna! Here is an equation to estimate how much you are burning, but you need to know one fact first. You need to know how many calories your body burns while sitting. Once you know this, you multiply that number by 1.5 and that gives you the amount of calories burned while in the sauna!
- Help Fight Illness: Yes! Sauna sessions can in fact help you maintain a healthy immune system and prevent illness. There is a bit of science to back this up as well. There tend to be two different types of people, some who enjoy sweating and some who absolutely hate it and avoid it at all costs. Some people use a sauna before working out to expedite the sweating process or wear sweatsuits when they run while others hop in their car and blast the AC to stay cold. The fact is that this sweating process encourages the release of toxins from our body as well as releasing stress. The interesting part of our sweat is that it actually activates a protein found in human skin which is able to kill harmful microbes and fight those resistant to traditional antibiotics! This protein is known as Dermicidin, and activates when encountered with salty and acidic environments – or sweat! This protein funnels the harmful viruses, bacterias, and fungus through it’s structure destroying the cells. So sweating and saunas truly can help keep you healthy!
- Improve Cardiovascular Performance: Hypothermic Conditioning is a process your body undergoes when exposed to very hot conditions like a sauna and can help your health and athletic performance. In a sauna, your body increases plasma volume which improves blood flow to your heart. Benefit? Your heart doesn’t have to work as hard but pumps an equal amount of blood lowering your heart rate and reducing strain. This is a great way to lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Hypothermic conditioning increases blood flow to muscles in your body and allows essential nutrients to more effectively fuel your body. Nutrients having quicker access to your muscles decreases your reliance on glycogen allowing you to not run out of energy as quickly as normal!
- Feel Good: One of the top benefits of using a sauna is that you just flat out feel good!! Whether it’s the relaxing sense of privacy, warmth, quietness, or decompressing a sauna allows you to sit back and enjoy the heat while your body absorbs and reacts. It may be the combination of health benefits (flushing toxins, weight loss, immune system strengthening, recovery) and social benefits (promote social interaction, condition and moisturize hair, improved athletic performance and endurance, younger look). Any of these reasons are a great reason to add a little bit of relaxing sauna time into your busy schedule. Sit back, relax, and enjoy 🙂
Learn more about some health benefits of using a sauna on YouTube – Thanks to Doodle Master Me for the great video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao0pN6zkl8w
Interested in more? Check out The Best Electric Sauna Heater or read some Advice from Industry Experts!