Gerrard Kaonga
A recent study has highlighted the benefits your body will have if taking a sauna after a workout.
When it comes to exercise recovery, loads of fitness gurus and influencers all have these methods that they swear by, some that work and some that don’t.
A team of Finnish researchers released a paper in 2022 that highlighted the apparent benefits to the body a person would have if they regularly sauna bathed after exercise.
In the paper titled ‘Effects of regular sauna bathing in conjunction with exercise on cardiovascular function: a multi-arm, randomized controlled trial’, the researchers involved admitted that there is limited information regarding the link of potential benefits between exercising and then using a sauna.
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They explained that both activities individually have, however, been well documented in their benefits.
One of the researchers involved in the study and cardiovascular epidemiologist at the University of Manitoba, Setor Kunutsor has spoken to the BBC and said: “When you go to the sauna, the temperature inside the body goes up slowly from 37C (99F) to as high as 39C (102F).
“Blood vessels dilate, you start sweating and that reduces blood pressure.”
This is particularly beneficial following exercise, according to the study.
The study noted: “When combined with exercise, sauna bathing demonstrated a substantially supplementary effect on cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), systolic blood pressure (BP), and total cholesterol levels.
“Sauna bathing is a valuable lifestyle tool that complements exercise for improving CRF and decreasing systolic BP. Future research should focus on the duration and frequency of exposure to ascertain the dose-response relationship.”
Speaking to the BBC about one of the many experiments and studies Kunutsor and his team have done, he reiterated that combing exercise with sauna use may result in even more cardiovascular benefits than exercise alone.
He and colleagues set up a randomized controlled trial in which one group of 47 participants used a sauna and did exercise three times a week, for eight weeks, while another group only did the exercise.
He went on to say, ‘we found that sauna sessions combined with exercise produced a mean reduction of eight millimeters of mercury’, in reference to a measure of blood pressure.
He added: “This is a very substantial reduction.”
So if you are lucky enough to have a sauna in your local community or one in your gym, it might be worth popping in after a good workout.