All over the world, saunas are used for the many health benefits they bring. They’re not just about relaxing in the comfort of a heated room. When you walk out of a sauna, you can feel like a whole new person – energized and ready to tackle the rest of your day or night.
Twenty minutes in a sauna 4-7 days a week is all a person needs to reap hefty health benefits. The joy of a sauna is you’ve just got to sit and allow the heat to penetrate. To get those benefits though, just like with exercise and diet, you’ve got to follow through and not self-sabotage. From preparing yourself before you go in to what you do afterwards, here is how you get the most from your sauna experience and intensify the positives you receive.
Drink lots of water before
Before you enter a sauna, you want to have made sure you consumed 8-16 ounces of water. What you’re doing by drinking water is equipping your body for a therapeutic sweat. As the infrared sauna heat draws out sweat, with it comes a mix of toxic chemicals and heavy metals. In a twenty-minute sauna session, you can lose up to half a litre in water and sometimes more. When you aren’t hydrated well enough, your body isn’t going to be able to get out those toxins at the same rate and you run at an increased risk of dehydration.
Get into the proper mindset
Once you’ve been in a sauna a few times, you might find sitting there to be a little on the boring side. Thankfully, the benefits of a sauna aren’t just physical – they can also involve a person’s mental state. A lot of us who use a sauna frequently meditate, calm our minds, or go in with a mindset focused on relaxation and healing. This is what we’d like to see from every person who might be thinking they’re bored or that it’s dull going to the sauna. While it’s healing your body, settle into a mindset where your thoughts clear out and exist in that space. You may find a mindset-centric approach facilitates more healing on every level.
Continue drinking water after
After you leave a sauna, ensure you’re getting some liquids back in you. Water is ideal though something with electrolytes works just as well, such as a Gatorade. A glass of water can be enough to cue your body into stopping the sweating and to make use of the moisture already present. The water you lose during a sauna is something that needs to be replenished afterwards. A dehydrated body walks around under stress it doesn’t need. Once you walk away from your sauna, you want your body to be focused on healing and responding to the heat stress it’s just been put under.
Exercise before you enter a sauna
A lot of the health benefits of a sauna increase in intensity when you enter in your sauna after a workout. The increase in circulation experienced in a sauna helps with muscle recovery, eliminating inflammation, and aids in reducing soreness and joint stress. A sauna’s a great comedown after a particularly strenuous workout. For this reason, maximize the benefits by using your sauna after a workout or on your days away from the gym. Also, keep in mind the heart rate increase you receive from a sauna is similar to cardio at moderate intensity or like having taken a brisk multi-hour walk.
Choose the proper sauna temperature
Just like too heavy a weight lifted or multiple hours of cardio can do damage and harm to the body, there is a sweet spot in length of time, temperature, and conditions in a sauna. For the ultimate benefit, you've got to have the right temperature set. A lot of sessions in a sauna hit that sweet spot in temperature between 175 and 195 degrees Fahrenheit, though you can go lower should you decide you want to. No more than 195 degrees Fahrenheit won’t overwhelm your body with heat and if uncomfortable, you can always lower the temperature and make adjustments.
Leave if you’re feeling uncomfortable
Unlike when you try to lift a heavy weight and your body forces you to put it down because it can’t lift it, you can stay in a sauna beyond your physical health limitations. This is not recommended. Listen to your body. If you’re feeling light-headed or uncomfortable in any manner, leave. The benefits you’re chasing will be wasted or non-existent if you push yourself further than your body allows. There are serious health risks by staying in a sauna for too long or failing to listen to your body when it’s telling you it needs to leave. Know when to call it quits for the day.
Use cold to shock your body
When you step out of your sauna, you might think it sensible to gradually bring your internal temperature back to its normal level. For the biggest impact from a sauna come from shocking the body with cold. If there’s a cold lake or pool, this is perfect. Ideally, once you’re used to shocking the body like this, it can maximize the benefits to go from sauna to cold, back to the sauna, and then back to cold. Doing this will heighten the circulatory benefits of a sauna and promote detoxification in the body, among other things.
Do not exceed 45 minutes a day
If you’re in a sauna for a single session, stay in no longer than 30 minutes. If you’re doing a hot-cold approach, maximum 45 minutes in a sauna is what’s best. Exceeding these limits, you could expose yourself to serious health consequences. A sauna is not designed to stress the body past its limits. More time doesn’t mean more benefit. The body functions best when it is challenged but not overwhelmed. When it comes to a sauna, your time outside of its environment is just as important as the time you spend inside. You need time away for the body to relax, heal, and regulate its many internal systems.
Once done, take a shower
When your sauna time is done for the day, take a shower. Why to take a shower after a sauna’s because of everything sweat brings to the surface. Toxins, impurities, and all sorts of gunk will sit there on the skin's surface. Left there, it’ll absorb back into the skin or will simply make you feel unclean. Have you ever sweated a ton and wasn’t able to take a shower afterwards – if you have, you’ll know the feeling of sitting there with a sweat-stained face isn’t fun. A shower is going to wash away all toxins and impurities remaining on the skin, while also regulating body temperature back to normal.
Use the sauna in the morning or at night
The best time of day to use a sauna can be argued. A lot of people will propose using it after a workout which is absolutely an excellent time to do so! For most of us who aren’t at the gym regularly, the best time to use a sauna is early in the morning or late at night before bed. Why is because a sauna is more likely to have beneficial effect during these moments because the body’s more likely to be in a state where it can relax and sweat. In the morning, you’re ready to tackle the day. At night, you’re probably a little tired from what transpired during the day. Depending on how you use it, a sauna suits both states, helping a person focus mentally and physically relax.
Are you ready to indulge in some sauna time for yourself? Buy a customized infrared sauna for your home from Steam Sauna. Follow this rulebook and in days, see and feel the difference a sauna can make!