Steam rooms have become a go-to for athletes seeking to relax muscles, ease tension, and rehabilitate. While there are some extraordinary effects steam rooms can have on athletic performance and general health, the same can be said about the effect it has on athletic endurance.
Athletic endurance is the amount of time you can deliver a high quality athletic performance before you begin to tire. Olympic athletes’ endurance in sports like amateur wrestling are a key to success. Hockey players, football players, MMA fighters, and other athletes all place high importance on endurance. A common way to increase endurance is to train longer at a lesser intensity. Now, enter in what a steam room can do.
A steam room is known to do several things for athletes – improve brain function including in the creation of new brain cells, to increase endurance capacity, and to increase muscle mass. Circulation and blood flow is also affected in a big way. Blood flow to muscles are increased resulting in more nutrients and a reduced dependence on glycogen stores during periods of athletic activity. Blood flow to the heart is increased, reducing strain and allowing the heart to maintain activity over a longer period of time. Blood flow is also increased to the skin, assisting in heat dissipation and helping to keep the body’s core temperature low.
All of this slowly brings the body to become more accustomed to athletic performance and ultimately normalizes its ability to maintain an athletic performance over an extended period of time. There is no prescribed amount of time you need to increase athletic performance through a steam room. That said, a study analyzing individuals who spent 30 minutes in a steam room at least twice a week experienced a 32% increase in distance that they could run before their exhaustion set in. Subsequently, this same study found these individuals to have a 7% increase in plasma volume and a 3.5% increase in red blood cell count.
So how does a steam room help endurance for athletes? Well, it all comes down to the heat. Increasing your core body temperature for short periods can offer dramatic improvements in athletic performance. This is known as ‘hyperthermic conditioning’. Any athlete wants more endurance. Usually, they get there by training and training and training some more. Through a steam room, you don’t need to put forth the same effort and you can still reap significant benefit. How this happens is because as your body’s subjected to heat stress, it becomes acclimated to the heat which allows it to adapt to perform easier any time the body temperature is elevated. Here are some of the other reasons why we believe steam rooms are worth it for athletes.
Steam rooms are thought to prompt the body to release human growth hormone (HGH) addressing muscle loss and atrophy which can come with aging.
Heat shock proteins are also stimulated to help promote further muscle growth and endurance.
Steam rooms support muscle recovery post-injury which can help in athletic rehabilitation.
Some studies also suggest steam room can even trigger increased insulin sensitivity.
No matter what kind of athlete you are, a steam room’s going to help you get stronger and last longer when you’re in the game. Bottom line – if you are finding it tough to push your body to another level, take up some time in a steam room.