After an intensive gym session, you may not see the sauna as anything but twenty minutes you don’t want to waste. Although saunas are always relaxing, it’s not just an opportunity to de-stress. Hypertrophy, otherwise known as muscle growth, and a reduction in muscle breakdown also happens any time you step into a sauna after a workout.
Among the wide array of benefits, damaged cells are repaired and future damage which would happen from oxidative stress is minimized through a sauna. Muscle degradation, muscle breakdown, and muscle growth – mechanisms inside the body controlling these are influenced in a big way by saunas.
Stepping into a sauna, your body experiences an increase in growth hormone levels. This can double growth hormones or increase them by as much as 5 times depending on temperature or duration of sauna exposure. In fact, one study showed two 1-hour sessions per day at eighty degrees Celsius for 7 days increased growth hormones by 16 times! You may not want to be jumping in for 1-hour sessions every day as eventually, there are health risks associated with this, sauna exposure can help muscle grow through this increase in growth hormones circulating.
Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-1) is one growth hormone which spikes when you use a sauna in a fitness facility after a workout. This increases protein synthesis and decreases protein breakdown. This is one of several events which is believed to relate to how saunas decrease all-cause mortality rates. Science is still studying all extent of the impact of IGF-1 increases like this but what is known so far is that there are benefits in immediate circumstances as well as in the long-term.
Another area where saunas have an effect is in increasing insulin sensitivity. This results in an improved intake of amino acids, which again enhances muscle growth. An added bonus is that fewer nutrients end up in our fat cells so the body consumes more of what is available to it.
Furthermore, as if all this wasn’t enough, studies have shown that in rats, heat treatment like a sauna or steam room reduces oxidative stress in their bodies and protects muscle mass in immobilization periods. This same study also demonstrated enhanced muscle growth and reduced oxidative stress during regrowth. All this happens just by exposing the body to a steam room environment or sauna. Another study, this time looking at mice, arrived at results showing a 30 percent muscle regrowth increase compared to mice which were not exposed to any heat therapy.
If you’re working out to gain and build muscle – and let’s face it, who isn’t? – you’ll want to get into your facility’s sauna or steam room as soon as you’re done with your lifting routine. Saunas help in the moment to relax the muscles and initiate the healing process. Then, within weeks, you’re likely to notice an increase in muscle growth. Beyond stronger, bigger muscles, the positive health benefits of steam rooms, heat therapy, and infrared and non-infrared saunas are astoundingly varied.
Steam Sauna provides steam rooms and saunas to gyms, fitness facilities, hotels, hospitality and healthcare facilities, and more. We even have steam rooms and saunas for homeowners who don’t have access to heat therapy elsewhere or who want more exposure. If you want to hook yourself up with a muscle growth therapy that works short- and long-term, consider a sauna or steam room from Steam Sauna.