Updated: January 3, 2022

Most people want to avoid the icky feeling that comes from sweating, but unbeknownst to many, sweating is actually a natural body function that helps to regulate body temperature. If you have access to a sauna, especially after a workout, you have the opportunity to experience the added health and wellness benefits of sweating. Maximize your fitness routine and take advantage of these seven health benefits from using the sauna! 

Saunas Improve Muscle Relaxation & Aching Joints

After a challenging workout, you will likely work up a sweat. Using the sauna post-workout will continue the sweat session and promote the absorption of the sweat, which is a great way to recover and relax your muscles and joints. The heat transmitted from the sauna causes an increase in your body’s endorphins to release. 

Endorphins have a “tranquilizing” effect and can temporarily relieve any pain from joints, which helps alleviate muscle soreness. Saunas also raise body temperature, which causes blood vessels to vasodilate. Vasodilation is the expansion of blood vessels that allows blood to move more freely, which increases blood circulation throughout the body. This increase in blood circulation helps speed up the body’s natural healing process by soothing muscle/joint aches and pains and healing minor bruises or cuts. 

Saunas Flush Toxins

Sweating is our body’s natural tactic to cool the body down after our internal temperatures rise, but cooling down isn’t the only benefit of sweating. Elevated body temperatures help to flush out toxins like alcohol and other waste products. When you use the sauna, you automatically cool your body down and release toxins, including the toxins we absorb in our everyday lives, like copper, lead, mercury, and nickel. These toxins can have adverse effects on the kidney, heart, brain, and immune systems, so removing them is highly beneficial to your health.  

Saunas Promote Deeper Sleep

It’s pretty common knowledge that getting a good night’s sleep is essential to our health. The hustle and bustle of moving through our daily lives can make it challenging to fall asleep or stay asleep throughout the night. This is where saunas can serve as a massive help if you desire to fall into a deep sleep. Since the sauna’s heat works to raise the body’s temperature, your body subsequently works hard to cool itself down to return itself to a normal state. Once exiting the sauna, the body’s process to re-normalize and return to its average temperatures can be a tiring 

Saunas Cleanse and Clear Skin

In the same way, sweating helps to release damaging toxins from our body, sweating releases harmful toxins from your skin. Frequent sauna use helps to increase blood flow and improve capillary circulation, which draws out bacteria from sweat ducts and cleanse pores. This will clear your skin and help give it a nice soft glow.  

Saunas Help to Relieve Stress

Who doesn’t want to find additional ways to relax? Saunas help relieve stress by regulating and lowering cortisol, which is the hormone the body releases when stressed. High cortisol levels can lead to significant health issues, but sauna use increases the level of serotonin production, also known as the “happy hormone” that helps us feel relaxed. When you get into the sauna, you can literally increase your happiness and relieve stress.

Saunas Improve Cardiovascular Performance

Now that you’ve relieved some stress, you have also used the sauna to lower your blood pressure as well. Lowering your blood pressure trains the heart to pump blood without expending as much energy. Improving heart function and helping to pump blood more efficiently allows for enhanced heart functioning altogether, which reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases.  Sauna use paired with exercise can significantly improve overall heart functions and promote a healthy lifestyle.  

Saunas Help Burn Calories

It’s pretty safe to say that we’ve established that saunas promote the body’s sweating process, which can be beneficial in several ways. Sweating uses a considerable amount of energy, so while you focus on burning calories during your workout, you can keep the burn going by just sitting in the sauna. What an added benefit to burn calories and lose weight while you sit and sweat!

If you are a Nesfield Performance client, you are in luck – our Sunlighten m-Pulse Sauna is available for our clients. If you are not a client, talk to your trainer and doctor about the benefits of the sauna and how to incorporate them into your routine. 

RESOURCES