We have taken a much stronger, renewed focus on providing our athletes with tools and information to improve overall health.
Using a sauna regularly fits right into that mission. We are fortunate to have an infared sauna available to our athletes.
Saunas can help with:
- Hypertension
- Cardiovascular disease
- Stroke
- Risk of dementia and cognitive decline
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Fibromyalgia
- Ankylosing spondylitis
“Sauna is basically exercising without exercising” -- Dr. Mike Stone
When you sauna, your body heats up. It then has to go through a complicated biological mechanism to cool you down. This mechanism, on a cellular level has a number of positive effects on your metabolic health. Some include:
- Production of heat shock proteins (these proteins protect essential components of cells in your body from harmful damage)
- Reduction of reactive oxygenated species (these damage your DNA, protein, and lipids)
- Reduced oxidative stress and inflammation pathways (decreased inflammation is important because inflammation is the driver of all chronic disease!)
- Increased nitric oxide bioavailability (Nitric oxide is produced by nearly every type of cell in the human body and one of the most important molecules for blood vessel health. It's a vasodilator, meaning it relaxes the inner muscles of your blood vessels, causing the vessels to widen. In this way, nitric oxide increases blood flow and lowers blood pressure)
- Increased insulin sensitivity (this means your body will respond better to the insulin it produces and need less insulin which improves your metabolic health–just like exercise!)
What do we mean by the “exercise without exercising" quote?
- If you are injured, or recovering from a surgery, or simply just need to take a rest day because your muscles are really sore or your joints hurt – we suggest time in the sauna. You can derive all of the benefits from a metabolic standpoint while letting your muscles and joints rest.
- We are not suggesting that you replace exercise with sauna on a regular basis.
- Exercise confers lots of benefits that sauna alone will not give you.
- There are powerful additive effects of using both! Use sauna as an addition to your regular exercise regimen!
Duration and recommended sessions per week vary depending on what you are trying to achieve, but in order to achieve the benefits listed above the general recommendation is: 3-5 sessions per week of 20 minutes.
We are excited to have a sauna option available for all of our athletes as part of our standard membership!
Sound like something you would enjoy learning more about -- click the Contact Us button and let us know!
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