Sauna Benefits: Learn the Finnish way to Enlarge your Life Longevity with Steam Baths!
Get in shape while relaxing in the sauna! Sounds quite good. To reduce weight and improve your health, just sitting in the sauna is a growing trend, and there are grounds for this! The sauna benefits of losing weight, improving overall health and mood, and adjusting hormone levels are scientifically proven. In this regard, sauna protocols are created to determine the deliberate heat exposure needed to achieve these healthy effects. We will show you some approaches to heat exposure, which will help you to lose weight, reduce stress and increase the longevity of your life.
Table of Contents
What is a traditional sauna bath?
Traditional Finnish sauna baths include short-time exposures (5-20 min) at temperatures from 80 °C (176° F) to 100 °C (212° F) and dry air with 10-20% humidity. These brief periods are alternated with short-timing exposures to baths with increased humidity. The rise in humidity is achieved by throwing water on the heated rocks.
Safety guide for sauna use
Sauna heat exposure offers enormous benefits, but it can be extremely dangerous, because of the high temperatures. That’s why, it’s vital to remember to hydrate you well with at least 16 ounces (0.5 L) of water for every 10 minutes spent in the sauna. It’s important to know that steam baths are not recommended for pregnant women and children under 16 years old. The best start of your sauna session is with cooler temperatures. This precaution is needed for eliminating the risk of dehydration or abnormal high body temperature (hyperthermia). It’s also useful to know that men, trying to conceive children, can reduce sperm count, if exposed to repeated high heat. So, dear young men, be careful and do not overheat too much, as you frequently desire so much, in the sauna!
What does a sauna do for your body and mind health?
The sauna benefits are not only in reducing your weight, helping your heart to work properly or achieving a good mood. They are versatile and comprise improving the whole health condition of your body and mind. What’s more, the sauna heat is responsible for reduction in “all-cause mortality”, which scientific term refers to death from any cause.
Can sauna reduce weight and free you from toxins?
The traditional Finnish steam bath at 150-195° F (65-90° C) in the sauna is a proven way to help weight loss. Research reveals that a sauna can be compared to an intense workout. And this is achieved without moving, only relaxing and enjoying a bath.
The hot air of the sauna makes you sweat intensively, which enables us to get rid of toxins. Sweating helps you to clear off your body of dangerous heavy metals like nickel, mercury, zinc and copper, which you take via the food. The sweating also leads to burning fat, which reduces the weight. With the intense sweating, the sauna helps to exude the excess water and in that way you may eliminate a few pounds from your weight in a day or two!
What is the benefit of sauna for your heart?
It is proven that regular use of saunas reduces the risk of cardiovascular events that can lead to death. It appears that heat triggers the same body mechanisms as if you were engaged in physical exercise. Which means that your blood flow and heart rate increases, and the blood vessels expand while your body works to cool down and reduce its temperature.
Sauna for cardiovascular health: Protocol № 1
In order to benefit your heart and blood vessels, heat the sauna to a temperature of 176-212° F (80-100° C). It’s important to remember that the actual temperature will be determined by your personal heat tolerance. Stay in the sauna 5-20 min per session and do this 2–3 times per week.
Sauna benefits for stress release and improving mood
When your body stays in a sauna, it releases the hormones dynorphins and endorphins in the brain, responsible for your good mood. That’s why, after a steam bath, you feel a mild happy euphoria. The body also reacts to high temperatures with so called hormesis, which is the mild stress that stimulates the organism and the mind to positive adaptation. The result is that this helps you to become more stable in everyday stress situations.
Sauna for general health (mental and physical): Protocol № 2
If you wish to improve your general health gaining the main sauna benefits, use a sauna for a total of 1 hour per week, split into 2-3 sessions. The temperature range should be 176-212 ℉ (80-100 ℃).
Growth hormone stimulating sauna benefits
The use of one specific sauna protocol has been shown to dramatically release growth hormone (to more than 10-fold!). Growth Hormone, which unfortunately decreases in aging, plays a key role in boosting muscle growth, strengthening bones and repairing tissue.
Sauna benefits for growth hormone release: Protocol № 3
If your purpose is to increase the quantity of growth hormone in your body, use a sauna once per 1–2 weeks. For every session, stay in the sauna for 30 minutes, then cool off outside for 5 minutes; then again 30 minutes in the sauna, and cool off out of it. Repeat the same scheme later in the day for receiving a total of four 30-minute sessions for the day.
