Sauna after workouts

[BeefCake41]

How do u guys feel about sitting in a sauna

[BeefCake41]

As in after working out .. I'm not a big fan of it but my friends loves it , is it even useful? Jus seems like u only lose water weight

[tboney]

Curious about this to....

[Darkness]

Sauna forces your body to sweat in turn elevating the metabolism. After a workout your metabolism is alredy working well, so I'm particularly not a fan of it if you're looking to build muscle as it "robs" away from the muscle rebuild. But if you're out to lose weight and after doing cardio etc, then by all means it'll complement it.

[BeefCake41]

Would you reccommend using it as a warmup before ur workouts ? In order to get ur muscles warm and ur metabolism high for lifting ?

[Darkness]

Would you reccommend using it as a warmup before ur workouts ? In order to get ur muscles warm and ur metabolism high for lifting ?

That would get your blood flowing to the muscles though.

[Turkish Juicer]

I don't like the idea of sauna after lifting, never have, never will.

My understanding is that there are more risks involved than benefits.

First and foremost, you ought to cool off your body once you are done training, not re-heat it.

I also don't like the idea of flushing out bodily fluids to the extreme, especially after an intense workout session, unless there is a specific reason for this, such as drying to the extreme for a show or something.

Another downside is the notion of male fertility... I have come across with several research where even 10 mins spent in sauna has negative effects on male fertility, not good.

[BeefCake41]

I don't like the idea of sauna after lifting, never have, never will.

My understanding is that there are more risks involved than benefits.

First and foremost, you ought to cool off your body once you are done training, not re-heat it.

I also don't like the idea of flushing out bodily fluids to the extreme, especially after an intense workout session, unless there is a specific reason for this, such as drying to the extreme for a show or something.

Another downside is the notion of male fertility... I have come across with several research where even 10 mins spent in sauna has negative effects on male fertility, not good.

Yea my thoughts exactly , never came across any material stating That it was dangerous to your fertility tho , I'll have to mention that next time he suggest entering the sauna

[rasc170]

I cant stand being in heat or humdity. I would imagine it helps with keeping the muscles elastic. I have nothing to show that's true, just what I would imagine happening btw

[BeefCake41]

I cant stand being in heat or humdity. I would imagine it helps with keeping the muscles elastic. I have nothing to show that's true, just what I would imagine happening btw

I'm not a big fan of it either , and I'm always shaking my head when people walk in the sauna and you can hear the trash bags they have under their clothes rubbing against their body .

[Kenlie]

Another downside is the notion of male fertility... I have come across with several research where even 10 mins spent in sauna has negative effects on male fertility, not good.

I'm not buying these fertility researches.

In Finland EVERY single house has sauna, and every person in Finland visits sauna every week, some several times a week, and it has nil effect on having children.
I'm not kidding, even in every single cheapest rental apartment building has sauna in it, for everyone. Here sauna is just as common as shower, and basic part of every single house.

I suspect that those research results you've been reading, are some kind of extreme cases, where you heat up like crazy, or even competitions, and not normal relaxing moments in normal sauna.

That said, I suspect it is not ideal to spend time in sauna after workout, because it just uses more water from your body. So it is not optional, but it's not very bad either. I personally visit sauna 50% of the time, after workouts. But I visit there only for a short period of time, like 2-4 minutes. It's not good idea to spend too much time there.

So, to sum it up... yes, everything is dangerous, if you take it to extreme.

[600@50]

I have gone into the sauna and stretched after a workout. I really can't say if it helped or not but it actually felt good to stretch in the heat. Wasn't in a long time maybe 6 - 8 minutes then hit the shower.

[My_New_Life]

Sauna is good for cutting water weight..other then that I can only assume some people just like to sweat and somehow feel they benefit from that?

Athlete's who must weighin for competition will cut weight this way and that I understand but anything else is "????"

[Dpyle]

Saw a study a few years ago stating that 10 min in the sauna was as good as a 10-15 min warmup on the bike or treadmill.

[MuscleInk]

Saw a study a few years ago stating that 10 min in the sauna was as good as a 10-15 min warmup on the bike or treadmill.

My buddies like to stretch in the sauna for 10 mins after our workouts. I've tried it and the heat does help with stretching but I find it hard to breathe at the end of a workout in that kind of heat.

[Times Roman]

during my "runnning" days, after a workout, i'd sit in a sauna for 15 or 20 minutes. But my goal was fat reduction and maintaining a low weight while enhancing slow twitch muscle fiber in the leg

[MuscleInk]

during my "runnning" days, after a workout, i'd sit in a sauna for 15 or 20 minutes. But my goal was fat reduction and maintaining a low weight while enhancing slow twitch muscle fiber in the leg

20 minutes!?!? I'd need CPR......from a hot Asian chick

........hmmmmm maybe I DO need to spend more time in the sauna!!!!!!

[vonner]

depends what your goals are; if your trying to gain weight, no

[JHeisman1]

In short, sauna will raise GH levels [related to hyperthermia and dehydration] and may stay elevated for up to 3 days. During the experiments there were no statistically significant changes in serum thyroid hormones, TSH, testosterone, FSH and LH levels. Serum cortisol and plasma ACTH decreased and urinary catecholamine increased slightly at the end of the experiment. There is a lot of anecdotal reports of elevation of testosterone levels, which may indeed occur, but it was not statistically significant during scientific experiments.

Source: Acta Physiol Scand. 1986 Nov;128(3):467-70. Endocrine effects of repeated sauna bathing.