How to Recover After a Workout: Sauna & Steam Room
After a workout, you’ll probably be feeling pretty exhausted. Your muscles will be aching, glycogen stores will be depleted and your whole body will be in need of rest. To replace your glycogen levels, you should consume a carbohydrate-laden post-workout track. But to give relief to your aching muscles, one of the best things you can do is spend time in either a sauna or a steam room.
If your gym has either of these available, you should be making use of them. In this article, we’ll examine how the sauna and steam room can help you recover after a workout.
Benefits of the Sauna and Steam Room Post Workout
The sauna and the steam room both provide an excellent way to relax and soothe your working muscles after a workout. They will both increase your heart rate and get the heart pumping as a result of the increased body temperature. The increased heat will speed up the process by which oxygen and nutrients are delivered to the muscle cells to nourish them.
The increased heat of both the sauna and steam room will dilate your blood vessels. This will allow more blood to rush through your veins and into your muscles. As a result, you may experience an enhanced pump effect during your time spent in a steam room or sauna after your workout.
During your session, you will sweat heavily. This will help to remove toxins and invigorate your skin. Another benefit of your post-workout heat session is that you will increase what is called hyperthermic conditioning. This has been shown to greatly increase endurance levels. So, the more time you spend in the sauna or steam room, the less tired you will be from your future workout sessions.
Your heat session will also release the brain chemicals noradrenaline, adrenaline, and cortisol. This results in a reduced level of muscle inflammation after your workout, further promoting muscle recovery.
One more benefit of hypothermic conditioning is that it has been shown to boost people’s mood, promoting feelings of confidence and self-esteem. In fact, studies have shown that hyperthermic conditioning may be a useful method of antidepressant therapy.
Sauna and Steam Room Differences
The main difference between a sauna and a steam room is the type of heat they supply. The steam room supplies wet heat, while a sauna supplies dry heat. A sauna is heated by a small stove, which may be electric, gas, or wood burning. The stove heats a pile of rocks that emit heat. This heat can be up to 40° or even hotter.
Steam rooms are warmed using external water from a generator that pumps steam into the room. This makes the environment very humid and produces wet heat. You will end up sweating more in a steam room than in a sauna. That is because the condensation doesn’t give you a sweater chance to evaporate. As a result, a steam room is a better option for detoxing. They are also better for people with breathing issues.
Wrap Up
Of the two options, a sauna is a better post-workout recovery choice. Most of the benefits of this environment post-workout come from the excess heat. So the option that provides the most heat and, therefore, increases blood flow to your muscles is going to provide the best bang for your buck. That option is the sauna.
