Day 22: Saunas

                When I think of saunas, I think of old, sweaty men sitting around naked. I always believed that the only positive benefit of saunas was that they helped cut water weight, only to be put back on as soon as you consume water. Once again I must give credit to Dr. Rhonda Patrick, this time in Tim Ferriss’ book ‘Tools of Titans,’ for helping illuminate some of the positive health benefits of the sauna.

                Over the past 3 weeks, I have used the sauna religiously after each workout which equates to 4 days per week. On top of this, I am attending hot yoga on 1-2 of my 'off' days, so I am getting a ton of heat exposure!

                In this post, I discuss my use of the sauna, & look at some of the positive benefits that come along with sauna use.

How do saunas work

                Before I jump into all of the health benefits of sauna use, I want to first explain the mechanism behind how the sauna helps the body produce such benefits.

                When you increase your core temperature for a short period of time, you experience a phenomenon referred to as ‘hyperthermic conditioning.’ Hyperthermic conditioning refers to the process of ‘acclimating yourself to heat independent of aerobic physical activity.’ By exposing your body to heat stress, it induces adaptions in your body similar to those induced during aerobic physical activity, that make it easier to perform when your body temperature is elevated during strenuous physical exercise.

            Some of the positive physiological conditions shown to occur from hyperthermic conditioning include improved cardiovascular mechanisms & lower heart rate, increased blood flow to skeletal muscle & other tissues, increased efficiency of oxygen transport to muscles, lower core body during workload, reduced rate of glycogen depletion, higher sweat rate & sweat sensitivity, & increased red blood cell count. 

             Although I will not discuss each of these physiological benefits that are associated with sauna use in this post, I highly encourage you to research how the sauna can induce each of these benefits, as the mechanism is very fascinating.

Muscle Recovery

                The benefit most often attributed to saunas is muscle recovery which is accomplished by reducing the amount of protein degradation that occurs during strenuous muscular activity such as weight lifting. Use of the sauna triggers ‘heat shock proteins’ which create a hermetic effect which helps repair proteins damaged during exercise, helping increase protein synthesis in your muscles, thus helping them recover more quickly.

                In lab tests done with rats, regular sauna use was associated with 30% more muscle regrowth after muscle damage when compared with rats that did not utilize the sauna. Perhaps more interestingly, the expression of the heat stress proteins persisted for up to 48 hours after the sauna session, suggesting that the positive benefits persist well beyond the 20-minutes that you spend in the sauna.

                Additionally, sauna use has been associated with elevated levels of growth hormone which helps combat post-exercise muscle atrophy. In one (admittedly extreme) study, subjects that participated in two one-hour sauna sessions per day for 7 days experienced a 16-fold increase in human growth hormone that persisted for a few hours post sauna. 

                In short, sauna use can help you increase protein synthesis & your levels of human growth hormone, two key components in preventing post-exercise muscle atrophy, & helping your muscles recover more quickly & effectively.

               

Improved athletic performance

                When you exercise, specifically at high intensity, your body temperature increases significantly. It is believed that the effects of ‘hyperthermic conditioning’ discussed above replicate this increased body temperature, offering significant endurance benefits by acclimating your body to performing under heat stress.   

                Heat stress induced by a 20-minute sauna session has been shown to increase plasma volume & blood flow to your muscles which contributes to athletic endurance & muscle mass. One study showed that runners that had 30-minute post-workout sauna sessions twice per week for 3 weeks were able to increase the time it took them to run until exhaustion by 32% versus a control group that did not use the sauna. This same studied showed that participants were able to increase their plasma volume by 7.2% & their red blood cell count by 3.5% relative to peers, two mechanisms associated with increasing endurance during strenuous exercise. 

                 To summarize, sauna use has been linked with two mechanisms in increased plasma volume & blood flow to muscles that are highly correlated to athletic performance. Although sauna use cannot replace aerobic exercise in an effort to increase athletic endurance, it certainly has been shown to be an effective supplement.

                 

Improved Brain Function

                Sauna use has been shown to trigger the release of proteins known as ‘neurotrophic factors’ which activate brain stem cells to produce new neurons which are responsible for enhanced learning. Strenuous exercise has been shown to trigger the release of the same proteins, which is believed to be the reason a physical workout can have such a beneficial impact on brain tissue & stress levels.

                Sauna use has also been linked with increased levels of ‘norepinephrine’ which is a hormone involved in the stress response that increases focus & attention. In one study, sauna use increased norepinephrine in subjects by 310% after the session.  It is believed that the phenomenon known as ‘runner’s high’ uses a similar mechanism to induce increased endorphin levels which produces the feeling of well-being that one gets after an effective workout.  

Relaxation

                More anecdotally, the sauna is relaxing! After a strenuous workout, sitting in a sauna can help you regulate your breathing & heart rate, get in a good sweat, & recharge. Personally, I partake in 20 to 30-minute sauna sessions after every strength-building workout, a process that I have learned to love. It helps me to relax, reflect, & recharge after a tough workout.

                In conclusion, there is a LOT of information our there linked to how saunas can help improve muscle recovery, athletic performance, & even brain function. I challenge you to try out the sauna for yourself for 20-minutes post-exercise for a few weeks, it has become an integral aspect of my post-workout recovery process & I can’t see myself changing it.

100 Day Spartan

Day 6: My First (Hot) Yoga Class

         As mentioned in previous posts, two activities that I have considered doing for years but have put off were meditation & yoga. I dove headfirst into meditation about 3 weeks ago (blog post to come) & haven’t looked back since, & on Saturday it was time for me to take my first ever yoga class.

                It turned out to be a great experience which I have attempted to summarize below. Please note however, we completed so many poses that I felt like I was drinking water through a fire hose just trying to keep up, so to attempt to recount each pose would not do justice to my instructor who was wonderful. Instead, I’m simply going to focus on the warm-up, cool down, & the 3 poses that were most memorable for me.

The Venue

                For my first class, I opted to go with hot yoga which my girlfriend raves about. Being a big proponent of the benefits of the sauna, it seemed to be a logical next step to try hot yoga.

                The room was not actually as warm as I had expected, perhaps due to the amount of time that I spend in the sauna & perhaps because it was the first class of the day so the room wasn’t fully heated.

We arrived 15 minutes early, so we found a spot near the back of the room & set out our mats. I watched as a wide variety of people streamed through the door over the next 15 minutes; young & old, male & female, fit & unfit. Our teacher arrived a few minutes later, & my girlfriend informed me that she was one of her favourite instructors.

The Warm-Up  

                Promptly at noon our class began with us on our backs doing several different stretches that included a variety of ‘knee-to-chest’ variations. It was during these stretches that I noticed I was getting a pretty good sweat on & feeling some tension in my legs, thinking there might be something to this yoga thing. Then the instructor calmly said, “That concludes warm-up, now it’s time to begin” That’s when I knew I was in trouble.

The Good: the Back Release

                One of my favourite exercises that I will be incorporating into my post-workout stretching routine was the downward dog-to plank-to upward dog (or is it cobra?) combination. Each time I transitioned from the plank to the upward dog pose, I could feel the tension in my lower back loosening. Due to a decade of heavy squats & deadlifts, I will occasionally get a dull ache in my lower back after lifting & I could feel this pose helping with that ache.

The Bad: ‘Death lunges’

                 We spent what seemed like an eternity in variations of the lunge position, which began with us lifting one of our legs while in downward dog (at this point my arms were shaking, & my hands were not exactly ‘firm’ on my mat which you will read about below). I was relieved as we swung our leg through into what I would consider a lunge position. Since I do lunges at the gym weekly, I thought this was right in my wheel house.

                I was wrong. We must have held this position for 10 minutes, doing various poses & stretches, through all of which my thighs were screaming. At one point we turned our upper body, got into prayer pose & looked upwards, with our far elbow on the opposite side of the knee (sorry if I am butchering this description). As if this wasn’t challenging enough, she then had us raise our close hand to the sky, look up, & if we could, lift up our back leg. I wanted to laugh, in no way did I think this was even possible without crashing onto the yogi beside me, but as I looked up I saw most of the class accomplishing this pose. Clearly, I have my work cut out for me.

The Ugly: Yoga in a Swimming Pool

                During our series of ‘death lunges’ & each time we switched back into our downward dog, I had to consistently readjust my hands & feet because my yoga mat was a swimming pool! By the end, I finally got the bright idea to put my towel down where my hands were to go, which at least stopped my hands from sliding around, but did nothing for my sweaty feet or my hands anytime I had to adjust them for a different pose. By the end of the hour, things were a little slippery to say the least!

Cool-down

                Our instructor saved the more spiritual aspect for the 5-minute cool down & politely mentioned that anyone not interested in this aspect of the practice was free to leave. We laid on the ground during this time & focused on our breathing, which I certainly needed after that workout! I enjoyed the meditative aspect a lot more than I once would have, so it is a good thing that I found meditation prior to yoga, or this aspect may have thrown me off.

               

Day-After

                I am writing this review on Sunday, the morning following my first yoga class. To my pleasant surprise, I am not too sore anywhere, with the exception of a few sore muscles in my back that I most likely had not ever used before. With today being a long run day, I was worried about the effect of the death lunges on my legs, but fortunately it seems they have held up.

                Two positive differences that I’ve noticed is that the tightness that I occasionally get in my left groin has subsided, as well as the dull lower back pain that I typically experience for a few days post-hockey. I will be interested to see what other changes consistent yoga practice will bring to my body.

                Overall, my first hot yoga session was a resounding success, & is certainly a practice that I will continue. Were there a few times that I looked up to see that everyone in the room was doing something different than me? Sure, but I feel like that is just part of the learning process.

                Moving forward, my plan is to attend classes on my off-days from the gym on Wednesday & Saturday, as a way to decompress & reset for the coming days of high-intensity training. I intend to continue this twice per week schedule up until my race, & then hopefully, well beyond then.

100 Day Spartan