Q&A: Are hot tubs and saunas helpful or harmful?
Posted November 1st, 2007 at 8:15 PM by Hariz Siddiqui
Section: Health & Fitness, Injury & Rehab, Exercise
For many years I have believed that heating muscles in a whirlpool or sauna after exercise interferes with muscle contractions and hampers muscular endurance.
However, a study from the University of Otago in New Zealand shows that taking a sauna after workouts for three weeks helped athletes to exercise longer to exhaustion (Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, Sports Medicine Australia, August 2007).
Trained runners sat in a humid sauna for 30 minutes at 89.9 degrees centigrade immediately after exercising, 12 times in three weeks. They then ran as hard as they could on a treadmill for about 15 minutes, to exhaustion.
Sauna use increased run time to exhaustion by 32 percent, which would equal an improvement of approximately two percent in a full-length endurance time trial. Their blood volumes increased by more than seven percent, and higher blood volume increases endurance.
If further research confirms these findings, athletes will be advised to use saunas after their workouts for several weeks before competition.
Written by: Dr. Gabe Mirkin
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Tags: after exercise, after exercising, athletes, australia, blood volume, endurance, exercise, exercise longer, exercise to exhaustion, exhaustion, heat, heating muscles, humid, Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, muscle contractions, muscular endurance, New Zealand, research, sauna, Sports Medicine Australia, study, university fo otago, whirlpool, workout
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