Do You Need to Use the Sauna After Workouts Like Others at the Gym?

Exposure to hot air can aid in faster recovery and support weight loss.

Even budget gyms often feature small infrared cabins, while larger facilities frequently offer Finnish saunas or hammams.

Let's explore whether spending time in passive sweating sessions is worthwhile and if heat exposure truly accelerates recovery, enhances athletic performance, and promotes quicker fat loss.

How Post-Workout Heat Exposure Affects the Body

Researchers suggest that warming muscles after exercise may trigger several beneficial physiological changes.

1. Enhances removal of metabolic waste. Muscle contractions involve biochemical reactions producing energy. Even after ceasing movement, byproducts like hydrogen ions and lactate linger in muscles. Sauna sessions stimulate local blood flow, which theoretically speeds up the clearance of these waste products and improves delivery of carbohydrates and amino acids for muscle repair.
2. Speeds replenishment of muscle energy stores. Intense exercise depletes glycogen—carbohydrate reserves stored in muscles and liver. Typically, glycogen is restored within 24 hours post-exercise but can take up to 48 hours. Heat exposure may boost glucose transport to tissues and stimulate glycogen resynthesis.

Additionally, lab studies on cells show that regular heat exposure increases both the number and activity of mitochondria, the energy-producing structures within cells. More mitochondria correlate with better physical fitness.

While lab findings may not fully translate to humans, it is plausible that heat exposure supports improved performance.

Therefore, sauna sessions theoretically could speed recovery and enhance training adaptations. Let's examine practical evidence.

Does Sauna Use Reduce Muscle Soreness?

The exact causes of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) after exercise remain unclear. It is believed to result from metabolite buildup, muscle spasms, microtears in muscle fibers, connective tissue damage, and subsequent inflammation.

Applying heat within the first hour post-exercise may relax sore muscles and reduce spasms, alleviating pain. It also promotes faster clearance of metabolic waste.

A meta-analysis of scientific studies found that heat therapy eases muscle discomfort after workouts, with relief beginning immediately and lasting at least 24 hours.

However, most studies involved warm compresses rather than sauna sessions, so the effects of hot air exposure are inferred but not conclusively proven.

Can Sauna Sessions Aid Weight Loss?

Many people use the sauna after workouts aiming to lose extra weight, and this approach might yield some results.

In one study, participants performed 50 minutes of cardio three times weekly. Half spent 15 minutes in a Finnish sauna post-exercise, while the rest rested. After eight weeks, the sauna group lost approximately 1.9 kg of fat compared to 1.3 kg in the control group.

However, this study included only 47 middle-aged individuals with low fitness levels and cardiovascular risk factors, so results may not apply broadly.

Another study involving 36 young football players who sat in a 100 °C sauna three times per week for three weeks showed reductions in weight, BMI, and body fat percentage.

While promising, these small sample sizes limit definitive conclusions about sauna-induced fat loss. Some studies found no significant fat reduction from sauna use after cardio workouts.

Overall, if you enjoy relaxing in heat and have time, spending 15 minutes in a sauna post-workout might enhance fat loss progress. But forcing yourself or skipping workouts for sauna sessions is not advisable; longer or more intense training has greater benefits for weight loss.

Does Sauna Use Improve Athletic Performance?

Small studies indicate that heat exposure can accelerate muscle recovery and prepare muscles for subsequent intense exercise.

For example, 20 minutes in an infrared sauna at 43 °C helped basketball players recover faster after strenuous strength training, reducing next-day muscle soreness and preserving explosive power better than rest alone.

In another trial, six runners finished workouts with 30-minute sessions in an 89 °C sauna three times weekly for three weeks. They showed increased plasma volume, red blood cell count, and a 32% longer time to exhaustion in a 15-minute treadmill test, maintaining higher running speeds.

Similarly, a study with 40 women performing strength and power exercises found that 10 minutes of sauna use at 50 °C post-training led to greater improvements in peak power and jump height compared to rest.

One experiment showed that prolonged muscle heating improved resistance to fatigue in untrained individuals after eccentric exercise.

Additionally, sauna use may benefit sedentary people beginning exercise programs by reducing blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Thus, sauna sessions can modestly reduce fatigue, maintain or enhance power after tough workouts, and improve cardiovascular health in less active individuals. However, larger studies are needed for firm conclusions.

Are There Risks to Using Saunas After Workouts?

Data on potential harm is limited. One study with 20 professional swimmers and triathletes compared post-exercise sauna use at 80–85 °C versus resting at room temperature with placebo massage oil applied.

The following day, those who used the sauna performed worse in a 200-meter maximal swim and experienced greater stress during the effort.

Due to the small sample size, definitive recommendations cannot be made. However, if you have a demanding event the next day requiring peak effort, it may be wise to avoid high-temperature sauna sessions beforehand.

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