All athletes are looking for a way to increase their competitive edge through supplementation and work out regimens. There is evidence athletes take yoga and practice meditation to help with focus and injury recovery. What is not very popular amongst athletic trainers and athletes themselves is sauna bathing to improve endurance. This could be caused by the lack of circulating information on the benefits and risk when using this training technique.
In a clinical trial with six male distant runners, researchers studied the effects of sauna bathing for 3 weeks post workout compared to 3 weeks of controlled training, with a 3 week washout period of no sauna bathing. The runners would sauna bath at approximately 89.9 degrees C/193 degrees F, at 15 minutes post workout for a period of 31 minutes. This occurred about 13 times over the 3 weeks of the study. After each sauna bathing session the runners performance was tested by running for 15 minutes on the treadmill until exhaustion at their best speed. Laboratory testing on the participants red blood cells and blood volume was also done. At the conclusion of the study it was determined that sauna bathing increased the runners endurance performance by 32% and their blood volume also increased meaning the body was able to hold oxygen.
To learn more about the sauna bathing clinical trial visit the National Center for Biotechnology Information and US National Library of Medicine.
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