# Saunas good or bad??



## SD (Sep 3, 2004)

*Do you use the Sauna at your gym?*​
Yes I am not happy till I am par boiled!838.10%No. Because Diary Barry hangs out there and he is...weird!314.29%Don't have access to a sauna but would like to.628.57%Don't have access to a sauna and I am not fussed anyway419.05%


----------



## SD (Sep 3, 2004)

Hi all,

I have a sauna at my gym and I its not unusual for me to sauna post workout for half an hour or so.

Thing is I have been thinking whether it is a good idea or not and wondered firstly, does anyone else sauna? (not the dodgy type with a rainbow above the doorway DB  ) and what do you think of its benefits if any?

The skin is the largest organ in the body, to cool down your body has to divert blood to the skin. If the blood is in the skin cooling you off PWO, then is that not gonna starve muscles of nutrient carrying blood? anyone seen studies on this?

I have noticed on occasion that a sauna when I have DOMS really helps with the muscle soreness acutely but it soon comes back, once however when I had sore calves after a calf raise beasting session the day before, the pain vanished in the sauna and never came back!! cured! Anyone else had this?

On the flip side, by raising core temperature, blood flow to the muscles may actually increase due to vaso dilation, this would aid healing/hypertrophy enormously IMO, but as said earlier, I am in two minds as to whether the available blood would not just be sent to the skin anyway, any thoughts?

WOuld like to raise a poll to see how many people use the sauna but not sure how  any help mods? *update* its ok I figured it out

Thanks for any replies guys

SD


----------



## DB (Oct 31, 2003)

had to vote for the second one! lmao


----------



## winger (Jul 26, 2003)

Besides cleaning the pores I dont know, but I am going to take a guess here. 

For a guy that wants to cut what does he do. He takes a thermogenic pill to raise body temp.

After a workout and the muscles need repair, I would think that the body doesn't have to heat itself so maybe more energy might go into recouping the muscles. This is just a guess.

They are very calming though and I would think that is good too.


----------



## OnePack (Jan 9, 2004)

talking of saunas, they have a jaccuzi at one of the gyms not too far from me. Does anyone use jaccuzis? Are these any good for your body? i mean if you take one after work out then it would be good for your body's blood flow wouldn't it?


----------



## winger (Jul 26, 2003)

I would think it would take away from your pump.


----------



## SD (Sep 3, 2004)

I thought also about the calorific expenditure, my heart rate can raise to 140+ in the sauna as the demand for blood increases, any increase in heart rate is correlated with raised metabolism, therefore burning more calories. This may be a good or a bad thing depending on if you are bulking.

They may also be useful for cuttting for comp and safer than dieuretics.

I spend too much time thinkin about saunas me thinks! 

Regards

SD


----------



## winger (Jul 26, 2003)

SportDr said:


> I spend too much time thinkin about saunas me thinks!
> 
> Regards
> 
> SD


Me thinks your right for a change.


----------



## hackskii (Jul 27, 2003)

Well it is opposite from ChefX book where he says to stay cold.

I had an old friend that warmed up in the sauna before he lifted. Did this everytime. He was old (older than me)******insert comedy here**********

It was good for him.


----------



## winger (Jul 26, 2003)

Well Cookie says he warms up by running from his car to the front door of the gym.


----------



## Carlos901 (Nov 5, 2004)

but winger forgot to tell ya that the car park is only 10 yards from the front door...


----------



## winger (Jul 26, 2003)

Carlos901 said:


> but winger forgot to tell ya that the car park is only 10 yards from the front door...


10? Damn he told me 5. Oh well. He also says for a warm up he wears a coat............lol


----------



## crazycacti (Jun 20, 2004)

August edition of MD magazine has an article on saunas basically saying they good for guys but not for the ladies PWO - I'll post it on here tomorrow when i'm back home in newcastle as the article is there - pretty sure its got references too


----------



## SD (Sep 3, 2004)

crazycacti said:


> August edition of MD magazine has an article on saunas basically saying they good for guys but not for the ladies PWO - I'll post it on here tomorrow when i'm back home in newcastle as the article is there - pretty sure its got references too


I would really like to read that cacti, if you don't post it could you tell me what MD magazine is please? can you get it from say...Smiths?

Thanks

SD


----------



## DB (Oct 31, 2003)

thats the only place i've seen it SD i but it quite a good read full of ads tho


----------



## winger (Jul 26, 2003)

dirty barry said:


> thats the only place i've seen it SD i but it quite a good read full of ads tho


What about pictures? I need pictures.:eek:


----------



## DB (Oct 31, 2003)

plenty of pics winger some nice birds in there occasionally but u wanna back order this time last year as they used to do bikini/naked built women in there every month


----------



## crazycacti (Jun 20, 2004)

MD is hard to get hold of here since its a US mag, but imo is tons better than flex - i love the 'priest confessional' - since i think lee priest is one of the only top pros that speaks his mind (him and craig titus)

Found the article - wasn't too interesting after a second look but i'll post any way (sorry about it being a little late  no comp in my student house atm) -

*Sauna decreases performance in Women, not Men* (MD, Aug 2004) -

'Larger people have an advantage over smaller onews in bb and power sports. BB comps are usually seperated into several weight catagories that include bantamweight, lightweight, middleweight, light-heavyweight, heavyweight and often super heavyweight for men and light, middle and heavyweight for women. Sports such as weightlifting, wrestling, judo and boxing use similar weight classes. Athletes competing in weight class sports often dehydrate to lose weight using a sauna or steam room.

Spanish researchers found that men lost nearly 2 litres of water and women 3 litres after one hour in a sauna (3x20 mins in 158-degrees F sauna, 5 mins rest between). Neither men nor women could restore resting body water lvls after 1 hr of drinking a standard sports drink. Following the attempt at rehydration, jumping performance decreased in women, but not in men. Decreases in performance were proportional to water losses.

This study showed that dehydration affected performance more in women than in men and that its difficult to restore body water after becoming dehydrated in a sauna.' (Int J Sports Med, 24:518-522, 2003)

Personally thought the last bit of the conclusion was a bit obvious!


----------



## ShreddedSteve (Jan 6, 2005)

yeah i agree, MD is one of, if not *the* best Bodybuilding mags. it has tons of ads yes but thats only cos every issue has roughly 400pages of beef  .

and it doesn't bull**** about steriods like FLEX does.

yeah i only know one shop which sells MD. and it only gets like 2 copies of it every month LOL luckily nobody at uni is in to bodybiulding so i can get MD every month no problem.


----------



## Eklektik (May 15, 2009)

more of a steam room fan than a sauna, the dry heat plays havoc with my asthma.... although interestingly enough a family friend stays in Sweden, went over there for new year in 2003 and was shown "how you really sauna" by his 19 year old swedish step-daughter...... it involved being naked in a sauna for 20 mins, rolling in the snow outside and jumping in a lake.... and it was -8 outside..... the one time in your life you'd have prayed for no shrinkage it went to pretty much an inny.....


----------



## SK-XO (Aug 6, 2009)

Sauna's are good tbh, but depends what your using them for, the time and how often. I would go for one maybe once or twice a week just to clean myself out, sweat all the rubbish out, open my pores, it feels good to go for a sauna.


----------

