Sauna Therapy Significantly Enhances Fitness Post Exercise.

Regular exercise and sauna bathing have each been shown to improve cardiovascular function in clinical trials. However, experimental data on the cardiovascular adaptations to regular exercise in conjunction with sauna bathing in the general population are lacking.

Therefore, a study at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland, by Earric Lee and co. in 2022, compared the effects of exercise and sauna bathing to regular exercise using a multi-arm randomized controlled trial.

The results found that whilst regular exercise improved CRF (cardiorespiratoty fitness) and body composition in sedentary adults with CVD risk factors, when combined with exercise, sauna bathing demonstrated a substantially supplementary effect on CRF, systolic BP, and total cholesterol levels.

Sauna therapy can be used as a tool post exercise to substantially improve cardiovascular fitness and reduce cardiovascular disease risk factors.