By now you may know we are big fans of hormetic stressors like breathwork, exercise, cold therapy, and doing storywork. We are also big fans of heat therapy too! We know that heat therapy via sauna (Finnish style) or far infrared light sauna can provide many benefits like improving our stress responses, cellular and mitochondrial repair, cardiovascular and blood pressure health, and help our body detox better from environmental toxins. So how do we get these benefits of heat therapy if we don’t have access to a sauna? Here are our top ways to get started.
Find A Way To Get Hot & Sweat
The simplest of ways are to:
- Go for a weighted hike (put a backpack on, weight vest, or carry dumbbells or a kettlebell)
- Workout in a sweatshirt and keep it on
- Take a warm bath and keep adding warm water every 5-10 minutes until you find yourself sweating (check your neck/head). Hot tubs can work the same way, yet the chemicals in hot tub may counteract the detoxing benefits, depending on what chemicals are in there and at what level
Some other ways to get some heat therapy include going to a local gym or spa to get in one of their saunas (higher temp) or far infrared light saunas (still warm and red light based). Or if you really want to invest, buy your own for your house like a Sauna Space or find a Finnish style Sauna for the more intense heat exposure.
Lastly, if you choose to start doing heat therapy, always make sure you’re staying properly hydrated before, during and after with our favorite electrolytes LMNT! Taking it one minute at a time is a smart idea too. Often when you first start out, you may need to do less time to ease in to it. And on the flip side, you may need to stay in longer in order to start sweating. In time, your body usually adjusts and you can start sweating sooner, which means you don’t need to be in as long. The recommended time to be in the sauna for benefits ranges from 5-20 minutes, depending on how hot it is, and when you start sweating.
So go get started if you’re wanting to improve your health with a new fun way! Let us know how it goes by sending us a DM on IG @proclivity.co, or by booking a free call with us if you have more questions and want to chat.
