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Sauna Hype

Adding a sauna after cycling training gave no extra gain in hemoglobin mass or aerobic fitness

The 2022 Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport trial put 13 men through two four-week training blocks in random order. One block added a 30-minute sauna after each session.

The paper

Hematological Adaptations to Post-Exercise Sauna Bathing With No Fluid Intake: A Randomized Cross-Over Study

Sitkowski D, Cisoń T, Szygula Z, Surała O, et al.. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 2022;93(4):795-803.

Read the paper ↗PubMed 34727008 ↗

See the study at a glance

Design
Randomized crossover trial
People
13 men
Who they were
Male physical education students.
What they did
Sixty minutes of cycling three times a week. In the sauna block the men spent 30 minutes at 89°C and about 10% humidity after each ride and weren't allowed to drink. A 10-week washout separated the blocks.
How long
Two four-week blocks

These numbers came out of it

None

Adding the sauna to training produced no extra gain in hemoglobin mass or in aerobic fitness measured as peak oxygen uptake.

30 min

Each ride in the sauna block ended with 30 minutes in an 89°C sauna. Drinking wasn't allowed.

10 weeks

A 10-week break separated the two training blocks.

The researchers did this

Thirteen male physical education students did two four-week blocks of cycling in random order. They rode 60 minutes three times a week.Source 1 · Crossover trialHematological Adaptations to Post-Exercise Sauna Bathing With No Fluid Intake: A Randomized Cross-Over StudySitkowski D, Cisoń T, Szygula Z, et al.. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 2022.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ In one block they followed each ride with 30 minutes in a sauna at 89°C and about 10% humidity, and they weren't allowed to drink. A 10-week washout separated the blocks.

Hemoglobin mass (the total oxygen-carrying hemoglobin in the blood) and peak oxygen uptake (a measure of aerobic fitness) rose in both blocks. The sauna block showed no measurable extra gain, and the authors concluded that the sauna added no benefit.

The 2007 study of six runners didn't report whether its blocks came in random order.Source 2 · Crossover trialEffect of post-exercise sauna bathing on the endurance performance of competitive male runnersScoon GS, Hopkins WG, Mayhew S, et al.. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 2007.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ This trial randomized them. Because its volunteers were students, the result speaks more to people in general training than to competitive athletes.

The study can't tell you these things

  • Thirteen men is a small group, and small trials can miss modest effects.
  • The men weren't allowed to drink in the sauna, so the trial can't say what happens when people drink during and after a session.
  • We worked from the abstract, and it doesn't give the size of each change.
  • The volunteers were male students, and each block lasted only four weeks.

We cited these sources

  1. 01Sitkowski D, Cisoń T, Szygula Z, Surała O, Starczewski M, Sadowska D, et al.. Hematological Adaptations to Post-Exercise Sauna Bathing With No Fluid Intake: A Randomized Cross-Over Study. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. 2022;93(4):795-803. doi:10.1080/02701367.2021.1921684 PMID 34727008
  2. 02Scoon GS, Hopkins WG, Mayhew S, Cotter JD. Effect of post-exercise sauna bathing on the endurance performance of competitive male runners. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. 2007;10(4):259-262. doi:10.1016/j.jsams.2006.06.009 PMID 16877041