Saunas

I love saunas. Lately I've been using them whenever I can right in the middle of a training session.

"RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE???" you say?

Yup.

Check this out. It's written by one of my favorite authors, Christian Thibaudeau

Intra-workout sauna to make you bigger and leaner!

Back in the 60s Larry Scott (the first ever Mr.Olympia) use to claim that short stints in the sauna taken during a workout could increase growth hormone production. When I first read about that claim I did find it a bit unscientific and kinda dismissed it as just another ''theory'' that some old-timers had in the past. So I put that sauna theory in some remote part of my brain right next to fond memories of the good ole Cybergenic stack!

However after doing some research on recovery methods used by european athletes I came across a lot of information that brought Scott's theory in the ''hey, there might be something there'' portion of my brain.

Turns out that not only do sauna at 80-120 degrees really do increase growth hormone production (by around 150%) but some studies actually found it to also increase testosterone and noradrenaline levels. Taken together these changes can help you stimulate more fat loss as well as muscle gain (Lammintausta et al. 1976, Kukkonen et al. 1989 and 1988).

One study (Jezova et al. 1994) also found something interesting when it comes to cortisol levels. During the first 15 minutes of sauna exposure, cortisol levels in the body decreased. After the 15 minutes mark, they started to increase.

Interestingly, these findings support Scott's recommendations of going in the sauna for 5-7 minutes a few times during your workout. 5-7 minutes bouts will help you elevate growth hormone, testosterone and noradrenaline levels while also lowering cortisol production! This would obviously put your body in a slightly more anabolic state as well as facilitate fat loss.

If you are lucky enough to be training in a gym where there is a sauna available you can use Scott's protocol by going in the sauna 2-3 times during your workout. I personally use the method by going in the sauna between my exercises for a muscle group.