If you are an athlete, a gym rat, or a person who has an occupation that requires you to do a lot of physical labor, then you know all too well about the length of time it takes to allow muscle recovery. However, long periods of rest and being immobile are something of the past, because many sports medicine professionals are standing by the benefits of infrared sauna use.

Is There A Difference Between A Far Infrared Sauna And A Traditional Sauna?

To put it simply, yes there is. A traditional sauna uses high heat and steam to promote sweating; whereas an infrared sauna works at lower temperatures using infrared technology that penetrates the body and generates a dry heat.

A traditional sauna can heat up swiftly and cause you to sweat excessively from your body, which can be very uncomfortable for many people. On the other hand, the heat that is produced by an infrared sauna isn’t as high, safely penetrates into the muscles and joints and doesn’t leave you soaked and drowning in your own sweat, like traditional saunas.

The benefits of using a sauna with infrared technology outweigh traditional because infrared wavelengths can reach deeper into the layers of the skin without the suffocating humidity to heat up the body rather than the air. Because of this, an infrared sauna can increase the body’s core temperature, resulting in a deeper sweat that originates from the cellular level of the skin where many toxins lie and accumulate.

After you ask how much does a sauna cost, you should ask about the average temperature inside an infrared unit. You will be surprised to learn that a one person sauna using infrared technology has a cooler temperature at 110-140°F, rather than a traditional version of the same sauna that operates at a temperature of 180-190°F. This is important to know since a person can tolerate longer infrared sauna therapy sessions, which results in more sweat production.

Additionally, when sweat produced from an infrared sauna was analyzed, it revealed to contain 80% water and 20% toxins whereas traditional sauna use produces sweat containing 97% water and 3% toxins.

How Does Infrared Sauna Use Help You To Recover After A Workout?

Many hardcore muscle-building fanatics might tell you that there is no such thing as training too much, but under recovering is the issue at hand.

What they mean to say is that as long as you take care of yourself during the recovery process, you can train as much as you like and go as hard as you can. Some people in this position, make sure they get enough sleep, manage their stress, get a massage and go for recovery walks, but an infrared sauna is also a very effective and powerful tool for muscle recovery.

Also, an infrared sauna can be an amazing tool helping you take your training to a whole new level. If you use an infrared sauna daily, you can increase your training volume and intensity.

Here are some specific benefits you can anticipate seeing when you regularly use an infrared sauna

Get A Reduction In Muscle Soreness, Pain and Joint Immobility

If you love being active, and have to because of your daily routine or work commitments, then you probably suffer from muscle aches and pains. That is why after a workout, it is recommended to settle in a warm and relaxing infrared sauna.

Sitting in an infrared sauna is a very effective way to combat sore muscles and pain. It has been proven long ago that heat is an adequate source for pain relief that stiff and sore muscles bring on.

When your body gets a good dose of warmth, it helps blood circulate better and travel to the affected areas while also helping in the healing process of any damaged tissues. When you increase your body’s blood flow, the stiffness you are experiencing decreases, which means you will begin to feel relief from the pain of sore muscles and tissues.

Infrared saunas use warm energy to heal the body. The heat and light that is emitted from an infrared sauna are easy for the body to absorb and to use as healing energy. This gentle light and heat deeply penetrate the tissues and muscles and repairs the damage.

Using a far infrared sauna is an ideal way to take your training to another level to quickly and effectively allowing muscles to recover and aiding in increasing and improving muscle flexibility.

How Does An Infrared Heat Stop Pain?

Pain ceases to exist within the nerve endings. When you stop feeling pain, the muscles around the nerves have ceased contracting. Only when this happens can the body get pain relief since it begins to relax into the healing process.

As you enjoy the heat from a far infrared sauna, it also provides pain reduction. This happens because there is an increase in endorphin release and a decrease in stress levels. Far infrared heat encourages B-endorphin levels and ACTH levels reduce which helps pain reduction. Plus, these endorphins boost your mood as your pain symptoms decrease.

The heat from an infrared sauna penetrates tissues, joints and muscles which increases blood flow to promote better circulation. As a result, this infrared heat will reduce pain and muscle spasms to help the body to relax and heal naturally.

Practicing infrared sauna therapy, especially after exercise, has many advantages as well. The reason being is that infrared heat can reduce the amount of lactic acid that builds up in your muscles. Lactic acid is notorious for causing muscles to ache and feel sore after doing strenuous exercise.

So after your workout, make it a point to sit in your far infrared sauna to let the wavelengths penetrate deep into your muscles to increase blood circulation in your cells. The boost in blood flow delivers fresh nutrients and oxygen to your drained and exhausted muscle cells and gets rid of waste products created including lactic acid. This provides remarkably fast recovery time to get you back to your workout schedule in no time!