For healthy individuals, soft tissue injuries eventually heal on their own. However, this can be a long, painful process. To speed up recovery, numerous experts recommend regularly sweating inside a personal indoor infrared sauna.

What happens to injured muscles when exposed to infrared heat? We’ll take an in-depth look.

Soft Tissue Injuries, Explained

Soft tissue injury refers to the damage to the body’s soft tissues, such as muscles, ligaments, or tendons. It is typically followed by bruising, some degree of movement loss on the hurt area, and swelling.

Soft Tissue Injuries that Benefit from Heat Therapy

There are several types of soft tissue injuries, and most of them respond well to infrared heat. A 20-minute session inside a personal sauna several times a week can help with:

• STRAINS
  
  This happens when you tear or overstretch your muscles or tendons. When a tendon is damaged, the connected muscle has a hard time performing its function.


• SPRAINS
  
  Not to be confused with strains, sprains are a result of tearing or overstretching the fibrous bands that link two bones which create a joint. These are different from tendons, which are cord-like tissues that connect muscle to bone.

Wrists, ankles, thumbs, and knees are some of the most common body parts to sustain sprains.


• BLUNT TRAUMA
  
  Specifically talking about muscle contusions, this type of soft tissue injury is a result of an impact such as in contact sports. This leads to swollen and bruised tissues and significantly limits physical movement.

Treating Soft Tissue Injuries with Infrared Heat

Infrared heat can penetrate as deep as two inches into the muscles, and this is an integral part of its healing properties. During your time inside a sauna, the intense heat does several things:

• Delivers oxygen and nutrients more efficiently to cells
  
  Blood circulation dramatically improves inside saunas. To regenerate, recover, and prevent infection, the cells need to receive plenty of nutrients. This is greatly facilitated during a sauna session.


• Provides pain relief
  
  Soft tissue injuries can be pretty painful, and painkillers can only do so much to alleviate the pain. Saunas provide a natural and relaxing alternative.


Dry heat relaxes muscles, relieves tension, and decreases soreness of the nerve endings. It also helps lower the occurrence of muscle spasms. These processes are vital to pain management.


• Detoxifies the body
  
  Heavy metals like mercury, zinc, and iron are these toxins that slow down healing. The profuse sweating you experience inside a sauna flushes out these toxins, allowing the cells to heal the injury properly.

Beyond Muscle Injury: Sauna Health Benefits

Infrared heat is incredibly effective at helping damaged soft tissues recover better and faster. But that’s just the start of the many health benefits that saunas offer.

Experience stress relief, lower risk of diseases, improved brain function, weight loss when you spend daily sessions inside your own in-home sauna.

JNH Lifestyles has an amazing line-up of infrared saunas, and our team is ready to answer your questions! From how much does a sauna cost to how to install and customize your sauna, get all the answers by calling us at 1-800-528-3110.