Sauna therapy has become a phenomenon in recovering muscles for athletes and professional trainers over the years. It aims to ease physical pain, reduce stress and improve cardiovascular health after intense workouts. To achieve further effectiveness, the role of nutrition also plays a huge part in sauna therapy in which proper nutrition before or after workouts can enhance the benefits of sauna sessions by promoting electrolyte replenishment, hydration, and the provision of vital nutrients for the repair of muscles. Let Sun Stream dive into some key tips that you can easily implement in your fitness journey to achieve better results in getting a sauna.
1. Hydration:
Keeping your body hydrated before, during and after the sauna sessions plays a crucial part in determining if the sauna session has a positive impact on your body or not. With a physiological basis, the elevated temperatures caused by exposure to a sauna may create responses from the body by sweating and raising the body heat. Such natural responses explain why getting the sauna session may produce the experience of the process of fluid loss and dehydrate your body.
At SunStream, we highly encourage our consumers to stay hydrated and drink more water not only after the sauna sessions but also throughout the day to replenish lost fluids. Choosing drinks for healthy hydration also plays a huge part. Soft drinks may only give you the fake response of rehydration and quench your thirst but in fact, high levels of sugar content actually dehydrate your body significantly. Pure water and other electrolyte-rich beverages, such as sports drinks or coconut water, are all good choices when it comes to restoring electrolyte balance and hydration for your body after the sauna sessions.
2. Pre-Sauna Nutrition Snacks
Having a healthy snack before using a sauna increases the sauna’s ability to aid in the recovery of muscles. The perfect snacks before a sauna session must include light and easily digestible foods to avoid discomfort and ensure your positive sauna experience later on. Also, for professional athletes, enhancing the process of muscle recovery and building up more muscles are two top priorities where balanced meals with rich nutrition are a must. A combination of healthy fats, proteins, and carbohydrates is scientifically proven to promote muscle function and give long-lasting energy for such intense workouts. A few examples you could make for yourself pre-sauna meals could be a banana and nut butter, a small smoothie made with yoghurt and fruit, or a lean protein sandwich made with whole grains.
3. Post-exercise balanced meal
As important as pre-sauna snacks, a post-exercise balanced meal is required for sauna users. During the sauna sessions, the body may experience nutrient loss and cause a depletion of glycogen stores which is a form of stored carbohydrates in muscles that fosters muscle repair and muscle growth.
Post-sauna nutritious meals may effectively help replenish glycogen stores, restore energy levels and provide amino acids for muscle repair. A protein-rich choice of food is way more crucial here whereby proteins significantly increase the efficiency of muscle glycogen storage and amino acids, therefore, improving the process of sauna muscle recovery. Specifically, the amino acids found in protein serve as the building blocks for the rebuilding and repair of muscle tissues that may have been damaged by micro tears or stress from exercise or heat stress in a sauna.
4. Take A Recovery Supplement
While adding nutritious food to your diet should be the main emphasis of recovery, using recovery supplements after a sauna session is also highly helpful. Sweating in a sauna can lead to the loss of essential energy sources, minerals, and electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Considering taking electrolyte supplements is important for muscle function, nerve transmission, and maintaining fluid balance in the body.
For more information about how a sauna session can actually help your overall well-being and the benefits of sauna therapy in muscle recovery, don’t hesitate to contact us today!