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Sauna effect on heart rate

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Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#211

Post by movie_fan25 »

chasebank wrote: post #201
shevy-java wrote: post #61

Well ... Finland life expectancy for 2023 was 81.69. Norway life expectancy for 2025 was 83.23. Japan life expectancy for 2025 was 85.27. Sumo wrestlers in Japan have a life expectancy between 60-65 years or so - significantly lower than the other japanese. I am not saying that sauna has no positive effect at all, but I would reason that the number one risk factor is ... weight. And I'd also still say that exercise i…

News at 9, shorter people on average live longer than taller people...

Unless you are from Norway or Finland, evidently.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#212

Post by dilyevsky »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #192
asdfman123 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW you should probably be doing some max intensity, or at least high intensity cardio. Zone 2 is great but the best health outcomes are from people who do high intensity exercise interspersed with zone 2 exercise.

This is contested by a significant number of contemporary running coaches (see, for example "Training for Uphill Athletes" by Steve Johnson or any of the life work of Phil Maffetone. HIIT is quite effective at something ; it's not clear that it is effective at all possible exercise goals (including, but not limited to, endurance running). Johnson in particular says that unless you've already narrowed the gap between…

Only z2 is for complete noobs. UA actually recommends 80/20 split between z1 and upper z3

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#213

Post by gcanyon »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #193
gcanyon wrote: post #38

N=1, but I started rowing (indoor, on an erg) an hour a day -- not hard, generally 120-140 bpm -- every day starting February 28, after rowing inconsistently for a year or more before that. My resting (not sleep) pulse has dropped by 10% over the past ~7 weeks, from 60 to 54.

General advice: citing absolute HR numbers is pretty meaningless for a broad audience, because they are not intepretable. Express them as percentages of your current max HR to be meaningful to others.

As I said, N=1 so the post was meaningless before I said another word :-)

For your benefit: my max is somewhere around 175, maybe 180, which is high for my age.

I'm also unusual in that even my max heart rate doesn't lead to lactic acid buildup, for what it's worth.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#214

Post by barnabyjones »

monkpit wrote: post #157
asdfman123 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Athletes already know the answer from years of cultural knowledge, research, and firsthand experience. No, it doesn't make your cardio fitness meaningfully better. If you did sauna training for years and then tried to ramp up for a marathon, you'd be hopelessly out of shape. Endurance athletes obsessively track VO2 max, basically your body's ability to consume oxygen during workouts, and it certainly doesn't improve…

You’ve honed in specifically on VO2 but what about cardio health in general? Like light treadmill, not like a demanding marathon.

Without exercise, you won't burn ATP and thus won't increase mitochondrial count.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#215

Post by havella »

bluGill wrote: post #6
kyriakosel wrote: post #2

Author here. Methodology upfront because I'd ask the same things: Data: daily records from wearable users who logged sauna sessions via connected apps. Within-person design — each user is their own control, comparing their own sauna-day nights against their own non-sauna-day nights. No cross-user comparisons. Stats: paired t-tests, FDR-corrected p 0.2 threshold for "meaningful effect." Anything below d=0.2 we don't r…

The most important thing you didn't measure: does this affect long term health in the same way exercise it known to. That is can I put a TV in my sauna and watch that for an hour every day instead of getting out and exercising - yet get the same better long term health outcomes? My current guess is no. That is this improves a marker for good health without improving health. However this is a guess by someone who isn'…

This question is dead from the beginning. Exercise is good for the heart, the muscles, metabolism. You do need muscle contractions above certain level of intensity and duration for this to happen.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#216

Post by [deleted] »

kyriakosel wrote: post #2

Author here. Methodology upfront because I'd ask the same things: Data: daily records from wearable users who logged sauna sessions via connected apps. Within-person design — each user is their own control, comparing their own sauna-day nights against their own non-sauna-day nights. No cross-user comparisons. Stats: paired t-tests, FDR-corrected p 0.2 threshold for "meaningful effect." Anything below d=0.2 we don't r…

[deleted]

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#217

Post by michaelteter »

My anecdotal experience:

TLDR: regular sauna seems to have no effect on my resting HR. Extended high HR cardio definitely does.

I became a huge fan of sauna time (15-20 minutes at approx 175F/80C... I would prefer a bit warmer, but I had no control). It was like shower time, or meditation time (which I never took time for). Great thinking time. I'd use it after a workout, but I would also use it on days without a workout.

I've been tracking some stats via my Garmin watch for a few years, and I've identified some patterns - particularly regarding resting HR.

The most significant reducer of resting heart rate for me is running (5k). Periods where my training includes regular 5k runs cause my resting HR to drop by 5-8 bpm.

Most of my training is resistance, although in the last 6 months I've added in a lot more cardio. Stairs and rowing do not seem to noticeably reduce my resting HR. Running definitely does. But to be fair, maybe it's not the running but rather the active HR I'm sustaining. Despite trying to stay in the aerobic zone, running always pushes me to zones 4 and 5. So 50% of my 30 minutes of exercise will be in my max zone. With stairs or rowing, I can keep my HR in aerobic and threshold.

Some stats:

When I'm off my fitness routine, living life as a typical person, my resting HR is 65. When I'm on a resistance fitness routine, my resting HR is 58. When I'm also running, the rHR is 51.

If I eat a heavy meal too close to bedtime, my rHR is +15. If I drink a lot of alcohol before sleeping, rHR can be +20! Food + alcohol = WTF. Probably not good.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#218

Post by jampekka »

mcv wrote: post #179
jampekka wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

95 is high for Finnish saunas in Finland at least. Public saunas are very rarely so hot here, and few like it that hot. Edit: to put it into some numbers, per one study[1] Finnish sauna sessions were on average at 75.9°C with SD 9.9°C. If we assume normal distribution, that means that more than 97 % of sauna sessions are at [1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6262976/

I actually like them that hot. I look for 90+ saunas, and once was in one that claimed to be over 100. Although I have no idea how accurate that is. They're very bearable to me. But if they're not bearable, of course you should look for a sauna that's not quite as hot. Or at least stay low; the higher you sit, the hotter it is.

You can have over 100°C. The amount of steam is a crucial factor. Even over 100°C doesn't feel that hot if it's dry, but at higher temperatures the "löyly profile" often becomes quite harsh.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#220

Post by Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe »

Tor3 wrote: post #203
kyriakosel wrote: post #2

Author here. Methodology upfront because I'd ask the same things: Data: daily records from wearable users who logged sauna sessions via connected apps. Within-person design — each user is their own control, comparing their own sauna-day nights against their own non-sauna-day nights. No cross-user comparisons. Stats: paired t-tests, FDR-corrected p 0.2 threshold for "meaningful effect." Anything below d=0.2 we don't r…

From the article: "..promotes sweating and therefore the elimination of toxins,.." That false statement really makes me unsure about the quality of the article. And I'm saying this as someone who uses sauna daily, when possible (I have one at home, and I grew up with saunas). "De-toxification" by sweating is a myth. Sweat glands are very simple organs (think salt on one side, which results in pressure, i.e. osmosis)…

> You'll be much better off peeing.

Actually, the rate of blood filtration by kidney glomerulae is pretty constant and independent of the amount of urine in your bladder. Except if you overflow to the point of drowning your kidney of course.

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