Sauna effect on heart rate • Hacker News Board

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#241

Post by asdfman123 » Wed, Apr 22, 2026, 6:18 PM UTC

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…

The types of people who've narrowed the gap are already well trained endurance athletes.

If your long term average is 180 minutes a week of cardio, you're not an advanced endurance athlete. You're probably middle of the pack in the fun run.

No offense, that's still admirable, but you can use your time much better than just doing only zone 2.

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#242

Post by derektank » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:32 PM UTC

Jtarii wrote: post #168

derektank wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems like a very strong statement. Isn’t there evidence that Heat Shock Proteins are produced in response to time in the sauna, which have beneficial effects on muscle growth and repair?

>which have beneficial effects on muscle growth and repair? Repair from what?

Mechanical stress, i.e. exercise

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#243

Post by httpsterio » Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

Tor3 wrote: post #206

httpsterio wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh what? I can easily sit in a sauna for an hour without breaks as long as it has some type of ventilation. Smoke saunas a bit less, electric or wood stove saunas no issue. It's nice to take a breather once in a while but I'd honestly have no issues sitting in a 80-90 deg sauna for an hour as long as I have enough to drink with me. One time I sat in the sauna for six hours with a few breaks between with a group of f…

At which temperature?

The one event where we say and drank, it was about 90 deg celcius and lots of water on the stove (löyly).

Re: Sauna effect on heart rate

#244

Post by eggy » Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 2:23 AM UTC

jrussino wrote: post #171

eggy wrote: post #112

A delta of 3 bpm on sauna days corresponds to around 4% delta if the baseline is 72 bpm. I've gone from a resting heart rate over a 7-day average of 64 bpm to 58 bpm by jumping 15 min. of rope a day, 4 times a week. I've lost weight, body fat, and I feel like my body is more efficient with corresponding lower heart rates throughout my active day. I like saunas for recovery and aches, they put me in a relaxed state af…

> I've gone from a resting heart rate over a 7-day average of 64 bpm to 58 bpm by jumping 15 min. of rope a day, 4 times a week. Over how long of a time period?

Everytime I start jumping rope after a long break like Winter. It immediately starts trending lower a few points in 3 to 4 days, and plateaus after 6 weeks or so. I've averages as low as 54 bpm, but not as consistent as 58 to 60 bpm over a six month period. Granted, I tend to sleep better, have lower stress anecdotally and quantifiably by my Garmin watch's data. It has to be said that I usually add more exercise, because the rope jumping greases the skids so to speak. Good begets good.