Why do you need a sauna after a workout? All about beneficial properties

Sweating has long been known for its beneficial properties. Studies by Harvard scientists have shown that the Mayan people had special buildings for thermal procedures as early as 3,000 years ago. In Finland, the tradition of steaming in the sauna goes back 1000 years. Russia is also known for its love of banya.

Why are baths and saunas so popular and do not give up their positions to this day? Despite the fact that thermal procedures have a number of limitations and even contraindications, in general, the sauna is beneficial for the body.

Sauna types

IN different countries baths and saunas are different from each other. Usually this is a room or a separate building, where the temperature rises to 70-100 degrees with the help of a wood-burning or electric stove. Body temperature can rise up to 40 degrees.

Traditional Finnish saunas are dry, while Turkish hammam and Russian baths are wet.

There are also infrared saunas, which can often be found in fitness centers or set up at home. In them, the air does not heat up, and the thermal effect is carried out on a person using infrared lamps.

Benefit for health

Regardless of the type of sauna, the effect on the body is almost the same with a few exceptions. When the body is heated, the heart rate increases, the vessels expand, blood circulation improves and blood pressure normalizes. Not only this, but also stress reduction affects the improvement of cardiac activity. The Finns have an expression "you go into the sauna and close the door to the rest of the world." Going to the sauna is like meditation. Of course, we are not talking about the Russian tradition of bathing with beer and salty snacks. You need to bathe in a calm, relaxed state, while drinking enough water, only then you can get real benefits.

A large-scale study in Finland, which lasted 20 years, showed that visiting the sauna 4-7 times a week by 63%, and 2-3 times a week by 22% reduces the risk of unexpected death from cardiovascular diseases.

Another Finnish study showed that there is an association between regular sauna use and a reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia. There is no definite evidence for this yet, but statistics show that the sauna has a beneficial effect on brain health.

Pain relief

A visit to the steam room relaxes the muscles and relieves pain/discomfort in the joints. In the sauna, we release endorphins, which are natural painkillers. Improved blood circulation contributes to the rapid healing of injuries and muscle recovery. After serious physical exertion, visiting the sauna is undesirable, but taking a steam bath the next day will not only be pleasant, but also useful in order to put the muscles in order.

Slimming in the bath

Contrary to popular belief, sauna does not burn fat. But regular visits to the sauna really contribute to weight loss, as blood circulation and metabolism improve. Together with sweat, decay products are excreted, which prevent the body from functioning qualitatively. In addition, in the bath we lose a lot of fluid, and consequently, a certain number of kilograms.

Improved skin condition

If you regularly bathe, you will soon notice that the condition of the skin has improved significantly. This is facilitated by the improvement of blood circulation in general, the removal of toxins from sweat, relaxation, cleansing of the pores and the use of cosmetics intended for the bath. Before you go to steam, you should thoroughly cleanse the skin. After the first visit, you can use a peeling or scrub, and after the second - a clay-based cleansing mask. Such masks are not only for the face, but also for the body. After the sauna, do not forget to thoroughly moisturize the skin.

The Russian bath often involves a "massage" with brooms. This ritual not only improves blood circulation, but also helps to increase the movement of lymph, as well as cleanse the skin.

Safety

Studies in Finland, Canada and Japan have shown that 15 minutes in the sauna in most cases does not harm even those who have heart problems. If you can walk for 30 minutes or go up to the 3rd or 4th floor without stopping, then you can safely go steaming. But if in doubt, it is better to consult with a cardiologist.

If your pressure jumps, there is a strong arrhythmia, you have had a heart attack or heart surgery, it is better to refuse to visit the bath.

Drinking alcohol should be avoided before and during sauna visits. To avoid vascular problems, it's best not to experiment with an ice font or jumping into the snow. Many nations have these traditions, but cardiologists believe that for health of cardio-vascular system a contrast shower is better than such a sharp stress. Steam for no longer than 15-20 minutes, drink clean water or weak tea, and after the sauna, be sure to rest.

Some people go to the bath just to wash themselves, some love the rustic bath spirit. There are those for whom visiting the bath is a whole ritual ritual. Now baths are not only the privilege of the villagers, they are being built everywhere, even in megacities.

From time immemorial, our ancestors have used bathhouses for medicinal purposes. In the heat of the bath, metabolic processes are enhanced, blood flow and sweating are accelerated. Go to the bath no more than once or twice a week and your body's resistance to various infections will increase significantly. Many use in steam rooms, specially prepared twigs from birch, oak and other branches. Take a steam bath with a birch whisk and become many times more cheerful and active, and the oak one will remove excess toxins and harmful substances from the body.

According to original Russian traditions, spring or well water was used in the baths. Medicinal properties pure water was never in doubt. After the steam room, be sure to rinse with cool water to avoid overheating your body. Throwing yourself into icy water or a snowdrift is very dangerous for beginners, this can lead to severe illnesses.

Visiting the bath on an empty stomach, you can lose weight, but you need to do this regularly. In this case, cool down after the steam room slowly so as not to delay sweating. It is not recommended to overeat when going to the bath. A feeling of heaviness in the esophagus will ruin your mood and make you feel worse. Magical elasticity and tenderness is acquired by human skin after steam baths.

But do not overdo it, frequent bathing gatherings can adversely affect your health. Exacerbation of chronic diseases will lead to severe disorders in the body. You need to go to the bathhouse not only in winter to keep warm, but also in the heat. As a result of increased sweating, not only the water-salt metabolism in the body of each person improves, but also appetite, and even. In the summer stuffiness, after a bath, you will again feel refreshed and cheerful.

Avoid cold drinks such as mineral water, juice or ice cold beer. They are able to cool only the esophagus, but not the temperature of the whole body. To improve your well-being, hot herbal tea can best. The use of alcoholic beverages when visiting the steam room or bath is strictly prohibited.

Among the elderly, there is a belief that from 12 at night, dark forces come to the bathhouse to take a steam bath. At such a time, they no longer went to wash, it was necessary to have time before dark. Believe it or not, it is not clear now, but doctors do not recommend doing this late at night. The human body gets tired by the end of the day, so there will be practically no beneficial effect when taking bath procedures at such a time.

There are people with serious diseases of the cardiovascular system. Elderly people and children should always be supervised there.

The bath carries the healing power of nature and the positive energy of our ancestors. But you should not turn a visit to the bathhouse into an entertainment event, especially with unfamiliar people and drinking alcohol.

Today, many fitness clubs offer their guests to use the sauna after an intense workout. The choice is striking in variety: at your service and, and Finnish sauna with dry steam, and a traditional Russian steam room ...

However, is exposure to high temperatures immediately after a workout really good for the body? Let's figure it out together.

What happens to the body in the sauna?

The principle of any sauna is a powerful thermal effect on the skin. For example, in a dry sauna, the temperature can reach 120°C! Burns are avoided by the low relative humidity of the air. In a humid sauna, the temperature is about 70 degrees at 90% humidity, so it can feel like a Russian bath is hotter. The least burden is created by staying in the hammam: at 100% humidity, the temperature in the Turkish bath is “only” 50 degrees.

In principle, the effect of a sauna after a workout is assessed by experts as positive. The fact is that the inevitable expansion under the influence of temperature blood vessels improves peripheral blood supply and makes the heart muscle work faster and more efficiently.

The need to maintain a constant temperature inside the body triggers the natural process of detoxification. At the same time, increased blood flow due to the expanded blood vessels helps to remove toxins from even the most inaccessible areas, such as bones and paranasal sinuses.

In addition, the accumulated is removed much faster in the sauna, which means that recovery after training occurs at an accelerated pace. blood circulation, as the body tries to maintain a constant basal body temperature. And the muscles themselves after the sauna, in the meantime, are released from the resulting stress, so that you literally feel with your skin how the tension gradually releases, giving way to the desired relaxation. By the way, after visiting the sauna and healthy sleep, most likely, you will not even feel it!

What's the catch?

Of course, a lot more can be said about the benefits of saunas and baths. ABOUT therapeutic effect steam rooms. However, there are situations when visiting the bath is contraindicated. You can read more about this in an article on our website:

Sauna contraindications

But even if you do not have any contraindications, it is worth taking into account a few useful tips about how to properly bathe after a workout.

1. During exercise, sweat is intense, so exposure to high temperatures immediately after exercise increases the risk of dehydration. Be sure to drink at least 700 ml of water before entering the steam room.
2. Do not exceed the recommended time spent in the sauna. For dry saunas, the “threshold” is 15-20 minutes; in a Turkish bath, you can stay a little longer.
3. When sitting in the sauna, be sure to use a towel. For public baths and saunas is a necessary hygiene requirement.
4. If you suddenly feel unwell, leave the steam room immediately, even if you just entered.
5. Once out of the steam room, take some time to stretch your muscles to remove the lactic acid residue and rest for a while before leaving the fitness club. Great solution will be a cup of green tea, drunk in a fitness bar. To restore the water balance, ordinary water without gas is also suitable. But alcohol after training should not be consumed.

Have a good workout!

On the one hand, the question is: does a modern person need a bath? may seem rhetorical, but on the other hand, it is advisable to answer it before starting to build your own steam room.

Majority modern people is not going to give up bath procedures, even despite the fact that every apartment today has a bathroom, jacuzzi or shower. Going to the bathhouse is a heritage of the culture of the Russian people, which has come down to us from distant ancestors. Although the exact time of the appearance in Rus' of the first steam rooms is still unknown.

According to ancient chronicles, the ritual of cleansing the body and spirit originates in the 5th-6th centuries. Since those times, regular visits to the baths have become an integral part of the life of a Russian person. They say that it was the desire for cleanliness that saved our people from cholera, which raged in Western Europe in the Middle Ages and claimed about 25 million people.

But even despite such clear evidence of positive characteristics water procedures, European people did not appreciate the experience of Russia and still avoided going to the bathhouse. Some sources say that in her entire life, the Spanish Queen Isabella of Castile bathed only a couple of times - on her birthday and before her wedding. A french Louis XIV advised his subjects to use perfume more to block the unpleasant smell from clothes and body.

Many more decades passed before Europe appreciated all the charm and “usefulness” of bath procedures.

Why do you need a bath today?

Despite the fact that modern man has all the benefits of civilization: saunas, baths, showers, he still strives to go to the bath. Moreover, those who do not have their own steam room visit commercial paid establishments.

The modern bath has long ceased to be a simple place for washing. Today they go to it for a comfortable stay with friends. That is, the bath also acts as a kind of human entertainment.

Wellness characteristics of the bath

For a long time no one argues with the statement that the bath has a great therapeutic effect. Having steamed, the human body receives a unique effect that cannot be achieved in the bathroom, massage room or on the therapist's table.

The bath allows:

• Strengthen the protective functions of the body;
• Normalize pressure;
• Cleanse the skin;
• Disperse the circulatory system;
• Accelerate wound healing;
• Calm the nervous system;
• Accelerate the treatment of hemorrhoids, asthma, neuritis, sciatica, sciatica, diabetes, rheumatism and other ailments;
• Raise your spirits and improve your mood.

To sweat means to lose weight

The accelerated pace of life and malnutrition have led to the fact that the mass of modern people suffer from excess weight. In order to reduce it, they spend considerable sums on charlatans-healers, torture themselves with expensive diets and overseas drugs, and go under the knife of surgeons. But the most in a simple way weight loss is a visit to a hot steam room, but, of course, subject to certain rules:

• Do not stay in the steam room for too long;
• The procedures should be short, but frequent: take a steam bath for 5-6 minutes, relax in the dressing room, wrapping yourself in a warm blanket and sweating well;
• During the rest it is recommended to refrain from drinking water;
• Return to the steam room again, etc.

Several short-term procedures have a high effect, allowing you to drive excess weight without harm to health. If after visiting the bath you want to drink, then you need to use more fruit and vegetable fruit drinks.

Modern nutritionists say with confidence that regular visits to the steam room in combination with physical exercises and a balanced diet allow you to quickly get rid of extra 10-15 kg. This is due to the fact that in a heated steam room, oxidative processes are accelerated, which increase metabolism and burn fats.

Who can't take a bath

Unfortunately, a modern person may suffer from various diseases in which it is not recommended to go to the bath:

• Exacerbation of any disease;
• Heart diseases: myocarditis, endocarditis, peritonitis;
• Diseases accompanied by fever;
• myocardial infarction;
• Heart disease with symptoms of tachycardia;
• Any stage of hypertension on the background of renal or heart failure;
• brain injury;
• Acute sclerosis of vessels;
• Anemia;
• Pulmonary tuberculosis;
• Epilepsy;
• Ulcer with occasional bleeding;
• Hepatitis;
• Inflammation of the skin;
• Acute ailments of the ears and eyes.

Conclusion

Thus, the question of the need for a bath for modern man has only a positive response. Refusal to visit the steam room is not only meaningless, but also not reasonable. Go to the bathhouse with friends and relatives, build it on your own plot and be happy!

In the Russian North, from ancient times, childbirth took place in baths. It was convenient: a small building kept warm for a long time (which is important in a harsh climate), it was possible to pour water on the floor and wash the baby at any time, and the absence of bright light and strangers had a good effect on the condition of the woman in labor and the child.

In addition, the mystical meaning of childbirth was observed. Each person was born where the world of people intersected with other world, got used to the new reality for several days and only then, as it were, passed into the light, to people.

The midwife was responsible for making sure the crossing was safe and no evil forces could harm. To this end, she performed a lot of actions of a magical nature: she fumigated the room, threw stones into every corner, agreed with Bannik about the successful outcome of the case.
The midwife was not only a midwife, but also a children's orthopedist. It was believed that the baby would not develop on its own as it should be, so the body of the newborn needs to be “ruled” - massaged and, as it were, “sculpted” the future person.

These manipulations were performed high temperatures when the bath was hot. Although, from the point of view modern medicine, such actions are very doubtful for the health of the child, this practice has been centuries-old.
If everything went well, then the midwife put up a pole with a mother's shirt in front of the door of the bathhouse as a sign that it was already possible to go inside to visit the woman in labor and the child.