What is best for weight loss steam room or sauna
Boost Metabolism: Steamroom vs. Sauna - Which is Better? - Thomas DeLauer
hey guys it's Thomas de Lauer with
optimize CEO and one of the questions
that I get bombarded with a lot is what
is better a sauna or a steam room and
they're both great you know we all know
the benefits of them you can increase
your metabolism you get that increased
blood flow you get a little bit of an
increase in tissue repair yeah the
things are awesome but which one are we
really supposed to use which one is
going to get us more benefit make us
feel better and really help us get
through our day that much more than the
other but first let's take a look at
what the difference is between a sauna
and a steam room really our aside from
the obvious where a steam room is going
to be obviously higher humidity and a
sauna is going to be dry we have to look
at things like this a sauna is generally
much much hotter running at like 160 to
200 degrees Fahrenheit
whereas a steam room doesn't have to be
nearly as hot because it's sealed and
that humidity
creates the sensation of a lot more heat
they're usually only sitting between 100
and 120 degrees so although you may
sweat more in a steam room you're really
not getting as much heat as you are in a
sauna now steam rooms and saunas are
proven to have a lot of good metabolic
effects in fact they're really kind of
originated in Finland and the Finnish
population really advocates the use of
saunas and steam rooms and they claim
that that is what gives them their
longevity and the overall good health
now in my personal opinion I think a lot
of it is the omega-3 content that they
eat but that's for another video so
before I can tell you which one exactly
is better I want to go through some of
the benefits of both saunas and steam
rooms the first one we want to look at
is an increase in blood flow it's going
to be the number five reason and the
increase of blood flow does a lot of
things for you I talked about in a lot
of videos how an increase in blood flow
gets more nutrients to the muscle it
also gets more oxygen to the muscle
which means that it can recover a lot
better and when you're talking about
post-workout hopping in the sauna or the
steam room right after a workout that
increased blood flow can allow the
muscle to recover a lot better and allow
you to have a lot more muscle relaxation
throughout the day so you don't get
quite as stiff now that's kind of an
obvious one that's the main reason that
a lot of people go to sit in a sauna or
possibly a steamer now the number four
benefit of a sauna or a steam room is
going to be an increase in your
metabolism due to the thermic
you see when you have an increase in
that core body temperature your
metabolism increases at least for the
time being that you're in the sauna or
the steam room but more often than not
for another thirty to sixty minutes
afterwards as your body is trying to
regulate its body temperature again
so your heart rate will usually increase
you'll usually notice that your hearts
beating a little bit more you start
sweating you start getting a little bit
more exhausted even though you're just
sitting there there's even something
that's called hyperthermic conditioning
which is sitting in a sauna or steam
room for thirty minutes after your
workout to allow your body to acclimate
to a certain heat when your body is
already kicking into overdrive this can
really set you up for success if you're
getting into a hotter climate or you're
going to be traveling a lot where your
body needs to be able to acclimate a
little bit easier according to a study
in 2007 by the Journal of science and
medicine and sport participants that
used a sauna or steam room for 30
minutes two times per week saw a
dramatic increase in their endurance
threshold what they actually saw was a
32% that's almost a 1/3 increase in
their endurance output meaning they
could push themselves further and harder
in an endurance activity by over 30%
just by sitting in a sauna or steam room
and that leads me into the number three
benefit of sitting in a sauna or a steam
room which is topic that I talk about
all the time and that's inflammation
reduces inflammation it does this from a
hormonal standpoint you see when you get
into some extreme heats your body
temporarily releases noradrenaline
adrenaline and cortisol now I talked
about cortisol in a bad light a lot but
you have to remember cortisol is
important too
but when we're talking about short
little intervals of time where you'd be
sitting in a sauna or steam room for 15
to 20 minutes
those little bursts of cortisol
adrenaline and noradrenaline reduce
muscular inflammation but they also
reduce cellular inflammation as well
which means for the time being that
you're in the sauna and a short time
afterwards your body is able to recover
better not only at a muscular level but
at a cellular level for your organs as
well so it's a huge huge benefit
post-workout but just anytime as well
the number two benefit to a
or a steam room is kind of the obvious
one but I want to go in-depth a little
bit more and that's sweating that's why
we go in there it feels good to sweat
but I think we sort of have this
preconceived notion that by sweating
we're detoxing so we just think the more
we sweat the better but there's a little
bit more to it than that you see a lot
of things we feel good because we're
lowering our blood pressure when we do
this we're decreasing some of the salts
that are in the bloodstream or
decreasing that sodium content so the
blood volume is a little less extreme in
terms of what it's putting pressure on
the arterial walls this can allow you to
feel a little bit better possibly get
rid of a headache if you've got one but
let's talk about the detoxing factor it
definitely does detox you and I've got a
nice little study to tell you to prove
it according to the Journal of
environmental and public health it was
found that individuals that used a sauna
or a steam room regularly but also had
high blood levels of mercury started
seeing a reduction in mercury levels of
their blood just after a couple weeks of
increasing their sauna or steam room
usage what this tells us is that mercury
one of the most difficult toxins to
actually remove or detox from can be
removed from the bloodstream removed
from the body simply by sweating this
proves to us that sweating is in fact a
form of detox and the number one reason
that I think saunas and steam rooms are
absolutely imperative to the success of
the business person and to the success
of the athlete is because it increases
your mood and this isn't just because
you're sweating and detoxing there's
actually a portion of your brain called
the dorsal raphe nucleus now this
portion of the brain has heat sensitive
neurons that when are exposed to extreme
heat actually allow for excess
production of serotonin which is the
feel-good hormone and also the precursor
to many other great functions of mood
energy and focus so simply by sitting in
a sauna or a steam room you stimulate
your body to produce more serotonin
giving you that sense of well-being that
can give you the extra confidence that
you need to get through the day but also
stay on track with your diet or
your training regimen so now the main
question which one is better
asana or a steamer does kind of depend
on what your goal is but based on the
core benefits
it looks like sitting in a sauna is
going to be your best bet
simply because of the higher temperature
you see the higher temperature is going
to elicit a lot more positive effects
than just the sweating alone so a steam
room is great because you're going to
sweat a lot more which is great if your
sole purpose is detoxing but if your
purpose is elevating your mood reducing
muscle stiffness and reducing
inflammation and also detoxing then your
best bet is to get more bang for the
buck in a shorter amount of time in a
hotter environment by sitting in a sauna
so hopefully this helps you out and
solves a tough question for you so that
you can get the most out of your day the
most out of your business and the most
out of your workouts I'll see you in the
next video
