Sweat baby sweat!
Sweat is one of your body’s primary means of preventing your core temperature from rising to dangerous levels.During exercise, the majority of the calories you burn actually generate heat instead of powering forward motion :-). That heat has to be dissipated, so your body dilates blood vessels near the skin to carry some of that heat away from your core to areas where cooler air flowing over the skin can carry away some of the heat. Sweat makes the cooling process work even better, because as sweat evaporates off your skin it takes a lot of heat with it.
As you become more fit, you are able to work harder. But the ability to work harder also means you have the ability to generate a lot of heat in a very short period of time. You also have the endurance to sustain exercise longer, meaning you have the capacity to generate heat for a longer period of time. Your body has to adapt to these demands in order to keep your core temperature stable. Here are a couple of ways it does that:
You start sweating sooner: Your body’s sweat response gets quicker as you gain fitness. This means you’ll see sweat appearing on your skin sooner after you start exercising than you did when you were a novice. These days, when you start warming up your body knows what’s coming next, so it ramps up the cooling process more quickly to stay ahead of the rise in core temperature.
Your sweat volume increases: When the house is on fire, you open up the spigots and get as much water on it as you can. For the fire within, we don’t want to extinguish it but we need to control it, and the more sweat you get onto your skin the more likely you are to be able to keep core temperature from rising out of control. So your body becomes better at creating sweat.
You lose fewer electrolytes per unit volume: As your body is adapting to sweat more and sooner, it also changes the composition of sweat so that you retain more electrolytes than you used to.
Sweating without exercising?!
There is a valid reason why human beings have used sweat baths for hygienic and health purposes since the Stone Age. It’s because sweating has proven its effectiveness in flushing out toxins and disease and maintaining optimal physical as well as mental health.
Regular use of the sauna gradually restores the skin’s elimination ability. Sweating removes toxic chemicals and metals faster than other detox method. It is a good habit that pays many health dividends.
The sauna’s benefits are numerous. Not least because it is so relaxing and leaves your body soothed and your mind serene. It’s main advantage lies in the fact that it promotes sweating, helping the body to rid itself of toxins. It is also believed that exposure of the skin to heat stimulates the production of white blood cells and strengthens the immune system.
Other benefits of the sauna include:
The sauna increases and improves the rate of blood circulation and breathing.
Sauna is similar to mild exercise, it burns about 300 calories per average session. Regular sauna treatments combined with a healthy diet and moderate exercise will help you lose weight and stay fit and healthy.
A profuse sauna-induced sweat followed by a shower cleanses your skin far more thoroughly than just taking a shower. It makes it soft and healthy with immediately noticeable effects.
Stress build-up creates tension in the body manifesting in various aches and pains. The heat and humidity of the sauna diffuses the pain and relaxes tired muscles. A sauna in the evening will leave tense muscles and sore limbs totally relaxed. Sauna also temporarily relieves arthritic pain.
The sauna is essentially a place to relax. Regular sauna adepts all agree that it effectively helps relieve physical and mental fatigue and stress.
How we sweat depends from the sauna type we compare traditional sauna vs. infrared sauna
Temperature and Humidity
Traditional saunas are used by pouring water over heated rocks to create steam. The average heat of a room typically ranges from 185º to 190º F, making it a hot and humid experience. Far infrared saunas are dry saunas, and the heaters operate between 110º – 170º F, giving you a more comfortable temperature to perspire in while still obtaining the great benefits of heat. This also means that you can spend longer sessions in an infrared sauna, if you desire.
Perspiration and Duration
Both saunas induce perspiration. Traditional saunas need to be heated 30 – 40 minutes before usage, to get the rock hot, making you perspire as soon as you step in. Infrared sauna rays penetrate your skin and heat your body directly, not losing heat in the surrounding air. This means you can enter an infrared sauna as you turn it on, though most people prefer to let it heat until it reaches 110º F. Traditional saunas can be turned off once the rocks are hot enough, but because the infrared rays are produced by the heaters, the infrared sauna has to be on for the duration of the session.
