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Effect of post-exercise sauna bathing on the endurance performance of competitive male runners

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Summary

The physiological adaptations to sauna bathing could enhance endurance performance. We have therefore performed a cross-over study in which six male distance runners completed 3 wk of post-training sauna bathing and 3 wk of control training, with a 3 wk washout. During the sauna period, subjects sat in a humid sauna at 89.9 ± 2.0 °C (mean ± standard deviation) immediately post-exercise for 31 ± 5 min on 12.7 ± 2.1 occasions. The performance test was a ∼15 min treadmill run to exhaustion at the runner's current best speed over 5 km. The test was performed on the 1st and 2nd day following completion of the sauna and control periods, and the times were averaged. Plasma, red-cell and total blood volume were measured via Evans blue dye dilution immediately prior to the first run to exhaustion for each period. Relative to control, sauna bathing increased run time to exhaustion by 32% (90% confidence limits 21–43%), which is equivalent to an enhancement of ∼1.9% (1.3–2.4%) in an endurance time trial. Plasma and red-cell volumes increased by 7.1% (5.6–8.7%) and 3.5% (−0.8% to 8.1%) respectively, after sauna relative to control. Change in performance had high correlations with change in plasma volume (0.96, 0.76–0.99) and total blood volume (0.94, 0.66–0.99), but the correlation with change in red cell volume was unclear (0.48, −0.40 to 0.90). We conclude that 3 wk of post-exercise sauna bathing produced a worthwhile enhancement of endurance running performance, probably by increasing blood volume.

Introduction

The heat stress of a single session of sauna bathing produces hemodilution via an increase in plasma volume.1 With repeated exposures the hemodilution subsides, but it is not clear whether this adaptation is due to restoration of normal plasma volume or an increase in red-cell volume.2 A reduction in renal blood flow during sauna bathing or the hemodilution resulting from the plasma volume expansion could provide the stimulus to produce more red cells via release of erythropoietin.3 The resulting increase in total blood volume could enhance high-intensity endurance performance by delivering more oxygen to muscles.4

Notwithstanding the possibility that sauna bathing could enhance performance, there appears to be only one published study of the effects of sauna bathing on athletes, an investigation showing only that the acute physiological responses to the heat were augmented when the sauna followed exercise.5 In the present study we therefore investigated endurance performance of athletes following a period of adaptation to sauna bathing undertaken immediately after training sessions. We included measurement of plasma and red-cell volumes to investigate their possible contribution to any enhancement of performance.

Section snippets

Methods

Subjects were six male competitive distance runners and triathletes. They gave informed consent in accordance with the requirements of the institutional human ethics committee. They had the following characteristics (mean ± S.D.): age, 23 ± 3 yr; body mass, 81 ± 5 kg; current best 5 km run time within the previous year, 17.5 ± 1.6 min (17.1 ± 1.6 km h−1). The study was performed during their winter competitive season. They were randomized into two groups of three (two runners and one triathlete) for a

Results

Training sessions during the control period lasted 53 ± 8 min and were performed 7.7 ± 2.3 times per week, with 53% of total training time spent at hard or very hard intensity. During the sauna period training sessions were of similar duration (52 ± 7 min) and intensity (45% hard or very hard) but were a little less frequent (6.7 ± 2.2 times per week). Subjects spent a total of 385 ± 81 min in the sauna, spread over 12.7 ± 2.1 sessions. The average session lasted 31 ± 5 min (mean ± between-subject S.D. of

Discussion

The precision of the estimate for the change in performance leaves little doubt that 3 wk of sauna bathing produces a worthwhile enhancement. The sample size in this study would normally be too small to produce such a clear outcome, but the run to exhaustion produced a small error of measurement when the change in performance was expressed as change in time-trial time.

Increases in plasma and total blood volume following the sauna treatment were also clear, again because of the low error of

Practical implications

  • Sauna bathing that can be tolerated for half an hour immediately after a training run provides an additional training stimulus.

  • After 12 bathing sessions spread over 3 wk, endurance performance of sub-elite runners is enhanced by a useful 2%, probably via an increase in blood volume.

  • Elite endurance athletes may experience smaller gains from such sauna bathing.

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