Alpha Lifestyle

Saunas are another component of the Alpha Lifestyle.  There are gyms with Saunas.  If you are going to join a gym, try to find a gym offering sauna baths.  That will keep your lifestyle costs down.  

Heat Exposure is once again moving ourselves further from comfort and making our bodies respond to an unpleasant stimulus.  It is the response that is beneficial to our health.  Most of the techniques of the Alpha Lifestyle work synergistically with one another.  The Sauna, Multivitamin and Resistance Training are no exception.  Each is powerful for improving our well-being, but together can make you an Alpha!

Sauna

Sauna, or Deliberate Heat Exposure, is the act of exposing your body to heat for 20 minutes, 4 times per week.  Studies have found that just 1 session is very beneficial, but the maximum benefits require 4-7 sessions per week.  What is the best sauna temperature?   Studies in Finland found that 175F for 20 minutes gave the best results.  So, if you have a 140F steam room, you need more like 35 minutes to max out the benefits.  If you are new to deliberate heat exposure, you will have to work your way up.  You will get more heat adapted over a couple weeks.  5 minutes may feel like too long at first.  That’s fine.  You’ll adapt and it’ll get easier to do.

There are several methods:  Sauna, Steam Room, Infrared Sauna, Sauna Blanket, Sauna Suit, Hot Tub.  The hot tub’s benefits are similar and overlap with a sauna.  It is a little different.  If you already have a hot tub, you can sit in it at 104F for 15 minutes.  The sauna is much more studied, but logic would say that a jacuzzi is very beneficial in similar ways.  

In a perfect world, you can join a gym for your resistance training that also has an Ice Bath and Sauna.  I’m all about efficiency and saving money!  In my world, I’d be driving 35 minutes for a gym like that.  I have opted for the home sauna route.  I do like the fact that I can use filtered water in my sauna.  A downside with a public sauna is using unfiltered municipal water.  I don’t want Chlorine and fluoride in my steam.  

What Does a Sauna Do

While in the Sauna

The heat in the Home Sauna, steam bath, hot tub is sensed by the body’s “shell”.  The brain then puts the body into survival mode to cool the “core”.  Just the opposite of the ice bath, you sweat and your veins open and blood is pushed to the extremities.  Heart Rate increases.  Blood Plasma increases and the volume of blood moved per heart beat increases.  Your body removes toxins in the sweat and sodium.  Because of increased blood flow, you create new micro blood vessels in the muscles to accommodate the excess blood.  Cortisol level increases.   FOX03 levels increase (DNA repair, Longevity).  Metabolism increases.  Body releases Heat Shock Proteins and Human Growth Hormone.  Stem Cells are activated.  Autophagy is activated.

Long Term Sauna Benefits

Heat Shock Proteins protect proteins from folding and help to maintain muscle mass…dramatic decrease in atrophy.  These proteins will scan your body for misshapen proteins and fix them and removes free radicals.  You have a decrease in cortisol and increase in dopamine and endorphins.  Plus, your brain becomes better at  processing endorphins.   This has an antidepressant effect. Resting Heart Rate is decreased.  Stem Cells are activated.   Neuroplasticity is increased.  That is an improvement with your ability to adapt to a changing environment.  Beige Fat increases.  Metabolism increases.  Fat loss increases.  Insulin Resistance decreases.

Alpha Synergy

Home Sauna Baths are effective on their own.  But, you can stack protocols.  Water Fasting decreases your level of insulin and Glucose in the blood.  A 2-4 hour water fasting preceding a Sauna Bath can increase your HGH release from a Sauna Bath.  And, over time the sauna will improve water fasting by decreasing the time it takes to use up Glucose supplies.  

The combination of the Grounding and a late night Sauna Bath definitely equals great sleep.  If you are doing the Lion Diet, eat a small amount of beans and extra protein in your last meal at 7, for example.  Take your sauna bath at 9:30.  Your body likes to have a cool core temperature to sleep.  Do not Ice Bath now.  Drink your hydrogen water.  Sleep on grounding sheets/grounding pillow case.  There is nothing better than knowing that you are going to sleep great and burn fat (water fasting) while you do it.  It makes it easier for me to convince myself to stick with the 3 Day Water Fasting each month.

Home Sauna Baths are so beneficial that they stack with many protocols.  

Sauna Before or After Workout

If you use the sauna after the workout, it aids in recovery, relaxation.  But, it also basically extends your workout.  A sauna directly after resistance training is like 20 more minutes of low intensity cardio.  

The Alpha Part

It may be hard to believe, but you will love the feeling from Sauna Baths.  I would call it addicting.  I live in Pennsylvania.  My tub is outside.  The thought of getting in the water with 3 inches of ice on it during the Winter, sucks.  Sucks bad.  Just do it.  You will be proud of yourself for doing it.  The feeling of the blood rushing back into your extremities is hard to describe.  You know it is happening.  Besides all the benefits of ice bath previously mentioned, there is a part of your brain (Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex) that grows when you do things that you don’t want to do.  This part of the brain is highly developed in the ultra successful.  Now that is Alpha!!

Consult your Doctor

Always consult your doctor when making lifestyle changes.  While 5-20 minutes of Sauna is generally safe, please be sure that you can safely handle heat exposure.  Heat Stroke is a real thing!  If  you are pregnant, a young child, consumed alcohol or recently had a heart attack you should not use a sauna.  Talk to your doctor if  you aren’t sure.