Sounds pretty sweet right… a supplement that will grow a booty yet get your waist tiny all at the same time. WOW! Well, it is a real thing and it does exist. But, this is not a supplement in a pill or powder form. This is a supplement to your program. An act. A ritual you should do post workout. What is it you ask? Well, I will tell you. One word: sauna
The sauna is usually used for relaxation purposes or to sweat toxins out of the system but, it is a great tool to help increase growth hormone for muscular hypertrophy, recovery and increased endurance. In other words: enhance your performance (ie- beast mode workouts and life for that matter) and build muscle (ie- booty gainz!)
Bottom line… hang out in the sauna after you workout at least a few times per week. You may find you can only handle the heat for short periods of time, like 5 minutes. That is okay. If you chill (i mean, boil) in the sauna regularly, you will build up your tolerance over time to be able to sit in the sauna longer.
Disclaimer: be smart and safe. Stay hydrated and listen to your body!
Saunas enhance muscular endurance:
- Increases nutrients shuttled to the muscles reducing the depletion of glycogen stores.
- A study by Scoon et al.3 showed that sauna use increased endurance in distance runners by 32%.
Sauna use increases muscle growth and aids in fat loss:
- Sauna use causes a large spike in growth hormone. (great when done post workout to aid in fat loss and muscle growth!) Studies even show that if you increase suana time and temperature, growth hormone increases as well1,6,7.8
- ….again, heat is not joke so be safe.
- Gettin hot regularly helps to improve insulin sensitivity.12 This means you will release insulin to process carbs in the blood stream efficiently which is great for muscle growth as insulin is one of the most anabolic, or muscle building hormones. Insulin helps to drive carbs or glucose, from the blood stream into the muscle for storage as glycogen. Glycogen is also stored in the liver.
So grab some friends and your sage and get your sauna on!
yeah… okay^^^^ kinda weird.
redo…
So grab some cheesy friends and get your sauna on!
1. Hannuksela, M.L., and Ellahham, S. (2001). Benefits and risks of sauna bathing. Am J Med 110, 118-126.
2. Pagel, H., Jelkmann, W., and Weiss, C. (1988). A comparison of the effects of renal artery constriction and anemia on the production of erythropoietin. Pflugers Arch 413, 62-66.
3. Scoon, G.S., Hopkins, W.G., Mayhew, S., and Cotter, J.D. (2007). Effect of post-exercise sauna bathing on the endurance performance of competitive male runners. J Sci Med Sport 10, 259-262.
4. Schiaffino, S., and Mammucari, C. (2011). Regulation of skeletal muscle growth by the IGF1-Akt/PKB pathway: insights from genetic models. Skelet Muscle 1, 4.
5. Sengupta, K., Long, K.J., and Allen, D.O. (1981). Growth hormone stimulation of lipolysis and cyclic AMP levels in perifused fat cells. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 217, 15-19.
6. Kukkonen-Harjula, K., Oja, P., Laustiola, K., Vuori, I., Jolkkonen, J., Siitonen, S., and Vapaatalo, H. (1989). Haemodynamic and hormonal responses to heat exposure in a Finnish sauna bath. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol 58, 543-550.
7. Leppaluoto, J., Huttunen, P., Hirvonen, J., Vaananen, A., Tuominen, M., and Vuori, J. (1986). Endocrine effects of repeated sauna bathing. Acta Physiol Scand 128, 467-470.
8. Ftaiti, F., Jemni, M., Kacem, A., Zaouali, M.A., Tabka, Z., Zbidi, A., and Grelot, L. (2008). Effect of hyperthermia and physical activity on circulating growth hormone. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab 33, 880-887.
9. Hillier, T.A., Fryburg, D.A., Jahn, L.A., and Barrett, E.J. (1998). Extreme hyperinsulinemia unmasks insulin’s effect to stimulate protein synthesis in the human forearm. Am J Physiol 274, E1067-1074.
10. Guillet, C., Prod’homme, M., Balage, M., Gachon, P., Giraudet, C., Morin, L., Grizard, J., and Boirie, Y. (2004). Impaired anabolic response of muscle protein synthesis is associated with S6K1 dysregulation in elderly humans. Faseb J 18, 1586-1587.
11. Biolo, G., Declan Fleming, R.Y., and Wolfe, R.R. (1995). Physiologic hyperinsulinemia stimulates protein synthesis and enhances transport of selected amino acids in human skeletal muscle. J Clin Invest 95, 811-819.
12. Kokura, S., Adachi, S., Manabe, E., Mizushima, K., Hattori, T., Okuda, T., Nakabe, N., Handa, O., Takagi, T., Naito, Y., Yoshida, N., and Yoshikawa, T. (2007). Whole body hyperthermia improves obesity-induced insulin resistance in diabetic mice. Int J Hyperthermia 23, 259-265.
13. Porkert, M., Sher, S., Reddy, U., Cheema, F., Niessner, C., Kolm, P., Jones, D.P., Hooper, C., Taylor, W.R., Harrison, D., and Quyyumi, A.A. (2008). Tetrahydrobiopterin: a novel antihypertensive therapy. J Hum Hypertens 22, 401-407.
14. Antoniades, C., Shirodaria, C., Crabtree, M., Rinze, R., Alp, N., Cunnington, C., Diesch, J., Tousoulis, D., Stefanadis, C., Leeson, P., Ratnatunga, C., Pillai, R., and Channon, K.M. (2007). Altered plasma versus vascular biopterins in human atherosclerosis reveal relationships between endothelial nitric oxide synthase coupling, endothelial function, and inflammation. Circulation 116, 2851-2859.
15. Yamamoto, E., Kataoka, K., Shintaku, H., Yamashita, T., Tokutomi, Y., Dong, Y.F., Matsuba, S., Ichijo, H., Ogawa, H., and Kim-Mitsuyama, S. (2007). Novel mechanism and role of angiotensin II induced vascular endothelial injury in hypertensive diastolic heart failure. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 27, 2569-2575.
16. Pall, M.L. (2009). Do sauna therapy and exercise act by raising the availability of tetrahydrobiopterin? Med Hypotheses 73, 610-613.
What are your thoughts? Comment below.