While exercising hard and keeping to your scheduled workout will always be well worth it and full of countless rewards for your body and your mind, many of us endure pain either chronically or intermittently over long periods of times. Whether you choose to work out in the park, at home or at the gym, there are many ways to address bodily pain before it becomes too much of an issue. But what if you are a committed and loyal member to your gym and you start to experience pain on site and is there anything that can be done about it before you depart home?
Yes there is. Besides having good nutrition and state of focus to decrease pain for your workouts, many of us may not be utilizing probably one of the most healing areas of your gym to address pain: The sauna (if it has one). Now, the state and levels of the sauna will vary from gym to gym, however if they are up to par, clean and maintained regularly the healing benefits of the sauna for your body overall are plentiful and even have effects that last long well after you leave the sauna.
When you enter a sauna that has been heated between 180 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit, right away the heat begins to penetrate the areas of the bone and muscle mass as the whole bodies temperature begins to rise. This heat usually diminishes pain in one setting, however when this treatment is conducted holistically (meaning regularly before pain) as opposed to acutely (meaning sporadically or only when you have pain), then one should see a reduction in pain with their workouts inshallah. Safe time frames for those beginning to use the sauna is at anywhere between 15 to 20 minute intervals. As you become more and more accustomed to using the sauna, you can stay for as long as you can, provided that you are in good and stable health and have not been told otherwise by your care physician. Studies have shown that 3 weeks of sauna use with your workout routine, blood volume output within the body usually increases by 2 times. This is important because more blood volume output means more oxygen input, stamina and overall distance for your workouts.
When in the sauna is at the above stated degrees, your blood will literally burn, and boil to the surface and out through the pores of your skin eliminating harmful substances and toxins that would otherwise cause joint pain, sluggishness and blood stasis. When you lightly tap, scratch or brush your skin on arms or legs, this stimulates the blood purification process even more making the sweat carrying the toxins to come out more quickly. Blood purification is the key to maintaining healthy stature at all phases of life; when the blood is ill, the stomach and the body circulates toxins throughout the body that usually cause nausea, fatigue, common colds, various cancers and weight problems. Working up a good sweat either during your workouts or through the sauna is a great way to be proactive when it comes to purifying your blood.
Combining nutrition with fitness and blood purification can only lead to one result: enhancement of the immune system; being mindful of this will hopefully make your workouts more enjoyable and rewarding. Having a good and strong immune system is the outcome of staying on top of what you place in your body as well has how much exercise you give your body. If you have a good sauna at your gym and you haven’t made much use of it, you should really consider making it a part of your workout plan; especially if your work out plan is low impact with not much sweat released. Of course you should always use common sense and caution when using the sauna. If you are dizzy, lightheaded or are starting to experience nausea on the workout floor, it is not recommended that you use it. In fact at that point you may want to consider ending your work out there and going to treat your present state; otherwise it is a great way to keep your body fit, strong and pain free for the next workout. To your health.
Daud Scott- CPT; CHNP.
NATURES' FIRST PATH: HOlISTIC MEDICINE. 