If you’re like most of our clients you’ve probably heard all about the infrared sauna craze. From studios to at home treatments, they seem to be everywhere. But are they all they’re cracked up to be?
If you think the infrared sauna is just another passing fad, we’re here to help you understand not only why you need this in your life but also why infrared saunas DO NOT produce just the same results as traditional wet or dry saunas – they do SO MUCH MORE.
Heat Source
The key difference between traditional and infrared saunas lies in the way the heat is generated. You may think that all heat is created equal but this is a common misconception. While you sweat in both a traditional and infrared sauna, the sweat isn’t the same. If that sounds confusing, let us explain.
When you are exercising, on a hot summer day, or sitting in a traditional sauna, you are getting warmed up and your body is using sweat to cool itself down. In an infrared sauna, there are rays of heat and light that penetrate deep into your muscles and tissues (often 4-5x deeper than traditional sweating).
Think of conventional saunas like a hot oven. They heat up the air around you to make you sweat. Infrared saunas, on the other hand, are directly heating up your body temperature more than the air around you. This allows the heat to reach 1.5 inches into your body as opposed to traditional saunas which penetrate 3-4 mm.
So what does the heat difference mean for your body? It means that the infrared can target the muscles, joints and tissues beneath the skin’s surface that traditional saunas just don’t have access to. At the end of the day, sweating in any form is good for you, but if you’re looking for the most amount of benefits, you’ll get a bigger bang for your buck thanks to the more efficient heat source of infrared saunas.
Detox Potential
Now that we understand how infrared saunas penetrate deeper into your muscle and skin, what does that mean for detoxing?
Modern life isn’t without its drawbacks – pesticides, plastics, heavy metals, metabolic waste and more builds up in your body. When your body can’t process those toxins, they can be stored in your muscles or fat cells. Yes, like that aluminum from your traditional deodorant.
While you sweat in both traditional and infrared saunas, the deeper heat penetration of infrared saunas can help mobilize toxins from deeper tissues. Imagine cleaning your house. Sure you can wipe off the counters and give the floors a good sweep, but if you really want to deep clean your space you need to get those often-neglected and hard to reach corners and crevices. If you don’t move furniture around, look behind the fridge, and check your air filters then the dirt can really build up.
The same is for detoxing your body. Sure you activate your sweat glands to eliminate toxins in traditional saunas, but just like you need to do more than wipe down the counters, the infrared provides a more comprehensive clean, reaching and releasing toxins stored deeper in your tissues.
The deeper penetration of heat in infrared saunas is why they’re believed to provide a much more effective detox.
The Takeaway
With the deeper infrared rays comes faster benefits and greater results. Instead of spending an hour sweating away in a traditional sauna, what if you could also lower your inflammation, increase your detox, improve circulation, rev up your metabolism and boost your immune system (!!!)
While both traditional and infrared saunas provide health and wellness benefits – why not get deeper benefits from the time you’re investing?