Sauna use can supplement or substitute for resistance training.
In a recent post, I discussed the benefit of sauna use on cardiovascular health, neurodegenerative diseases and lifespan. I mentioned how a sauna can be used to either support cardiovascular ‘cardio’ training or as a substitute to see similar results. If you haven’t read that post then I receommend that you go read it, here.
In this post, I’d like to discuss how sauna use can supplement or substitute for resistance training, and lead to ‘more gainz’, or increased muscle hypertrophy to use the more technical terminology.
There are two primary mechanisms that sauna use – hyperthermic conditioning – may possibly affect muscle hypertrophy.
Heat Shock Proteins Role In Muscle Hypertrophy
Firstly, through the strong activation of heat shock proteins. I discussed heat shock proteins and their role in the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, in the previous post, by allowing other proteins to hold their usual 3-dimensional shape preventing the aggregation of proteins, however heat shock proteins may also plays a role in muscle hypertrophy through similar protein preservation mechanism. Muscle hypertrophy occurs when there is an imbalance between protein degradation and new protein synthesis so that the synthesis outweighs the degradation.
Body builder and serious strength athletes the world over spend a lot of time thinking about how to increase muscle protein synthesis…
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… but if we reduce protein degradation, which is an effect heat shock proteins have, we are still increasing our net protein synthesis by increasing the difference between the amount of new synthesis of muscle protein versus the amount of degradation that is happening. This type of effect has been shown in rats where it was shown that a 30-minute heat treatment at a temperature of 41° celcius (106° Fahrenheit), every second day for one week lead to a sustained elevation in heat shock proteins during that period and, more importantly, a correlated massive 30% more muscle synthesis balance than a control group of rats during the week after immobilisation that lead to atrophy. Pretty impressive!
Growth Hormone and Other Anabolic Agents
The other ways that hyperthermic exposure via sauna use could conceivably improve hypertrophy is by massively increasing growth hormone. Two sauna session of twenty minutes at 80° celcius (176° Fahrenheit) with thirty minutes break in between for cooling increased growth hormone levels to double that of baseline measures. An even greater effect was seen with men using higher sauna temperatures, e.g. two fifty-minute sessions in the sauna at 100° celcius (212° Fahrenheit) interspersed with a thirty-minutes gap, for cooling, lead to a a five-times elevation in growth hormone.This boost in growth hormone levels is transient, only lasting a couple of hours. To know why this is the case, it helps to have an appreciation of the hormonal pathway.
Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1)
Most of the effects of growth hormone are mediated via a second hormone known as insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). Insulin-like growth factor-1 stimulates another hormone in skeletal muscle known as mTOR that plays a large role in protein synthesis. For muscle cells to grow and repair requires amino acids. The activation of mTOR completes the equation. Heat shock proteins decreases protein degradation and growth hormones and IGF-1 stimulate protein synthesis leading to a large net protein synthesis that in turn leads to hypertrophy.
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If breakdown the actions of committed bodybuilders, insulin-like growth factor-1 is actually the major pathway targeted by high dietary protein intake. Protein, especially essential amino acids, are the primary dietary regulators of insulin-like growth factor-1. Insulin-like growth factor-1 plays a very important role in muscle growth and repair. Keep that in mind, the next time you are gulping down protein powder shakes or shovelling down essential amino acids like leucine, you will be cognisent of the fact that you are initially robustly activating the generation and release of insulin-like growth factor-1 and therfore mTOR.
Mice that have been bioengineered to release high levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 in their muscles develop a greater amount and range of skeletal muscle hypertrophy. Similarly, mouse-model experiments have shown early promise in fighting age-related muscle atrophy (sarcopenia), especially in the Duchenne Muscular dystrophy.
There are a few downsides to over production of insulin-like growth factor-1 in that it contriubutes to the growth of less desirable tissues like cancers, but if enough physical activity and exercise is achieved, this trade off may become slightly less important.
Timing of Sauna Use For Muscle Mass
It is likely more practical to sauna after a workout. Firstly, doing an intense sauna session before a gym session may lead to exhaustion somewhat too quickly, making it difficult to finish and get the best workout. Research supports this empirically but it is also intuitive. In addition, the social aspect of using exercise gym equipment whilst covered in a lather of sweat makes it more sensible and respectable to sauna after the workout.
Those practicalities aside, we need to consider when one most desires a spike in insulin-like growth factor-1 levels. It is benefitial to be aware of the mechanisms involved in hypertrophy, which is inflammation. This also becomes particularly important and relevant when consider the effect of cold stress after training. When we resistance train, in reaction to the mechanical work being done by the muscles, we produce metabolites like reactive oxygen species and trigger inflammatory cytokines. This process is essential to facilitate genetic pathways that aid in creating more mitochondria. This is called mitochondrial biogenesis. This plays a role in muscle hypertrophy.
Factually, it is inflammation that draws in immune cells such as macrophages to somatic muscles to trigger insulin-like growth factor-1 production to help bring about acute muscle repair. There is some research evidence that demonstrates that these macrofages are likely complicit in satellite cell migration, which is a kind of muscle stem cell that acts as a precursor to real muscle cell and which the amount are genuinely correlated tightly with the size of actual hypertrophy that is the outcome of resistance training.
Inflammation appears to have a very important role in the benefits of strength training and, when measured by an inflammatory cytokine maker called IL-6, actually is maximal during and immediately post resistance training but then decreases by half of its peak value one hour later. Thus, if you were to choose the best time to increase growth hormone or insulin-like growth factor-1 function, it appears that would be at the same time as inflammation is peaking, therefore an argument could be made that it is best to do so right at the end or after the workout.
To summarise:
- Sauna use appears to facilitate greater muscle hypertrophy through the reduction of protein of muscle protein via activation of heat shock proetins
- Sauna use appears to facilitate greater muscle hypertrophy by stimulating protein syntesis through a cascade of hormones from growth hormones to insulin-like growth factor-1 and then mTOR.
- The best time in engage in sauna bathing appears to be after your workout when anabolic hormones are at their peak.
Enjoy!
Scott
Selected Links from the Episode
- The Tim Ferriss Show, Episode 12: Dr. Rhonda Patrick on Life Extension, Performance, and Much More
- Rhonda Patrick: Nutrigenomics, Epigenetics, and Stress Tolerance via The IHMC Evening Lecture Series
- Are Saunas the Next Big Performance-Enhancing Drug?
- The Heat-Shock Response by Stephanie Liou, Huntington’s Outreach Project for Education at Stanford
- What Is an Infrared Sauna? Does It Have Health Benefits? by Brent A. Bauer, M.D., Mayo Clinic
- The Surprising Truth About IGF-1 and How to Increase and Inhibit It by SelfHacked
- Effects of Whole-Body Cryotherapy vs. Far-Infrared vs. Passive Modalities on Recovery from Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage in Highly Trained Runners by Christophe Hausswirth, et al., PLoS ONE