It's getting hot in herr, so get out all your toxins

The other night I did 2 things I have never done before. First, I assembled a sauna.  That of course followed something else I didn't think I'd ever do - buying my own sauna.  The second thing I did for the first time that night was use an infrared sauna.  Wow.

OK, if you're thinking I'm crazy rich if I can buy my own sauna, you're wrong.  I'm not poor, but they're far cheaper than you might think (or they can be...they can also be super expensive.  Mine is small and I negotiated like crazy for it).  As I've mentioned before, my wife is chronically ill, and her recovery is fraught with a lot of toxins being released into her body.  This makes things a lot tougher for her as she's not only dealing with her illness, but also a high level of toxins in her system. Her doctor has been pushing her to use a sauna to draw the toxins out, so between that and my back muscle pain, we decided to make the investment.

Second, if you're thinking I must be quite the handy man, you're only partially right.  I do lots of home repair/maintenance stuff myself, but this was surprisingly simple. The hardest part was getting the 400 lbs of parts up to the bedroom we were putting it in.  See, with infrared saunas, you don't need some major built in unit or ventilation system like with a traditional convection sauna with hot rocks. The unit doesn't get as hot (by 40-50 degrees F) because it doesn't need to - IR heat penetrates muscles better than ambient heat, so it does the same work with less energy and less heat (and less time).

The 15 minutes I spent at 120-122 degrees F on the first night was great.  If you've been in a sauna, and felt that heaviness when breathing, it's largely nonexistent with an IR sauna. Yes, the air is thicker and hotter, but not like you night have experienced in saunas before. It was totally bearable.  I walked out, toweled off, and felt fantastic - relaxed and loose throughout.  I went to my basement, did my back PT, and then ran for 15 minutes.  I felt really good.

Anyway, the point of this post is to suggest using a sauna for drawing toxins out, and for relaxing muscles and minds, which will heighten performance.  There are arguments that say fat loss plateaus due to toxins, so even the detox could help with hitting your physical goals.