Recovering with heat – why the Paseo Club steam room and sauna help you feel renewed

Everything you read indicates that frequent exercise is the key to good health and longevity. But what does not get enough attention is how to exercise sustainably — avoiding soreness, injury, and fatigue.

An effective recovery program is the key to staying active, day after day, week after week. This is essential for endurance athletes, but even weekend warriors training at moderate intensity need to follow a recovery plan. 

The Paseo Club is a private club in the Santa Clarita Valley. Our certified instructors teach a range of fitness classes for athletes of all levels — weightlifting, strength training, HIIT, cycle, bootcamp, and more.

In this article, we will share how you can care for yourself after your workout and why the Paseo Club steam room and sauna are essential to your recovery success. 

What does it mean to recover after exercise?

There are recovery drinks, recovery workouts, and mobilizing for recovery, but what does recovery even mean? For many people, recovery is a word they hear but do not fully understand.  

Recovery refers to the period after you exercise and before your next workout. Although exercise is essential for our health, it does create stress on the body, including microtears in the muscles. The purpose of recovery is to allow your body to rest and heal, minimizing exhaustion and inflammation. 

There are many ways to support your recovery process.

• Rest
• Hydration
• Stretching
• Consume electrolytes
• Increasing protein intake
• Active recovery (slowly walking, swimming, or biking)

An additional tool for your recovery is using dry or moist heat from steam rooms and/or saunas.

What are steam rooms and saunas, and how do they differ?

Steam rooms and saunas often get lumped together into one category. Although they offer similar benefits, they are two distinct things.

Steam Room

Steam rooms are enclosed rooms heated by steam from a generator filled with boiling water. The room's interior is lined with tile, glass, or plastic, so they are airtight and hold moisture. Typically, steam rooms are between 114 and 120 degrees. Steam comes in intermittent gusts, keeping the humidity at 95% to 100%.

Saunas

There are different types of saunas — dry, wet, and infrared. The most common type is a dry sauna. If a steam room is akin to the tropics, the sauna is like a desert. Saunas are enclosed spaces, often with wood interiors. Usually, the heat is controlled by an adjustable thermometer. Some saunas also come with heated rocks, so users can pour water onto them to create steam.

How do steam rooms and saunas help you recover?

All you need to do is walk into a steam room or sauna to feel immediately relaxed. But there are more benefits to your recovery than instant gratification.

Reduces pain

Many people experience DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) after exercising. The heat from steam rooms and saunas dilate and relax blood vessels, increasing blood flow. This process helps muscles to relax, reducing tension and tightness. Some research shows saunas might also help those with chronic pain, arthritis, and inflammatory issues.

Increases mobility

When you hit it hard in the gym or on the courts, muscles can get tight and rigid. Maintaining flexibility is key to a successful recovery program. The heat from steam rooms and saunas can help relax muscle tissue and stiff joints. Perform gentle stretches while in the heated spaces can be very effective. 

Improves circulation

Heat brings blood from the interior to the exterior areas of the body, increasing oxygenation. According to the University of Rochester Medical Center, “Improved blood flow not only supplies the muscle with FRESH blood and oxygen, it also effectively carries away the muscle's waste back to the kidneys. Better waste management leads to faster recovery times, less soreness after a workout, and overall improved tissue health.”

Elevates metabolic rate

An elevated metabolic rate helps you burn fat and improves your post-workout recovery. A raised metabolic rate causes the body to experience EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). The extra oxygen in your blood is used by your body to repair muscles and recover. 

Maintains muscle strength

Research shows that using saunas and steam rooms helps people preserve muscle strength and improve their athletic performance. 

Heat therapy has several additional benefits that improve your quality of life, including a stronger immune system, cleaner skin, clearer sinuses, reduced blood pressure, and helps you detoxify. But most importantly, spending time in a sauna or steam room is associated with stress reduction and raised endorphin levels.

How can you use a steam room and sauna safely?

There are a few important steps to help you have a safe and enjoyable experience in the sauna or steam room. 

1. The first step to using a steam room or sauna safely is to check with your health provider. Some health conditions are not conducive to this type of heat therapy.

• Epilepsy
• Pregnancy
• Alcohol use
• Antibiotic use
• Heart disease
• Stimulants or tranquilizers use 
• Very low or high blood pressure

2. Shower before entering a sauna or steam room.
3. Dress appropriately for the steam room or sauna by wearing a towel and flip-flops or shower shoes. 
4. Enter a steam room or sauna only if you are well hydrated, and make sure you have your water bottle nearby to stay hydrated.
5. The American Journal of Public Health recommends that healthy people not sit in a sauna for more than ten to fifteen minutes at a time, ten minutes in a steam room. If you’re new to the sauna/steam room experience, start slowly and spend five to ten minutes per session. You can build up a tolerance to the heat over multiple visits.
6. Leave immediately if you feel dizzy, lightheaded, or have trouble breathing. 

Recovering at the Paseo Club

Although focusing on recovery may feel extraneous, a consistent and holistic recovery program allows you to train harder, achieve greater athletic performance, and minimize pain and injury. 

The Paseo Club is a social club that has supported Santa Clarita residents in health and fitness for over twenty years. We offer tennis, pickleball, fitness, swimming, Pilates, and private gym facilities. 

There are over 60 fitness classes available each week. You can hit it hard in HIIT class or Cardio and Core Extreme and then recover in the high-caliber steam room and sauna.

The Paseo Club has a 10-person steam room manufactured by Mr. Steam. Their steam rooms are known for consistent steam production and soft diffused light for a relaxing and therapeutic experience.

The club sauna is also from Mr. Steam and has an aromatic cedar interior that provides dry heat. It seats eight people at a time and is designed in the traditional style.

If you are looking to be a part of a community that provides fitness and social opportunities to you and your family, then the Paseo Club is the place for you. Join now and begin living the Paseo lifestyle.