Flexibility is lost at a rapid rate after the age of twenty and with every decade that passes you can expect to lose 10% of your muscular suppleness. The only way to maintain flexibility, or improve it, is to actively stretch in a variety of ways. Flexibility is a key aspect of health, and is not only important so that you can show off your splits or perform at higher levels for athletic events. Rather, flexibility determines many aspects of longevity, and we all need to ensure that we stay flexible throughout a lifetime. (1)
Flexibility can determine pain levels, injury prevention, inflammation, circulation, brain wave activity, and even quality of sleep. Flexibility is a key component to both physical fitness, but can also help to reduce anxiety and overall mood. Strangely, stretching can directly impact neurological pathways, including activity in the threat detector part of the brain known as the amygdala. A regular practice of stretching the muscles of the body can actively reduce chronic anxiety and help the architecture of your sleep.
Maintaining flexibility throughout a lifetime can help prevent fatal falls after the age of 65, and reduce the risk of injuries such as hamstring tears, and ruptures of the achille’s tendon. There are so many reasons to stretch and maintain flexibility, but what are some of the methods that each person could use to facilitate the maintenance of supple muscles as they age? Furthermore, how can sauna use play a role in the maintenance of flexibility?
More recent research found that those who stretched in the sauna as compared to those who stretched in ambient temperatures were able to improve their flexibility at faster and more long lasting rates. Dive into this research to find out the mechanisms used in the study to better understand how combining yoga-style stretching with heat may benefit your short and long term health.
Stretching in a sauna can bring some small risks, so it is important to read all the way through to the end of this article to learn the specific protocols necessary to ensure your utmost safety. Yes, it is easier to improve flexibility in a heated room, but there are some precautions that should be taken to ensure immediate and long term safety.
***There is a specific recipe to follow at the end of this article that outlines the temperature to set your sauna to, as well as the style of stretching (entirely seated) to follow in order to safely combine sauna and stretching for improved flexibility.***
Why is Flexibility Important?
- Pain Relief
- Injury Prevention
- Ameliorated Circulation
- Autonomic Nervous System Regulation: Improved Ability to Relax and Let Go of Stress
- Anxiety Reduction
Flexibility of the physical body is a key aspect of health and overall fitness. From improved athletic performance, injury prevention, circulation, pain relief, and even the ability to help relax the nervous system, flexibility is an integral part of staying healthy. Unfortunately, the average adult will lose 10% of their flexibility with every decade that passes from the time that they turn 20 years old. This means that by the time an individual reaches the age of 70 the average person will have lost 50% of their range of motion. (1)
When it comes to aging, among the most critical concerns is the prevention of fatal falls. While grip strength and muscle development can contribute significantly to risk reduction, it is also important to maintain flexibility. While many of the benefits to maintaining flexibility throughout a lifetime may seem trivial, there is nothing trivial about falling after the age of 65. By maintaining as much flexibility as is safely possible it may be possible to prevent a deadly fall later in life. (2)
Flexibility is also important for pain management, particularly in the joints as well as in the back and neck. Furthermore, flexibility can improve circulation to reduce inflammation which can often be the initiator of chronic pain.
For those who are already living a very active lifestyle maintaining flexibility can help prevent injury, particularly tears affecting the connective tissues of the joints. For example, a long and flexible hamstring can help prevent potential tears in the connective tissues to the hip joint. Still further examples include, calf flexibility to prevent ruptures to the achilles tendon, and maintaining hip mobility can protect injury to the low back.
According to a publication from the Cleveland Clinic entitled ‘Here’s How Being Flexible Is Good for Your Health’ Dr Lawton is quoted regarding the importance of flexibility in injury prevention.
“‘If you don’t have good mobility or flexibility, you’re going to start overcompensating with other muscle groups like your shoulders or lower back,’ Lawton explains. ‘And that’s where it can cause some of those joint issues or hamstring injuries.’” (3)
Beyond preventing falls in the elderly, improving circulation to reduce pain, and for the sake of injury prevention, flexibility can also help to obtain states of relaxation. A severely underrated, but crucial aspect of maintaining a flexible muscle structure is its effect on the autonomic nervous system.
Ongoing toxic stress and sleepless nights can lead to automobile accidents as well as chronic disease. It is crucial to find balance within the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in order to live a long and healthy life. While many of life’s stressors cannot be avoided, it may be possible to mitigate some of the effects that active stress has on the body such as long term anxiety.
The autonomic nervous system is divided into two primary branches: Sympathetic dominance (threat detection, fight/flight, hyperarousal to the outside world) and parasympathetic dominance (relaxation, sleep, healing, slower brain waves, joy, peace). The body in an ideal situation would be able to move between the two states of being with ease. Unfortunately, for many folks, getting caught up in states of threat detection can last a long time. This can lead to many other downstream illnesses. Gentle stretching can help relax the body and draw the autonomic nervous system out of states of stress response and back into states of relaxation.
A paper published by the National Library of Medicine entitled ‘The Impact of Stretching Intensities on Neural and Autonomic Responses: Implications for Relaxation’ (5) explains the connection between stretching, brain activity (particularly in the amygdala, the threat detector part of the brain), anxiety, and ultimately relaxation. Here is what the authors write to connect these elements to stretching and flexibility.
“The impact of stretching on brainwave and ANS activity in this study can be explained from a neurophysiological perspective. The neurovisceral integration model, which explains the central nervous system’s control of ANS activity, proposes that the prefrontal cortex forms the prefrontal–amygdala pathway. This pathway’s inhibition from the prefrontal cortex to the amygdala is crucial for heart rate variability control…This network transmits information to the medulla about internal states such as anxiety and arousal and pleasant or unpleasant stimuli, which is then reflected in ANS activity… In addition, these stretching effects may affect ANS activity through the prefrontal–amygdala pathway and the cortico–subcortical autonomic network.” (5)
It appears that stretching and flexibility can be helpful for both the physical body, but also may positively impact mood. So, whether your health goals include fall prevention, injury reduction, performance, or relief from anxiety, then taking time to stretch your body is vital for your wellbeing. So, how can saunas help improve your stretching experience and overall flexibility?
Research on How a Sauna Can Help to Improve Flexibility: The Study Details
It is well understood that practicing yoga can improve flexibility among most demographics who venture to try it out. A group of scientists from Germany hypothesized that combining the known benefits of sauna with some elements of yogic stretching could improve flexibility among healthy and active older adults.
A paper published by the National Library of Medicine entitled ‘Sauna Yoga Superiorly Improves Flexibility, Strength, and Balance: A Two-Armed Randomized Controlled Trial in Healthy Older Adults’ (4) evaluated a randomized control study. The authors of the research recognize the importance of maintaining flexibility later into life when they write this.
“Along with strength, balance, and endurance, flexibility is considered an important physical dimension for active and healthy aging.” (5)
In an effort to compare the outcomes between stretching in an ambient temperature room versus a heated sauna, two groups of healthy and active older adults were divided into two separate 8 week long activities to measure flexibility as well as overall wellbeing.
The researchers understood the benefits of both yoga and sauna and attempted to marry these two therapeutic modalities.
“Yoga was shown to beneficially affect physical function and well-being in seniors and can thus be considered an appealing and easily applicable activity for this population. Sauna, on the other hand, delivers a warm and relaxing environment, where the body and mind can be trained simultaneously. From a risk–benefit stand point, and in the light of stress, sleep, and mental benefits, only very few adverse events were reported.” (4)
One group participated in 8 weeks of chair yoga, while the other group participated in the same stretching activities, but in a sauna. The sauna was set to 50 degrees celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), and the yoga session lasted for 30 minutes. The participants were measured for their flexibility in different body parts before, during, and after the 8 week trial. They were also measured for their subjective sense of overall wellness.
In all areas, except for the shoulders, the participants in the sauna group gained significantly more flexibility, and reported a substantial improvement in overall wellbeing, particularly in mood and quality of sleep.
The authors concluded that it served the participants well to combine the benefits of yoga style stretching with the benefits of sauna therapy.
“Thus, sauna yoga might serve as a comprehensive body–mind exercise approach which aims to improve spine and shoulder flexibility, accompanied with exercises that strengthen the muscles in the trunk and lower extremities by using slow-paced stretching and strengthening exercises in a quiet and mildly warm environment.” (4)
While the results of this study suggest that it is likely very healthy to stretch while in the sauna, it is important to do so safely. If you plan to stretch while in your sauna from home or any other unsupervised situation it is critical to do so safely. With sauna comes the inevitability of sweating which can create risk factors for slipping. It is advised to follow a very specific protocol if you plan to stretch in your sauna.
How to Safely Stretch in a Sauna to Improve Flexibility
If you are looking to improve flexibility at any age it appears that stretching in the heat of a sauna will likely yield more effective results. If you choose to stretch in a sauna as the participants in the previously examined study did, it is imperative to follow very specific guidelines. Even if the sauna is not set to a very high temperature it is likely that significant sweating will occur. When this happens it is possible that the floor as well as other surfaces may become slippery. Please follow a careful and purposeful series of stretching exercises in your sauna, and remain seated!
The participants in the study previously examined, followed the movements of chair yoga, and did not perform standing postures. It is remarkable how much an individual can stretch the body without standing up. So, make sure that you plan out your stretches before getting in the sauna and make sure that you do these from a seated position.
The Recipe For Safe Stretching in the Sauna:
First, before entering into the sauna, experiment with some chair yoga so that you feel comfortable with the postures you will follow once inside the sauna. Take either a live class that is local to you with an instructor or even an online class. The first step is to ensure that you feel comfortable with your chair yoga routine without the added heat or limited space of a sauna.
Second, ensure that you set the temperature of your sauna to no higher than 120-125 degrees Fahrenheit. As you move your body in the sauna you will generate internal heat in addition to the heat from the sauna. Please do not overly heat your sauna.
Third, if possible have a friend or family member close by in case you need any help moving around the sauna.
Fourth, ensure that you have plenty of towels available. Different body parts can become slippery in the sauna making it difficult to perform some stretches.
Fifth, do not over-extend the stretch. The heated space may loosen ligaments, and you may feel more flexible, so be gentle with your stretching. Reach a point in a stretch that you feel you can comfortably sustain for one minute without any pain or resistance. Allow the heat to do the work for you, rather than pushing the bounds of your tendons and ligaments.
Finally, take time to cool down and explore some of the movements without heat. Your ligaments and muscles will need to adapt to an ambient temperature, so be mindful of looking for too deep of a stretch when the body is cooled off.
Please be sure to maintain excellent levels of hydration before, during, and after your sauna session. If you are unsure if sauna stretching is right for you and your health needs, please consult with your medical provider before beginning a sauna protocol.
Citations:
- Stretching Protocols to Increase Flexibility and Support General Health-https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter/stretching-protocols-to-increase-flexibility-and-support-general-health
- Falls and Fall Prevention in Older Adults-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK560761/
- Here’s How Being Flexible Is Good for Your Health-https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-to-improve-flexibility-and-benefits
- Sauna Yoga Superiorly Improves Flexibility, Strength, and Balance: A Two-Armed Randomized Controlled Trial in Healthy Older Adults- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6801954/
- The Impact of Stretching Intensities on Neural and Autonomic Responses: Implications for Relaxation-https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10422553/