Elite athletes on recovery: why they swear by IR saunas. They are all among the world's and Norway's top athletes in their respective sports – Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen, Mushaga Bakenga, and Mads Hauge share a common dedication to hard training, a desire to perform at the highest level, and a reliance on infrared saunas for their recovery.
For an extended period, these athletes have not only tested but actively used the IR SaunaPod in their daily training routines. They are all convinced that using Radiant Health saunas has helped them optimize their training, improve recovery, and achieve deeper sleep.
Daily Recovery
It is crucial to listen to your body after training and give it the right amount of rest. When you train, you break down your body – through recovery, your body rebuilds itself stronger.
Recovery is becoming increasingly important for both athletes and active exercisers, and it is easy to forget in a busy daily life.
To simplify, we can divide recovery into passive and active recovery. Active recovery involves moving enough to warm the body and increase blood circulation without being strenuous. Passive recovery is pure rest.
Infrared saunas provide both active and passive recovery simultaneously. They get the blood circulation and heart rate going, while the body remains completely at rest, allowing for optimal recovery.
Athletes Are Unanimous
Mads Hauge, gold medalist in the Norwegian indoor athletics championships for the 1500 meters, actively uses infrared heat in his daily training for better recovery and performance.
These are his experiences:
- Measurably deeper sleep.
- Reduces muscle soreness, less tender and heavy legs.
- Faster readiness for new training sessions.
- Less dehydrated skin.
Apart from training, optimal recovery is the most important thing, along with good sleep, sufficient calories, massage, and now, infrared sauna.
Grew up with saunas
For Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen, world and Olympic champion in biathlon, the IR SaunaPod Maxi became his salvation when he moved from Geilo to Oslo, where his apartment did not have a sauna. He actively uses the sauna in his daily training for optimal recovery.
– With over 25 hours of training a week at most, it’s absolutely essential to be excellent at recovery to perform optimally. And that's very easy with Radiant Health, he says.
Always aiming to optimize training routines
As a professional football player, Mushaga Bakenga is always looking for ways to optimize his training routine. Recovery, good sleep, and body care are high on his daily priority list.
With several injuries and many years in top-tier football, Mushaga's body has felt the strain, and after multiple surgeries, he was very curious about how an infrared sauna could help him.
Regular use of an infrared sauna resulted in:
- Better sleep.
- Improved skin.
- Shorter recovery time.
– From the very beginning, I felt an improvement in terms of sleep and skin. After using it over time, I realized how much my recovery time improved between intense matches and frequent sauna sessions, he says.
Read the full article at Trening.no
Text: Trine Dahlman
