Singapore – Fitness professional Muhammad Alfien Meswan (29 years old) recommends warming up in the sauna for 10 minutes before working out. “Warming your body helps prevent injuries and improve your range of motion,” he says.
After workout, he goes to the steam room and relaxes the tight muscles in a warm bath.
He also attempted a growing trend of cold soaking for fitness and happiness, but icy temperatures are not appealing to him.
“It’s just cold, that’s it,” says Alfian, the lead of the fitness team at Grand Hyatt Singapore’s Damais Spa and Fitness Centre.
In contrast, a competitive PowerLifter ong wei chaai I think I’m sitting and relaxing A cold bath 5-10 degrees for at least 1 minute. “I like cold baths. I need to focus on my breathing and I can’t think of anything else,” says the 30-year-old.
He also enjoys the hot bath and sauna. Sometimes he spends 10 minutes in the sauna, then a cold plunge for 1 minute, repeating this cycle three times. To recover from intense training.
How do high and low temperature exposures affect fitness and well-being? Is a hot bath and sauna better for you than a cold plunge or ice bath? Or you need to alternate they?
The answer appears to depend on individual goals and preferences where there is some evidence of advantages at both ends of the temperature setting.
Cold water can be useful after high intensity exercise
Here, cold plunges are becoming increasingly popular, with many businesses offering customers a 3°C cold pool.
The Reform Group, which operates fitness business gyms and personal training, will launch a shelter in June with 3,000 square feet of recovery space, three cold pools at 3, 5 and 10°C, a sauna and hot bath.
Virgin Active, a ice room provided Since 2013, we have added cold plunge tabs to power outlets at Raffles Place, Tanjong Pagar and Marina One in March 2024.
Members will need to reserve a 15-minute slot in the tub, says Aizuddin Syam, fitness manager at Virgin Active Tanjong Pagar. He added that there is strong demand for these chilly post-exercise recovery methods, but no details are provided.
Meta-analysis of 20 studies on cold water immersion It turns out that at least five people will be in the bus The subjective effects of strenuous exercise were reduced, including delayed muscle pain at onset, up to 15 degrees.
However, this analysis, published in the Frontier of Physiology in 2023, recommended further research into the perceived benefits of this practice, including comparisons. The effect About people exercising at various intensities.
Dr. Victor Tan Ike Kien, a consultant at the School of Sports and Exercise Medicine at Changi General Hospital, says cold water immersion has been adopted by elite athletes to reduce the effects of pain and fatigue after high-intensity exercise, especially for long periods..
A series of events in endurance athletes and international games competing in triathlons It puts serious stress on the muscles.
The resulting metabolic and mechanical strain can lead to muscle damage, swelling and inflammation. People may feel pain, pain and fatigue for hours and days. Fatigue is defined as follows: Fatigue leads to reduced muscle performance.
“For these groups of people, recovery is extremely important as there are potentially consecutive dates of competition,” says Dr. Tan.
To get into cold water, sit in 10 cold baths immersed in your neck Up to 15 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
Dr. Tan says cold temperatures, ambient water pressure, or hydrostatic pressure improve circulation and reduces muscle stress.
Hydrostatic pressure improves blood flow to the heart while limiting blood flow to the muscles. This allows the body to remove exercise-related waste more effectively and provide oxygen and nutrients more efficiently. This will help your muscles recover faster and reduce swelling in the muscle tissue.
Cold temperatures constrict peripheral blood vessels and reduce blood flow to larger muscles. This helps reduce muscle swelling, fatigue and strain, and reduces pain and inflammation.
average Gymnastics Do you receive the same benefits from cold water immersion? Dr. Tan points out that scientific evidence on the benefits of this practice comes from research on elite athletes.
Long exposure also has drawbacks.
“Excessive cooling is not recommended,” he says. “If it’s too long or too cold, athletes are at risk of hypothermia.”
Saunas may have long-term health benefits
Goh Bock Seng, who turned 66 in July, doesn’t like ice baths. “I tried it, but I didn’t enjoy it. My body was shocked. The cold hit my bones,” he says.
Members of Damai Spa and Fitness Center work three times a week, combining weight training, treadmill running and swimming.
Even on the days he doesn’t want to exercise, he It was then portrayed with the promise of relaxing in a hot environment.
He finishes his training in a session with High Dropol, which holds an average temperature of 34°C and steam room at 40-47°C. Sometimes I try saunas in the 70-95°C range.
“I then go home and get a comfortable sleep,” says Go, who runs a boutique company that handles mergers and acquisitions.
Dr. Jonathan Chong, family doctor at DTAP Clinic @novena, says there is scientific evidence that exposure to fever has health and happiness benefits.
He points to research from Finland where people are in the habit of using saunas. A 2015 study of Finns using saunas Average 14 minutes to visit At 79 degrees, the fever found that people visiting the sauna were less likely to die from cardiovascular disease and stroke more frequently.
2024 review of this and other studies We found that sauna use could also reduce the effects of musculoskeletal and respiratory disorders. A review published in the Journal Temperature suggested that such passive, short-term exposure to heat improves mental well-being and sleep.
Alfian, who uses a dual therapy sauna at Damaipa and the fitness center, is the lead on the fitness team. He also enjoys his time in the steam room after training.St. Photo: Lim Yaofui
While some studies show that dry heat has benefits, Dr. Chong points out there is no scientific evidence of similar benefits to soaking in warm or wet heat. This is despite the long tradition of visiting hot baths and hot springs in Japan.
He suggests that people who prefer hot baths over cold plunges respond based on their level of comfort. Perhaps “pleasant hormones” are released in warm environments, but cold charges can cause discomfort. The benefits are recognized for the comfort you feel in a warm environment.
He adds that bodybuilders and people trying to grow their muscles may be drawn to warm water due to a cold rush. Reduces or disables the impact of training. Cold has a negative effect on muscle protein synthesis.
“After exercise, cold soaking can reduce muscle growth,” he says.
Besides that, Dr. Tan Above 36°C it can help restore muscle strength after resistance training. However, there is little evidence that this would do so Please help meEchobal from fatigue.
If warm water immersion leads to raising the athlete’s core temperature during subsequent long-term exercise, it can undermine performance, he adds.
Is thermal contrast therapy your best bet?
As a competitive PowerLifter, Ong goes to the gym four times a week in the morning. His work as a personal trainer is putting him up.
When training for the competition in 2024, he discovered that he was not sleeping well.
Kester Lim, manager of Reformd Personal Training, proposed thermal contrast therapy. Ong tried several alternating times in a cold rush in the sauna.
That night he says: “I slept like a baby. When I woke up I felt like I had a reset. My body was no longer inflamed.”
Kester Lim, manager of Reformd Personal Training (left), suggested that the competitive Powerlifter Ong Wei Chaai try out thermal contrast therapy to recover from intense training. ONG now uses this method regularly.St. Photo: Jung Jung Liang
Alternating temperatures and cold temperatures is a common practice among users of temperature-based recovery. Thea Wong, 50, well-being director at Grand Hyatt Singapore, calls the practice “bioharmonization.”.
She says this exercise is less stressful than simply sitting in an icy bath. The temperature changes are relaxed just as Finnish sauna users end up with cold baths and cold temperatures.
People may recognize benefits Dr. Chung says that there is no scientific evidence to support recognition, alternating between heat, cold and cold.
“The placebo effect is powerful in this case,” he adds. “You’re trying to make the most of both worlds, but there’s no difficult scientific evidence to support this practice.”
However, with Mr. Ong Lim believes that such practices will also help with mental well-being and physical performance.
ONG currently relies on thermal contrast therapy to recover from intense training. He enjoys the heartless comfort of sitting in the sauna, followed by a mindful practice of focusing on his breathing. In the cold pool.
“I don’t think about anything in the sauna. I have to relax in the cold by focusing on my breath, my breath,” he says.
“After that, I feel refreshed and cleared my mind too. I really like it.”
- Akshita Nanda writes about health, happiness, aging and longevity. She is co-led with the Straits Times project on Dementia, which won international acclaim in 2022.
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