Three benefits of using a sauna

If you venture onto Instagram, you will see at least one Story about cold plunges and saunas.

Saunas are the latest wellness trend that have been rising in recent years. Honestly they’re the perfect place to catch up with friends and have a gossip, while also saying we get some health benefits from it. (Without having to workout!)

But what exactly are the benefits of saunas?

We sat down with Katie Donovan, the woman behind Align Wellness, Dublin’s first design-driven sauna, ice bath and breathwork studio to find out more.

The studio offers Guided Sauna Sessions and Ice Bath, including aromatherapy infusions and sound instruments, along with Breathwork Classes and the option of Self-Guided Sessions.

Three benefits of saunas

• Moving the body out of fight or flight and into the parasympathetic state. In fact, it helps the body to slow down and rest.
• Saunas help to reduce our stress and cortisol. The heat helps to lower your blood pressure.
• Helps in recovery by ridding the body of toxins.

How long should you stay in the sauna?

Most sauna experiences are between 10 to 20 minutes, some experienced sauna users may push it up to 30 minutes. However, this may seem very daunting to beginngers.

Katie shares: “The more you do it, the more you become resilient to it, and your body then knows it is safe here. Then you can build it up, but even five minutes to start off with, and next time maybe five and half.

“And with women, at different times of the month we can tolerate heat quite differently, so like that some days I can only stay in for seven minutes, others then it’s 20, so it’s totally depending, it’s just once you are getting that sweat, whatever anyone can do it’s a benefit.”