Infrared Sauna for Muscle Recovery: Before or After a Workout?
- Jul 13
- 5 min read
TL;DR: Use an infrared sauna after your workout, not before. The research supports post-exercise use: a sauna session after training improves recovery of muscle performance and reduces soreness, by boosting blood flow to tired muscles. Using it before a workout risks dehydration and fatigue that can hurt your training. For recovery, sauna 30 to 60 minutes after a moderate session, stay well hydrated, and aim for two to three sessions a week.
There is a sauna in our Bondi studio for a reason, and it is not decoration. Members finish a reformer or yoga class and head straight in to recover, which happens to be exactly what the research supports. If you train and you are wondering whether the sauna belongs before or after your session, the answer is refreshingly clear. Infrared sauna for muscle recovery works best after exercise, and the science on this is genuinely good. Here is why, what it actually does for your muscles, and how to use it well.
Should you use an infrared sauna before or after a workout?
Use it after. While there are mild benefits to a pre-workout sauna, like loosening muscles, the risks outweigh them: heating your body before training makes it harder to regulate temperature during exercise, raises your heart rate, and can leave you dehydrated and tired before you have even started. Used after a workout, the same heat becomes a recovery tool, drawing blood and nutrients to muscles that have just worked and easing the soreness that follows. So save the sauna for the end. Train first, recover second, and you get the best of both without compromising either.
What the research says about saunas and recovery
This is where post-workout sauna use earns its place. A 2023 study published in the journal European Journal of Applied Physiology found that a post-exercise infrared sauna session improved the recovery of neuromuscular performance and reduced muscle soreness after resistance training. In plain terms, people who used the sauna after lifting bounced back faster and hurt less. The researchers reported that the sauna "attenuated the decrease in explosive performance" and lowered subjective soreness in the days after training. That is a specific, measured benefit, not a vague wellness claim, and it is why so many athletes build a sauna into their recovery.
How an infrared sauna helps muscle recovery
The mechanism is mostly about blood flow. As the gentle infrared heat warms your body, your blood vessels widen and circulation increases, which delivers more oxygen and nutrients to the muscles you have just worked and helps clear the by-products of exercise. According to Cleveland Clinic, this improved circulation is part of why infrared saunas support muscle recovery and ease aches. That better blood flow helps reduce delayed onset muscle soreness, the stiffness and tenderness that peaks a day or two after a hard session. The warmth also relaxes tight muscles and calms the nervous system, so you finish feeling looser and less wound up. Done regularly, it adds up to less soreness and more consistent training.
Before or after: a quick comparison
Before a workout | After a workout | |
Effect on training | Can raise heart rate and tire you | No effect, training is done |
Dehydration risk | Higher, before you have even started | Manageable with rehydration |
Recovery benefit | Minimal | Strong, backed by research |
Best use | A brief, light warm-through at most | The main event for recovery |
The takeaway is simple. If your goal is recovery, and for most people it is, after wins clearly. A sauna before exercise is at best a minor warm-up and at worst a handicap.
How to use an infrared sauna for recovery
A few habits get the most out of it.
Time it right. Sauna 30 to 60 minutes after a moderate workout, once your heart rate has settled.
Hydrate before and after. Drink a large glass of water before your session and replace what you sweat out afterwards.
Keep sessions moderate. Aim for 20 to 30 minutes once you are used to the heat, no longer.
Be consistent. Two to three sessions a week supports recovery better than the occasional one-off.
Listen to your body. If you feel lightheaded or overly drained, cut it short and rehydrate.
Is it ever okay to sauna before exercise?
Occasionally, and briefly. A short, gentle sauna before very light or mobility-based exercise can warm and loosen muscles, which some people like before stretching or gentle yoga. But before anything strenuous, it is a poor idea, because you start already warm, with a raised heart rate and reduced fluids, all of which make hard training feel harder and riskier. If you want the loosening effect, a proper warm-up does the job without the downsides. For genuine recovery value, keep the sauna for afterwards.
Frequently asked questions
Should you use an infrared sauna before or after a workout?
After. Post-workout sauna use is backed by research for improving muscle recovery and reducing soreness, while pre-workout use can dehydrate and tire you, making training harder. Save the sauna for the end of your session.
Does an infrared sauna help muscle recovery?
Yes. By increasing blood flow to worked muscles, an infrared sauna helps deliver nutrients and clear exercise by-products, which eases soreness and supports faster recovery. A 2023 study found post-exercise infrared sauna use improved neuromuscular recovery after resistance training.
Does a sauna help with DOMS and soreness?
It can. Improved circulation from the heat helps reduce delayed onset muscle soreness, the stiffness that peaks a day or two after hard exercise. Regular post-workout sessions tend to leave people less sore and stiff.
How long after a workout should you sauna?
About 30 to 60 minutes afterwards, once your heart rate has come back down. Make sure you are hydrated first, keep the session to 20 to 30 minutes, and rehydrate properly afterwards.
Is it bad to sauna before exercise?
Before strenuous exercise, it is unwise, because it raises your heart rate and dehydrates you before you start, which can hurt your performance. A brief, gentle sauna before light mobility work is fine, but for hard training, sauna afterwards instead.
Recover where you train, in Bondi
The neat thing about a studio sauna is the timing takes care of itself: you finish your class and recovery is right there, exactly when the research says to use it. That is why our members rate it as much as the classes.
Our full-spectrum infrared sauna at the Bondi studio is steps from the reformer and yoga rooms, free for unlimited members. Try the 21-day unlimited trial and finish every session the right way. Start your 21-day unlimited trial.
