Infrared saunas and breathwork are simple practices that, when combined, can promote relaxation, support recovery, and improve overall health. Infrared saunas use light to heat your body directly, improving circulation and reducing inflammation. Breathwork involves controlled breathing techniques that lower stress, enhance oxygen delivery, and support emotional balance. Together, they create ideal conditions for healing by relaxing muscles, reducing cortisol levels, and boosting oxygen flow.
Here’s why this combination works:
- Infrared saunas enhance circulation, reduce pain, and support cardiovascular health.
- Breathwork lowers stress, improves sleep, and promotes emotional regulation.
- Combined effects include deeper muscle relaxation, faster recovery, and amplified stress relief.
For best results, start with short sessions (10–15 minutes) at a comfortable temperature and gradually increase duration. Pair with techniques like diaphragmatic or 4-7-8 breathing for added benefits. Regular practice - 2–4 times weekly - can help you feel calmer, recover faster, and sleep better.
Heat Healer Sauna review: how to properly breath in the sauna 💦
Research-Based Benefits of Infrared Sauna and Breathwork
Studies show that both infrared saunas and breathwork deliver a range of health benefits. By understanding how each practice works, it’s easier to see why combining them can have such a transformative impact on your body and mind.
Physical Benefits of Infrared Sauna
Infrared sauna therapy works on a cellular level to improve physical health in ways that are backed by research. The heat penetrates deeply into the body, triggering a variety of positive changes.
Cardiovascular health can see notable improvements with consistent sauna use. Studies reveal that using a sauna 4–7 times a week is linked to a 47% lower risk of high blood pressure and a 33% reduced risk of venous thromboembolism. There’s also evidence that regular sauna sessions significantly reduce the risk of sudden cardiac death.
The improved circulation from sauna use plays a key role in reducing inflammation and supporting recovery for both muscles and the cardiovascular system. Muscle recovery and pain relief are enhanced because the infrared heat reaches deep into tissues, aiding in the removal of metabolic waste that builds up after physical activity or stress.
These benefits are attributed to the sauna's anti-inflammatory, cytoprotective, and antioxidant effects:
"The beneficial effects of passive heat therapies may be linked to their anti-inflammatory, cytoprotective and anti-oxidant properties and synergistic effects on neuroendocrine, circulatory, cardiovascular and immune function."
Unlike traditional Finnish saunas, which operate at very high temperatures, infrared saunas are effective at lower temperatures - 86-104°F (30-40°C) - and with no humidity. This makes them more comfortable for longer sessions while still delivering impressive health benefits.
Mental and Emotional Benefits of Breathwork
Breathwork offers significant improvements in mental and emotional well-being, with research highlighting its positive effects across several areas.
Stress and anxiety reduction is one of the most well-documented benefits. Controlled breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is your body’s natural relaxation mechanism. Intentional breathing patterns help lower cortisol levels, breaking the cycle of stress. Studies show that breathwork can significantly reduce feelings of anxiety and depression while fostering a sense of calm.
Better sleep quality is another advantage of regular breathwork. Techniques like the 4-7-8 breathing method are particularly effective for helping people fall asleep faster and sleep more deeply. This method involves inhaling through the nose for 4 seconds, holding the breath for 7 seconds, and exhaling through the mouth for 8 seconds.
Emotional regulation becomes easier with consistent practice. Deep, rhythmic breathing helps manage cravings, reduce anger, and maintain emotional balance throughout the day. A 2020 review even found that deep breathing techniques can enhance the quality of life for individuals with chronic conditions.
The Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice underscores the accessibility and effectiveness of breathwork:
"Breathwork is an intrinsic, safe, simple, accessible, and evidence-based stress management strategy that engages the parasympathetic response, effectively reversing the damage caused by stress."
Pain management also benefits from breathwork. Controlled breathing patterns encourage the release of natural pain-relieving chemicals, reducing discomfort perception.
Combined Effects: Healing Through Heat and Breath
When you combine infrared sauna therapy with breathwork, the benefits go beyond what each practice offers individually. Together, they enhance oxygen delivery, promote muscle relaxation, and significantly reduce stress. The sauna’s heated environment creates the perfect conditions for deeper and more effective breathing exercises.
Enhanced oxygen delivery is one major advantage. Infrared heat causes vasodilation, which expands blood vessels and improves circulation. Adding diaphragmatic breathing in this environment boosts oxygen saturation in your blood, ensuring more oxygen reaches your cells for faster healing and recovery.
Deeper muscle relaxation is another benefit. The heat makes muscles, the diaphragm, and even ribs more pliable, allowing for more effective breathing.
Amplified stress reduction happens because the sauna reduces physical tension while breathwork lowers cortisol levels by activating the parasympathetic nervous system. Together, they create a powerful combination for tackling stress and anxiety.
The synergy of these practices allows for tailored breathing techniques depending on your goals:
| Breathwork Technique | Primary Benefits |
|---|---|
| Diaphragmatic Breathing | Maximizes oxygen intake |
| Box Breathing | Balances the nervous system |
| 4-7-8 Breathing | Enhances relaxation and sleep |
| Alternate Nostril Breathing | Boosts focus and reduces stress |
Improved recovery time is another noticeable outcome. The increased circulation from sauna heat, combined with the enhanced oxygenation from deep breathing, helps your body repair tissues more efficiently and recover from both physical exertion and mental strain.
How to Add Infrared Sauna and Breathwork to Your Routine
Incorporating infrared sauna sessions and breathwork into your weekly schedule doesn’t have to be complicated. With a little preparation and a clear plan, you can enjoy these practices and start noticing their effects in just a few sessions.
Preparation Checklist
Before your session, a little prep work goes a long way. Here’s what to keep in mind:
- Hydrate: Drink plenty of water a few hours before, and keep a water bottle handy during your session.
- Dress Comfortably: Opt for lightweight, breathable clothing like a swimsuit or athletic shorts. Avoid tight or heavy fabrics that might interfere with the sauna’s benefits.
- Remove Metal Accessories: Take off jewelry, watches, or anything metal, as these can heat up excessively.
- Bring Towels: Pack two clean towels - one to sit on for hygiene and another to wipe away sweat.
- Tie Up Long Hair: Keeping your hair off your neck can help prevent overheating.
- Eat Lightly: Have a small snack about an hour before, but avoid heavy meals within two hours of your session.
If you’re new to infrared saunas, start slow. Follow these beginner-friendly temperature and timing guidelines:
| Session Number | Temperature Range | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| First Session | 100°F - 110°F | 10-15 minutes |
| Second Session | 110°F - 120°F | 15-20 minutes |
| Third Session | 120°F - 130°F | 20-25 minutes |
Sample Routine: Combining Infrared Sauna and Breathwork
Once you’re ready, here’s a simple routine to help you get the most out of your infrared sauna and breathwork practice:
- Set Aside Time: Plan for 45–60 minutes, including preparation, the session itself, and a cool-down period.
- Pre-Session (5–10 minutes): Before stepping into the sauna, spend 2–3 minutes practicing diaphragmatic breathing to relax and prepare your body.
- Early Sauna Phase (First 5–10 minutes): As you settle into the sauna, focus on slow, mindful breathing to help your body adjust to the heat.
- Mid-Session Breathwork: During the session, try deep breathing exercises. As you near the end, gradually slow your breath to maintain a calm, steady rhythm.
- Post-Session Cool-Down: Exit the sauna slowly and rest for a few minutes to let your heart rate normalize. Rehydrate with water and consider a lukewarm shower to refresh.
For best results, aim for 2–4 sessions each week. Many people find that scheduling sessions in the early evening, about 1–2 hours before bedtime, promotes relaxation and improves sleep.
Safety Tips and Best Practices
To ensure a safe and enjoyable experience, keep these guidelines in mind:
- Watch for Overheating: If you feel dizzy, nauseous, lightheaded, or experience a rapid heartbeat, exit the sauna immediately.
- Consult Your Doctor: If you’re pregnant, have cardiovascular or neurological conditions, or take medications affecting temperature regulation, talk to your healthcare provider before starting infrared sauna therapy.
- Take It Slow: Start with shorter sessions at lower temperatures and increase gradually over time. Always listen to your body - if something feels off, stop.
- Avoid When Unwell: Skip the sauna if you’re sick, have recently consumed alcohol, or just aren’t feeling up to it.
sbb-itb-72d195f
Digital Tools to Support Your Wellness Practice
Digital tools can make tracking your infrared sauna and breathwork sessions easier and more effective. Growth Bundle offers a handpicked selection of wellness apps designed to help you monitor your progress, maintain consistency, and get the most out of your healing routine. Here’s a closer look at how these tools can support your wellness journey.
Growth Bundle Apps for Mindfulness and Wellness
The Mindfulness App is a great partner for your breathwork practice. With over 500 meditations, guided breathing exercises, and mindfulness courses, this app has something for everyone. Whether you’re looking for a quick breathing warm-up before stepping into the sauna or a longer guided session to accompany your heat therapy, there are options tailored to different skill levels and timeframes.
Reflectly helps you track the emotional and mental changes you experience after each session. This AI-powered journaling app adapts to your usage, offering a personalized way to log your feelings and notice patterns in your mood over time.
HealthView syncs with your existing health data - like the information from your Apple Watch - to give you a complete picture of how your wellness routine is affecting your body. From heart rate variability to sleep quality and recovery stats, this app provides insights into your overall health trends.
Done (also called The Do App) is all about building habits. Research suggests it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days to form a habit, and this app helps you stick to your goals from day one. You can create a custom habit for your infrared sauna sessions, track your streaks, and see how consistent you’ve been over time.
With a Growth Bundle subscription, you can access all these apps on any device. Together, they make tracking simple and seamlessly integrate your data to keep you on track.
Connecting Data for Complete Progress Tracking
By using these apps together, you can deepen the benefits of your infrared sauna and breathwork practices. Start by setting up your routine in Done to establish consistency. Before each session, use The Mindfulness App for breathing exercises to prepare your body and mind. After your session, Reflectly lets you capture your thoughts and emotions while they’re still fresh.
At the same time, HealthView collects and organizes your physiological data - like heart rate variability, sleep patterns, and recovery metrics - so you can see how your routine is shaping your overall health.
With a 4.6-star rating from over 190,000 users, Growth Bundle shows how well these apps work together to support lasting wellness habits. Plus, the 14-day free trial gives you a chance to explore how they fit into your routine before committing to a subscription.
Since habits make up over 40% of your daily actions, having digital tools to support your wellness practice can turn a short-term experiment into a long-term lifestyle. Start with the apps that feel most relevant to your goals, and gradually add others as your routine evolves.
Measuring Progress and Maintaining Results
Keeping tabs on your progress is key to understanding your results and staying motivated. This involves tracking both physical changes in your body and the mental shifts you experience over time.
Tracking Your Wellness Journey
To get a complete view of your wellness journey, consider using tools like HealthView for tracking physical metrics and Reflectly for monitoring your mood.
Start by establishing baseline metrics during your first week. Measure things like heart rate, blood pressure, sleep quality, and mood before and after sessions. Take note of any physical symptoms such as muscle tension or headaches. Also, track how comfortable you feel at different heat settings as your tolerance improves.
Consistency is critical, and the Do App can help you stay on track. It acts as a habit tracker, showing your streaks and whether you're meeting the frequency needed to achieve cardiovascular benefits.
Set specific, measurable goals beyond simply showing up. Log details like session duration, breathwork techniques you’ve tried, and how you feel afterward. Be alert for warning signs such as dizziness, rapid heartbeat, excessive fatigue, or difficulty breathing - these could signal the need to adjust your approach. Regularly tracking these details can help you catch potential issues early.
Adjusting and Improving Your Routine
The insights you gather from tracking can guide you in fine-tuning your routine. As your body adapts to the heat and breathwork, consider gradually increasing your session length by about 5 minutes every 2–3 days until you reach 45 minutes. Studies suggest there’s no added health benefit beyond this duration.
Use your app data to identify when changes might be necessary. For example, if HealthView shows your heart rate isn't recovering as quickly between sessions, you may be pushing too hard. Or, if your Reflectly entries indicate you’re feeling more stressed than relaxed, explore different breathwork techniques or lower the sauna temperature.
Your body thrives on manageable challenges - a principle known as hormesis. This means gradually increasing either the heat level or the intensity of your breathwork, but not both at the same time. Tracking helps you find that balance where you’re challenging yourself without overdoing it.
Adjustments may also be needed during seasonal changes or periods of higher stress. If you’re under the weather or going through a busy time, shorter and gentler sessions might be more effective. Regular check-ins every 2–3 weeks can help ensure your routine is still supporting your wellness goals. If progress stalls, try mixing things up - alternate between breathwork techniques or add contrast therapy by incorporating cold exposure after your sauna sessions.
Maintaining Long-Term Benefits
Once you’ve fine-tuned your routine, the next step is sustaining it over the long haul. The key is to weave your sauna and breathwork practice into your daily life rather than treating it as a standalone project. Apps in your Growth Bundle can help by linking this routine to other healthy habits you’re cultivating.
For lasting results, consistency matters more than intensity. Research shows that cardiovascular benefits come from regular use over months and years, not from occasional marathon sessions. The Do App supports this by celebrating streaks and helping you quickly recover from missed sessions.
Life happens, so having a backup plan is essential. If your full routine includes 30 minutes in the sauna with guided breathwork, your backup might be a 15-minute session with simpler breathing exercises. Mapping out these alternatives in your apps can help you maintain momentum during busy or challenging times.
When progress feels slow, use your data to stay motivated. Apps like WeFast can show how your sauna practice supports other wellness goals, such as better sleep or faster workout recovery. Seeing these connections can provide perspective when individual metrics aren’t improving as quickly as you’d like.
Engaging with app communities can also boost your motivation. Sharing your achievements and seeing others’ progress can create a sense of accountability that keeps you going.
Finally, schedule regular reviews of your tracking data - monthly works well for most people. Look for trends in your physical metrics, mood patterns, and consistency. Celebrate your progress and adjust your routine based on what the data reveals about your body’s responses. This ongoing process of reflection and adjustment strengthens the benefits of combining heat therapy with mindful breathing.
Conclusion: Activating Your Body's Healing Potential
Combining infrared sauna sessions with intentional breathwork can unlock your body's natural ability to heal and rejuvenate. The soothing heat from the sauna works in tandem with focused breathing techniques, helping you create a powerful routine for restoration and overall well-being.
Studies show that regular sauna use is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular-related mortality, while using a sauna 4 to 7 times weekly has been linked to reducing the risk of dementia by over 60%. Adding breathwork to the mix enhances these benefits by improving oxygen flow and easing stress levels.
Start with manageable sessions - 15 to 20 minutes at a comfortable temperature - and gradually extend them to 30 or 40 minutes as your body adjusts. Tailor your breathwork to your needs: diaphragmatic breathing can support lung health, while the 4-7-8 technique is excellent for calming the mind and reducing tension. Pairing these practices with digital tools can make your journey even more effective.
Apps like The Mindfulness App can guide your breathing exercises, The Do App helps track your consistency, HealthView monitors physical progress, and Reflectly lets you log your emotions after each session. By collecting and analyzing this data, you can pinpoint what works best for your body and refine your approach. Keep in mind that results vary based on health, metabolism, and other personal factors. The key to success lies in steady, consistent practice rather than chasing perfection.
Start small - just one 15-minute session - and let your body show you the benefits of this powerful combination.
FAQs
How does combining infrared sauna sessions with breathwork boost the body’s natural healing process?
Combining infrared sauna sessions with guided breathwork creates an incredible harmony that taps into the body’s natural ability to heal and restore. The gentle heat of the sauna works to ease muscle tension, improve blood flow, and help flush out toxins. At the same time, breathwork encourages deep relaxation, eases stress, and helps regulate the nervous system.
When used together, these practices amplify each other's effects. The result? A deeper sense of calm, better oxygen circulation, and enhanced recovery. This duo not only aids in physical healing but also sharpens mental focus and nurtures emotional balance, offering a well-rounded approach to wellness.
What are the best breathwork techniques to use during an infrared sauna session to boost relaxation and healing?
Combining breathwork with an infrared sauna session can take relaxation and stress relief to the next level. It not only promotes a deeper sense of calm but also improves oxygen flow throughout your body. Here are a few breathing techniques worth trying during your session:
- Diaphragmatic (belly) breathing: Take deep, slow breaths that expand your abdomen. This encourages relaxation and helps oxygenate your body more effectively.
- Box breathing: Breathe in for a count of 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, and hold again for 4. This structured rhythm can enhance both focus and calmness.
- 4-7-8 breathing: Inhale for a count of 4, hold for 7, and exhale slowly for 8. This method is great for easing stress and bringing about a sense of tranquility.
- Alternate nostril breathing: Close one nostril while inhaling through the other, then switch sides for the next breath. This practice helps create balance between the body and mind.
Incorporating these techniques into your sauna time can deepen your relaxation and support your body's natural healing processes. Begin with just a few minutes of focused breathing and adjust the method to what feels most comfortable for you.
Are there any health conditions where combining infrared sauna sessions and breathwork might not be safe?
While combining infrared sauna sessions with breathwork can offer numerous health benefits, it's not a one-size-fits-all approach. People with certain medical conditions - like cardiovascular problems, pregnancy, severe inflammation, fever, infectious diseases, bleeding disorders, or chronic illnesses such as epilepsy or active cancer - should either avoid these practices or consult a healthcare professional beforehand.
If you're uncertain about whether it's safe for you, reaching out to your doctor is a smart move. They can help determine if these practices fit your specific health needs and goals.