If you are a health and fitness nut like myself you will appreciate the following insight. I constantly am thinking of nutrition and fitness tips I receive, and comparing them to other advice and tips to trying to be sure they are legit. I have been focusing on shaping up a lot lately. I’m in great health, and am not overweight, but I want to be “toned”. You always hear that females must add strength training to their cardio in order to see true results (firm arms, stomach, legs). I have been increasing my strength training routine during each work out, and always end my work out with a sauna sessions to sweat out any toxins I may have. Then one day I had this thought/ question/ concern….
 
Alcoholics are often very bloated (almost puffy looking). This is due to dehydration. Everyone knows alcohol causes dehydration (thus a massive headache/ hangover). if dehydration causes puffiness and bloating, why would I want to sit in a sauna and sweat out all the water that I just took in during my work out? If I’m losing water I won’t be hydrated. It’s easy to tell when I’m dehydrated because when I interlace my fingers it feels swollen, they do not fit together as easily.
 
The more I thought about this I realized when you sweat in the sauna you are sweating out all the sodium and impurities from your system, not just water. Therefore when you sweat out the sodium and replace it will pure water, you are hydrating while cleansing your system. Furthermore, since you are sweating you become thirsty and this encourages you to take in more water. I have been doing a lot of research on the benefits of the sauna lately as I do not want to be sitting in there for 10 minutes after my work out just wasting time. I have learned that the sauna actually has many unrealized benefits, such as skin clearing (no more work out acne) due to sweating out those impurities, stress relief and weight loss.
 
Hit that sauna fitness fanatics!