Sauna After Working Out

I woke up this morning, my calves on fire... and 30 minutes later, Garrett came over, and we ran.  Since I ran last night, I could still feel it in my legs.  We finished running 8.42 miles in 1:07:53, an average of 8:04 min/mile.  It was raining and my whole body was drenched... but it felt pretty good.  I actually forgot about the hurting calves.  That is.  Until we stopped running.  After the run, my calves were screaming at me as I stretched them out, I decided that I needed a half mile walk in order to get the blood flowing and wash the lactic acid away.

A couple hours later, my roommate Christiann and I went over to THE RUSH to work on our cardio.  After warming up with 10 pull-ups and 25 push-ups, we went to the stationary bikes and cycled.  I did 30 minutes of cycling, and it was pretty rough... yet fun.  After that, I thought it would be a bright idea to work on my already hurting calves.  I figured that the lactic acid needed to go out and the quickest way to get it out was to do those dreaded calf raises.  This time, I upped it up to 230 per leg, and although it hurt, my calves felt slightly better.  After that, I decided to work on my obliques... because previously I had worked on my abdominals and I needed to work on my core.  It felt wonderful... and painful at the same time... funny how those two seem to work together.

After doing all that, we both went to the sauna where we perspired profusely for ten minutes.  As we got out, I noticed something different.  My calves weren't hurting at all!?!  Curious to see why that was so, I went to good ol' google.com to find out why.  After a little research, I learned that it's actually pretty beneficial for athletes to go to a sauna after working out.  Not only does it de-tox your body and clears out the grime that is on your skin, but it also warms up your body and increases blood circulation, soothing the muscles that you worked out, increasing your recovery.  It's also said by going to a sauna, it enhances an athlete's performance.

After a workout, it's important to do something to 'cool down' your muscles, so that it wouldn't go under any unnecessary strain.  Walking after a run, or stretching can help your muscles cool down.  Today, I learned that saunas can also do the same thing, relaxing your muscles, allowing it to flush out anything that would make your muscles sore.  Flushing out the unneeded things, taking in the needed things... it works pretty darn well.  (I guess tomorrow's blog is going to be about nutrition then)