Runners are already familiar with the benefits of sweating—from cooling and detoxing the body to clearing the skin and preventing infection. Though the best kind of sweat is and always will be the kind you earn from a hard run, a sauna can also offer a sweat session while reducing, rather than raising, inflammation—whether you want to recover from a serious injury or just relax after a workout.
Total Expert Score: 93/100
This JNH Lifestyles sauna lives up to its name: Its high-quality construction, performance, and technology will make you feel joyous. Its LED digital control panel adjusts the session’s duration and operating temperature. Other tech accessories include an audio jack and two speakers, so you can listen to your favorite playlist or podcast. The Joyous line is also offered in 1-person, 3-person, and 4-person models. If you want more personal space, it’s recommended to go a size larger than the amount of people with which you plan to share the sauna.
Total Expert Score: 87/100
Heat Wave’s hemlock corner sauna can heat up in just 30 minutes, and you can adjust the temperature from the inside or outside with its dual interior and exterior LED control panels. It’s full of convenient accessories like towel racks, cup holders to help you remember to hydrate, and magazine racks to store your reading material. Though it has a large interior and wide benches, its design makes it easy to tuck away in a corner of your home.
Total Expert Score: 96/100
Though Radiant Sauna’s Deluxe 4-person model has the most space, it also comes with the largest price tag here. But for its price, you get all the expected luxuries, such as chromatherapy lighting, bronze-tinted glass, and an integrated sound system with CD player, radio, and aux input. It’s complete with 10 total carbon heaters, adjustable roof vents, and an oxygen ionizer. If you don’t have enough space for this sauna in your basement or bathroom, consider Radiant Sauna’s 2-person Is a Vibrating Foam Roller Better Than Others 6-person Cedar sauna.
Total Expert Score: 97/100
Best Sauna Reviews named Durherm’s DIF-5000 model the best portable sauna. It includes a canvas sports chair to use inside, a heated footpad, and removable, washable terry-cloth neck collars. With your head and hands free from the sauna, you can even do other activities like reading and watching TV while you sweat it out.Users loved that it’s easy to assemble and fold up again to store.
Total Expert Score: 97/100
Sauna blankets offer the same benefits as a prefabricated wooden or portable sauna, just while lying down instead. This Gizmo blanket includes three separate heating zones that can be used individually or together on the upper body, waist, and lower body. Despite its higher price compared to other sauna blankets, it’s less expensive and more convenient than regular spa treatments.
Sauna Health Benefits for Runners
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Why Cant I Eat After a Marathon, Give A Gift 2019 running resolutions. After spending a month in Finland, she discovered that saunas can be just as restorative as ice baths, foam rollers, and other recovery methods.
Sauna use not only provides immediate muscle and joint pain relief, but can also improve circulation and reduce blood pressure, which may ultimately decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease in the long term. Research also suggests that it can lessen inflammation and pain from conditions like arthritis and fibromyalgia. In addition to recovery, regular sauna use may enhance runners’ performance as well. In one study, a small group of male distance runners decreased their 5K time by nearly 2 percent after only three weeks of using a sauna after training for 30 minutes, four times per week.
Rather than replacing your workouts, try regular sauna sessions after your training. Wade advises, “Preferably after you’ve cooled down from a workout, start with 10-minute sauna sessions once or twice a week. Monitor how you feel during and after, and adjust accordingly. Hydrate extra well, and hop out if at any point you start to feel dizzy.”
Shopping for Your Own Home Sauna
Saunas may be a nice luxury on spa trips and vacations, but in order to really reap all of the above health benefits, regular use is key. Instead of spending extravagant amounts on spa packages, you may find that a home sauna is a worthwhile investment that can save you loads in the long term. Plus, you get the added convenience of being able to disrobe and relax right in your own home after a workout.
Home sauna prices typically range from $1,000 for prefabricated 1- to 2-person models to thousands for luxurious, larger 4+ person structures. Most of these expensive models also come with built-in sound systems and chromatherapy lights, among other accessories. If you’re looking for a budget option, consider portable saunas or sauna blankets that can cost anywhere from $200 to $500. And, if a permanent structure in your house isn’t a possibility, consider a portable one, which can fold up to store or travel with you.
As opposed to traditional ‘steam’ saunas that heat the room by adding water to sauna rocks, or Finnish saunas that burn wood, these home saunas heat the body directly using ‘infrared’ heat. Despite their different heat source, home saunas reportedly offer the same health benefits as traditional saunas, and are safe and easy to use in the home.
If you order a sauna kit online, retailers typically ship to your curbside. Installation usually requires at least two people, and some more powerful models with nonstandard plugs may require an electrician’s help to modify. These saunas should also be installed on hard surfaces like tile or wood floors, since carpet can absorb liquid and odors.
How We Rated Them
We researched 12 expert sources and 2,000 consumer reviews to select the top seven home saunas of the year. To determine our Total Expert Score, we calculate the ratings from trusted publications such as Sauna Reviewer, Blissful Relaxation, and Bath Vault, and convert them to a 100-point scale to make it easier for you to weigh the best options. Our Consumer Score represents the percentage of consumers who rated the product at least 4 out of 5 stars on retail sites like Amazon, Home Depot, and Walmart.
Paige Szmodis is an editor for Runner’s World, Bicycling, and Popular Mechanics, who researches and writes home, tech, and outdoor product reviews and news.
