New Training Tool For Faster Recovery

There is an exciting training tool out there that has been heavily researched for its benefits on everything from cardiovascular health to longevity, endurance, even cognitive performance. Despite it's growing popularity very little has been talked about for its application in rehab and return to sport. This, in my opinion, has huge untapped potential to help athletes in their recovery after knee surgery.

That tool is Sauna exposure

Saunas have exploded in popularity in recent years in the biohacker and longevity space for their wide-ranging benefits on a variety of health and performance metrics. They are perhaps most well known and highly regarded for their benefits on cardiovascular health with some studies showing reductions in heart attacks by up to 51% and reduction in strokes by up to 62% with consistent use.

So that's great but not why we're here. I am interested in whether we can use this tool to help you recover faster from your ACL, meniscus, or other serious knee injury. For that kind of situation there are two major benefits of sauna use I am particularly interested in:

First, sauna use post-surgery has been shown to significantly reduce muscle atrophy (muscle loss) after a surgery or period of immobilization.

This is huge because regaining that strength and muscle mass is a key part of the rehab process and something many athletes struggle with. In fact, this is one of the biggest problems that holds athletes back from getting all the way back to their fit and athletic former selves. I have interacted with many athletes who, even years after their operation, still have a size difference between legs. It's been so long they just accept it as their new normal.

This can be very dangerous. It can effect an athlete's ability to get back on the field. Then, if they do get back, it greatly increases the chance of re-injuring their knee or, more commonly, injuring the opposite side as it tries to work extra to pick up the slack.

So the more we can reduce the initial muscle loss post surgery, the less catch up you have to do in the rehab process. It's like getting head start compared to everybody else trying to come back from the same injury, all without doing any extra work in the gym.

Now if you're coming off of surgery you do want to be mindful of stitches and bandages and everything like that so consult with your surgeon about when it is safe to start including sauna exposure into your rehab process, but the sooner you can start this the quicker you will see benefits and the more you will be able to fight that local tissue loss around the knee.

The second reason why I am a big fan of sauna use during the recovery process following an ACL injury is the stimulation of your natural anabolic hormones, particularly growth hormone.

Growth hormone is a very powerful hormone that aids in, among other things, muscle protein synthesis and collagen protein synthesis. Increased production of this hormone is going to aid in the growth and repair of new muscle AND connective tissue which are crucial parts of the recovery process.

This is particularly true when we are still in early to mid stages of rehab and we can't do too much heavy resistance training. Strength training, particularly high-volume strength training, is very effective for increasing anabolic hormones and muscle protein synthesis.

If we are unable to take advantage of this training tool, however, then utilizing something like sauna exposure is a clever way we can work around that and still get the desired training response.

This is not going to replace, but rather compliment, a well-structured training plan designed to rebuild strength, mobility, and joint health like we have in the ACL Return to Sport Protocol.

Now as far as actual protocols go there are a lot of different options out there and many of them can be effective.

My personal favorite protocol and the one I recommend for all my athletes is 20 - 30 minutes immediately after our training session. Using the sauna right after exercise has been shown to increase delivery of nutrients directly to the areas you just trained increasing repair and recovery. This allows us to get a targeted anabolic response to help repair and grow new tissue in the exact areas we most need it.

In addition to that the sauna inhibits the muscle protein breakdown we see immediately after a workout. By delaying that are again primed to be in a more anabolic state to help rebuild new tissue faster.

Now if you don't have access to a sauna close to when you are working out there is another protocol Andrew Huberman has spoken about that is pretty extreme but also can be very effective.

This protocol involves using the sauna only one day per week going in for 30 minutes, getting out and resting for 5-10 minutes, then going back in for another 30 minutes. Then you repeat that cycle later in the day for another 30 minutes in, 5 - 10 out, 2x, for a total of 2 hours in the sauna.

So this is a lot, and you definitely you want to make sure you are sufficiently hydrating, getting ample salt intake, all that good stuff, but this protocol results in up to a 16 fold increase (yes 16,000%) which is pretty insane.

So you can try that one if you want to but again my preferred means of use is immediately after your training or rehab session when we can take advantage of that post-training hormone response.

As far as what kind of sauna to use and optimal temperatures and everything I won't get into all that because, to be honest, most of us don't have the option to create the perfect sauna setup in our house. We either have access to one or we don't.

So use what you can when you can as a way to compliment your recovery protocol after an ACL injury to help you come back sooner, safer, stronger.

If you’re looking for help with your own ACL recovery send in a training application below.

If you found this article helpful share it with a friend to help them with their own recovery. Otherwise I will see you again in next week's article.

Till then, bye!