Being in saunas or steam rooms is not only relaxing, it’s also great for your skin! Specifically if you’re treating cellulite. Cellulite is a harmless skin condition women commonly experience that makes their skin look lumpy. Saunas and steam rooms reduce cellulite by opening your skin’s pores and increasing blood circulation, which prevents cellulite formation. But you need good hydration to get the best from your steam or sauna session, as both make you lose fluids through sweat.
Let’s start by laying the foundations right:
What is Cellulite?
Cellulite is a skin condition that makes your skin appear textured and uneven in certain areas. It may look and feel like an orange peel as the flesh is slightly lumpy and raised in some spots.[1] Cellulite ranges from mild to severe, where the skin is highly textured.
Cellulite usually develops on women’s thighs and buttocks, but it can also happen in other areas. This makes it quite common for women to discover cellulite on their upper arms, breasts, and the lower part of their abdomen as well. [2]
Cellulite is caused by multiple factors, including:
- Genetics
- Hormonal issues
- Stress
- Subcutaneous fat distribution
- Micro-circulatory system irregularities.
- Certain dietary and lifestyle choices
Cellulite is medically treatable, but most cellulite medical treatments don’t provide quick or long-lasting results [3]. This leads many to opt for other alternatives, which include adopting a healthier lifestyle or using steam rooms and saunas. There are also special massages and creams for cellulite treatment. Overall, however, steam rooms and saunas for cellulite remain the most popular cellulite treatments.
Common Treatments for Cellulite
The following three treatments can help combat your cellulite.
1. Exercise and Have a Healthy Lifestyle
If you have cellulite, it’s always best to consult your doctor about possible treatments first. There are, however, several lifestyle changes that can help you reduce your cellulite’s appearance.
Weight loss is proven to help reduce cellulite among obese individuals, but excessive dieting, or yo-yo dieting, could be harmful. Extreme variations in your body fat level could cause your skin to loosen and become even more textured [4], so be patient and don’t push your body to extremes!
To healthily lose weight, you can always count on a few sound pillars. Reduce the amount of sugar and unhealthy fats, and increase the amount of fruit and vegetables. Make sure to get enough proteins, and try to avoid refined carbohydrates (yes, we know it’s hard) because they increase fat in cellulite-prone regions. A balanced diet and regular exercise also tones your muscles, which contributes to making your skin look less uneven [5].
2. Integrate skin protection through wrapping and creams
There’s a number of skincare options for improving cellulite, but it’s always best to conduct a patch test before trying a new skincare product to avoid allergic reactions. Creams formulated with natural skin-tightening ingredients like caffeine can improve the skin texture in areas where you have cellulite.
Firming creams with retinol make the cellulite on your body less noticeable. Retinol thickens the outer layer of your skin and covers up the lumpy spots in the inner layer. Try a product with 0.3% retinol and use it for at least 6 months to see an improvement.
3. Heat Induced Treatments
Both effective, saunas and steam rooms are the most common heat-induced treatments. They reduce your body fat and open your skin's pores. As a result, your skin looks more even. There are also alternative heat-induced treatments that use lasers and radiofrequency, but steam rooms and saunas are the most convenient choice for most people.
Steam rooms versus Saunas
Saunas and steam rooms are similar, but they’re not the same. Both involve sitting in a small heated space that opens your skin pores, what’s different is the type of heat used and the temperature.
Saunas use dry heat, normally from heated rocks or closed stoves, while steam rooms use boiling water. Generally, saunas are also hotter than steam rooms: steam rooms are usually between 110 to 120°F , while saunas are between 160 and 220°F .
Both are excellent for cellulite treatment, so there isn’t really any advantage in choosing either one over the other. We’ll mostly focus on saunas, since they’re generally more common than steam rooms.
How do Steam rooms and Saunas treat Cellulite?
Saunas and steam rooms are both effective for cellulite because they help reduce fat and open your skin’s pores. People often develop cellulite because fat, water, and toxins collect in their skin’s subcutaneous layer.
The heat in a sauna helps remove toxins from your body’s fat tissues, including those with cellulite. Your heart rate and blood pressure increase with your body temperature, resulting in blood vessel dilation, pore opening, and sweating [6].
Once your body heats up, the fat in your cellulite destabilizes, and your sweat carries it out with other waste. The heat of a sauna increases blood circulation to your skin and some toxins are transported to your liver, which breaks them down.
Saunas and steam rooms can be reasonably effective in treating cellulite long-term, and you may want to start adding them into your life. Great choice! But let’s make sure you get the most out of it.
How to get the most out of your time in the sauna
1. Drink Water before and after the Sauna
First and foremost, hydration is key. Our body loses a lot of water during a sauna, together with other important fluids like minerals and electrolytes. You definitely want to drink enough water both before and after your sauna, as it is crucial that your body replaces the moisture it loses.
2. Use a Foam Roller
Using foam rollers after a sauna flattens the fat cells in your skin’s outer layer, which prevents them from forming cellulite. Foam rollers also help with muscle recovery by relaxing your muscles and relieving tension.
3. Dry Brush your skin in Sauna
Dry brushing your skin helps stimulate blood circulation and sweat production during your sauna session, which in turn makes it easier for your body to remove fat and toxins. Your lymphatic system uses a fluid called lymph to remove toxins from fat tissues. Brushing your entire body helps stimulate blood flow and lymphatic drainage, which improves toxin removal. You can use either handheld or large brushes for achieving this effect.
4. Shower Before and After the Sauna
Showering before a sauna not only keeps you clean, but it also helps open your pores and relax your muscles. Ideally, take a brief cold shower after exercising, and then enter the sauna. Also, make sure you’ve fully dried yourself before entering the sauna to make it easier for your body to sweat. Showering after the sauna will then remove the sweat from your body.
Importance of hydration for cellulite
The fat cells present in the cellulite hold water, and that’s where hydration comes into play. Dehydration makes your cellulite worse by deteriorating your skin’s texture around the cellulite. In addition to contributing to the buildup of toxins that cause cellulite, dehydration makes your skin thinner, making in turn your cellulite more prominent. Proper hydration keeps the skin thick and healthy, which reduces cellulite’s appearance.
Hydration and Saunas
You lose considerable amounts of water as sweat during a sauna, because your body sweats to cool down. While sweating is important for reducing cellulite and detoxifying your body, make sure you replace the water you’ve lost! [8]
If you don’t properly hydrate before and after your sauna sessions, you'll suffer the effects of dehydration, including light headedness, low energy, and skin damage. Being properly hydrated also improves your sauna experience by encouraging your body to sweat more.
Young children and older people especially need to hydrate after taking saunas, since they’re the most vulnerable to dehydration. Although plain water is fine for rehydrating, you want to reintroduce a high amount of electrolytes in your body. And this is where rapid hydration mixes such as our Hydrate come to help, with a balanced mix of sodium, magnesium, potassium and zinc to take your hydration game to the next level.
Stay hydrated!
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