Can an Infrared Sauna Change Your Life?

While eating healthy and exercising often can help you live a balanced life, there may be a missing piece to the puzzle. That piece has been credited for relieving stress and stimulating collagen production in the skin, and is, like any wellness craze worth its salt, endorsed by Gwyneth Paltrow. The latest craze in the health game is here: Meet the infrared sauna.

These aren’t your old-fashioned wood-lined rooms. “Infrared rays penetrate skin tissue, and unlike normal saunas, heat up your body from the inside out,” says New York City physical therapist Michelle Rodriguez. “The technology makes it possible to expel up to 20 percent more toxins than sweating normally.” According to Rodriguez, clients who sit in the sauna for 40 minutes can burn up to 600 calories without even moving: “It heats up your core temperature, increasing heart rate, cardiac output, and overall metabolic rate,” says Rodriguez.

If the prospect of effort-free exercise sounds appealing enough, the saunas—which come in forms ranging from telephone booth–like stalls to padded reflective pods with a chair inside—have also been known to relieve stress and even lower blood pressure in clients who make them a weekly habit. And the more you sit, the better; Rodriguez suggests utilizing the technology up to twice a week, although it’s safe to detox daily.

In addition to lowering cortisol levels in the body, infrared technology speeds up recovery time if you’re injured. Rodriguez, whose client list includes dancers at New York’s American Ballet Theatre, often sends ballerinas to the saunas. “Forty minutes in the sauna will increase blood flow dramatically,” she says, “sending a surge of oxygenated blood to the infected area.”

It has been reported that Jennifer Aniston has an infrared sauna installed in her Los Angeles home and detoxes weekly with husband Justin Theroux. But for those of us without hillside compounds, an at-home sauna may not be an option. Fortunately, spas across the country are jumping on the infrared train. Here, a few of our favorites. Why not try heating things up?

Manhattan Physio Group
130 West 56th Street, 3rd floor
New York, NY
212.247.8436

Shape House
434 North Larchmont Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA
855.567.2346

Higher Dose
21 East First Street
New York, NY
201.426.7282

The Springs
608 Mateo Street
Los Angeles, CA
212.223.6226

Gravity East Village
515 East Fifth Street, Unit 1A
New York, NY
212.388.9788

Aura Wellness Spa
49 West 33rd Street
New York, NY
212.695.9559

 

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