A 20-30 minute session in a hot sauna (175-180°F) may be equivalent to 40 minutes in an infrared sauna for cardiovascular response.

“if you stay in long enough like you get that you feel hot and you feel that like heart rate going up just like you do when you're in a hot sauna. It just takes a lot longer.”

“So, a lot of variation in terms of, you know, the temperature of the sauna. If you're looking at there haven't, in fact, there's like one study like the title of something like infrared saunas or like does not mimic cardiovascular effects of exercise or something like that. And that's because at this the given dose, right? If you're just doing like 20 or 30 minutes, it's not going to be the same. Like your heart rate doesn't go up as much. You don't feel as hot because the temperature is not as hot. Now, you will sweat based on a different mechanism. But as far as my take of the literature, it's pretty clear to me that infrared saunas, if you want it to mimic the cardiovascular exercise response, you might have to double that.”

“If you can tolerate it, a longer 30-40 minute session would elevate core temperature more and probably have some greater benefits.”

“If you have an infrared sauna, you're probably going to have to double your time to about 45 minutes or more.”

“If you stay in an infrared sauna for 20 minutes, it's not going to be much of anything. uh with respect to increasing cardiac output and all these things I talked about. If you stay in there for 40 minutes, you're going to get you're going to get those effects. So, it all depends on how much time you're willing to spend in the infrared sauna.”