A sauna protocol of 20 minutes followed by 30 minutes of cooling, repeated for three consecutive days, can lead to a 16-fold increase in growth hormone release.

“and that you would want to time that to other events in your life, maybe hard workouts, or if you are trying to push through a fat loss barrier or simply in order to access growth hormone at peak levels, maybe three times per month or four times per month.”

“So, one of the key things to understand about the use of deliberate heat exposure is if you're going to use it in order to try and trigger massive increases in growth hormone, you're going to need to be careful about not doing it more than, let's say, once a week. Now, I'm extrapolating from this study. Maybe once every 10 days would be even better, but if you start getting heat adapted, it's very unlikely that you're going to get these massive increases in growth hormone.”

“So they used an 80 degree Celsius environment, so that's 176 degrees Fahrenheit, and they had subjects do the sauna for 30 minutes, four times per day. So that's two hours total in one day, 30 minutes in the sauna, a period of cool down rest, 30 minutes in the sauna again, cool down rest, a third, and a fourth time. So, two hours total in this 80 degree Celsius environment. [...] And they measured a lot of different hormones [...] They looked at prolactin and they looked at growth hormone. I'll just cut to the chase and tell you the effects on growth hormone. In subjects that did this two hour a day, 80 degree Celsius protocol experienced 16-fold increases in growth hormone.”

“Well, the reason this happens is because heat, just like cold, is a shock or a stressor to the system. [...] So as I mentioned, they did this two hour a day divided into 30 minute sessions protocol on day one, day three, and day seven of a week. And what they found was on day one, there was a 16-fold increase in growth hormone. On day three, however, there was still a significant effect on growth hormone as compared to before sauna, but that effect was basically cut by two thirds. So now instead of getting a 16-fold increase, it was more like a three or four-fold increase, which is still a huge increase, but not as great as the increase observed on day one. And then on day seven, there tended to be a two, maybe a threefold increase, but not as great as the one observed on day one.”

“In fact, if you get into a very hot sauna for four 30 minute sessions on one day. So you go 30 minutes, get out for five minutes. 30 minutes, get out for five minutes. 30 minutes, get out for five. Two hours a day in the sauna, that's a lot of sauna, but the growth hormone release from that type of protocol is a 16x increase in growth hormone. This has been measured in humans.”

“There are a number of other things that sauna does including massive increases in growth hormone provided you don't sauna too much. So if you do it once a week four 20-minute sessions spaced five minutes apart, you get these enormous increases in growth hormone. If you start doing it more often you get still significant, but smaller increases in growth hormone.”

“the pattern was to get into the sauna for 20 minutes followed by 30 minutes of cooling followed by 20 minutes sauna again led to a five-fold increas in growth hormone and then by doing that day after day after day on the third day you would see these huge increases of like 16 fold up to 16 fold”

“And it really points to the fact that yes, sauna done acutely for three or four times a day, 30 minutes each session, separated by a cooling, maybe getting into cold bath, sure that can potently increase growth hormone, but done on a more regular basis can reduce cortisol, improve heart health, improve mental health”

“They used an 80° C environment. So that's 176 degrees Fahrenheit. They had subjects do this sauna for 30 minutes four times per day. So that's 2 hours total in one day. ... And the entire study lasted a week. They did this two hours of sauna exposure on day one, day three, and day seven of that week. ... And the entire study lasted a week. They did this two hours of sauna exposure on day one, day three, and day seven of that week. And they measured a lot of different hormones. I'll just cut to the chase and tell you the effects on growth hormone in subjects that did this 2hour a day 80°ree Celsius protocol experienced 16fold increases in growth hormone.”

“Well, in this case, the effects of sauna exposure on growth hormone actually went down the more often that people did this deliberate heat exposure. So, as I mentioned, they did this 2-hour a day divide into 30-minute sessions protocol on day one, day three, and day seven of a week. And what they found was on day one, there was a 16-fold increase in growth hormone. On day three, however, there was still a significant effect on growth hormone as compared to before sauna, but that effect was basically cut by 2/3. Okay? So now instead of getting a 16-fold increase, it was more like a three or four-fold increase, which is still a huge increase, but not as great as the increase observed on day one. And then on day seven, there tended to be a two maybe a three-fold increase, but not as great as the one observed on day one.”

“The fact that that result diminished over time either means that the circuit was not as efficient in communicating that shift in temperature or that that shift in temperature was of less impact because the downstream aectors were not engaged to the same extent because it wasn't as much of a shock. And I think the latter explanation is far more likely. This is very much akin to weight training or cardiovascular exercise where if you run up a hill very fast for instance and your lungs are burning and you're heaving and breathing hard on the first day that's a very painful thing. But if you do it every day or every other day provide you allow yourself to recover pretty soon you're running up that hill and you're not breathing as hard. There isn't much burning in your muscles etc etc. Your body adapts.”

“So, if you're going to use deliberate heat exposure in order to try and trigger massive increases in growth hormone, you're going to need to be careful about not doing it more than, let's say, once a week. Now, I'm extrapolating from this study, maybe once every 10 days would be even better. But if you start getting heat adapted, it's very unlikely that you're going to get these massive increases in growth hormone.”

“if you want to get the greatest growth hormone increases, do sauna or other deliberate heat exposure fairly seldom, probably no more than once per week, maybe even less, and do it a lot that day. Just make sure that you break it up into multiple sessions. In the study I described earlier, they did four sessions, 30 minutes each, but that was just once a week.”

“while saunas have been shown to elevate growth hormone levels up to 16-fold.”

“for example two 20 minute sauna sessions a day at 80° C can result in a two-fold increase in growth hormone levels over Baseline”

“two 1H hour a day sauna sessions at 80° C for 7 days in a row resulted in a 16-fold increase in growth hormone levels over Baseline in men”

“one other thing that I want to mention that uh didn't get into it also increases growth hormone by like 2 to 3 fold sometimes in cases um if you if you do multiple sauna treatments it can increase growth hormone by up to 16 fold um growth hormone plays a very important role in many things but um improving repair of muscle damage is one thing that it's uh important for”

“And I came into this whole growth hormone literature where, holy crap, you could do like two or three back-to-back sauna sessions separated by, you know, 5 or 10 minutes of cooling. And you could get up to like a 16-fold transient elevation in growth hormone.”

“repeated sauna use, for example, you do one uh you do two 1-hour sauna sessions at 80° Celsius. This is very very high uh for 7 days in a row that leads to a 16-fold increase in growth hormone levels in men.”

“it's also kind of interesting that combining exercise with heat stress or sauna use may also increase growth hormone levels even further than when you just use for example sauna alone.”

“On the other hand, two 15minute sauna sessions at about 100° C dry heat separated by a 30 minute cooling period can cause a five-fold increase in growth hormone levels.”

“So for instance, two 20 minute sauna sessions at 80° C with 30 minutes of cooling period in between can double growth hormone levels um basically from their baseline.”