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Jacuzzi Clearlight Sanctuary Y Infrared Sauna Review

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I love to do Bikram (hot) yoga. The amount you sweat during a 90 minute session is unbelievable. And you walk out feeling detoxed and mentally clear. As modern humans, many of us miss out on the opportunity to get a good sweat on a daily basis. 

 

Humans are arguably not meant to be at a constant, comfortable temperature, and that true, optimal health requires at least occasional cold and hot practices. 

In addition to the occasional discomfort, I believe humans are meant to sweat daily. Sweat secretions contain dermcidin, an antibiotic peptide that appears to regulate bacteria growth on the skin and may fight infection. Sweat has also been found to contain toxins such as BPA which means it’s one method for humans to detox. 

And one of the most interesting things about using a sauna is that it actives something called “heat-shock proteins” which have been linked to resiliency and longevity. 

This is what ignited my research into the world of saunas.

In addition to a good sweat and detox, supposed benefits of using an infrared sauna are similar to those experienced with a traditional sauna. This includes:

  • better sleep
  • relaxation
  • weight loss
  • relief from sore muscles
  • relief from joint pain such as arthritis
  • clear and tighter skin
  • improved circulation
  • help for people with chronic fatigue syndrome

Before I jump into my review, I wanted to mention the two main types of saunas:

  1. Dry/Wet or Traditional Finnish Saunas – Heats up the air using an electric heater and stones or burning wood to produce the heat. Temperatures usually range between 150-195 F.
  2. Infrared (IR) Saunas – Often referred to as waon therapy in the literature, infrared uses panels that emit the infrared waves portion of the light spectrum to heat a person’s core body temperature vs heating the external air. The whole point of an infrared room is that it delivers heat therapy without getting extremely hot. Temperatures usually range between 120-150 F.

Why I Chose Clearlight and an Infrared Sauna:

  • Infrared saunas are usually smaller and easier for home use
  • Infrared saunas don’t get as hot so you can do breathing exercises in them without burning your lungs. You can also use most electronic wearables inside with damaging them. I wear an Oura ring, Garmin watch and Whoop band inside my sauna and never had any problems. I would avoid bringing a smartphone in as they seem to be more heat sensitive.
  • Infrared saunas are make you sweat at much lower temperatures so it’s easier to do breathing exercise and movement routines in
  • Clearlight has a great reputation in the infrared sauna industry
  • Clearlight has a LIFETIME warranty (which I have tested out — they have sent me a new ceiling, no questions asked)
  • Clearlight saunas are low-EMF (if you’re concerned about or sensitive to EMFs)
  • Clearlight’s Sanctuary models offer full-spectrum lighting (near-, mid-, and far-infrared)
  • Clearlight offers the “Hot Yoga” sauna cabin. As mentioned above, I loved doing Bikram (Hot) Yoga. Clearlight’s Sanctuary-Y (Yoga) offers the ability to do Bikram in the comfort of your home. The two benches in the Sanctuary-Y sauna are easily removed to create a large open space to work out, stretch and do yoga. Set it up with two benches in, two benches out, or one bench in and one bench out. With heaters that go all the way to the sauna floor, you’ll work up a sweat in no time during your work out. You can read my article on the benefits of exercising in the heat here.

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Excel at Your Sport and Life by Training Less through Fitness Hacking

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Conventional wisdom about improving physical performance like endurance and maintaining good physical health has rested on the twin pillars of volume and intensity (along with diet). While those are no doubt vital, there are a number of equally important, but completely ignored, ”fitness levers” you can pull to improve health and performance.

In fact, there’s MUCH more you can do beyond what traditional workouts offer while REDUCING the amount of time you exercise.

You don’t have to put in hours of training a week to build endurance, strength, or speed. You also don’t have to commit to an extreme amount of hours of exercise a week to improve body composition (muscle and fat) and health.

In fact, focusing on just volume and intensity can actually have the reverse effect and lead to over-training, burnout and injury.

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My Experiments – August Log

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DISCLAIMER: DO NOT USE ANY DRUGS, SUBSTANCES OR DIETS WITHOUT CONSULTING A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL. THIS IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.

My August experiments —

5-Day Water Fast (Aug 1-5)  – I listened to an interesting Tim Ferriss podcast about the benefits of longer (5-7 day) fasts which inspired me to complete my first 5-day fast in January of this year. From the existing research, something like this twice a year may bring the most health benefits. So I decided to do my second fast in August. This time around I allowed myself black coffee, unsweetened tea and water with lemon, which added some flavor (January was strict water only) and made it a easier. I didn’t find it that difficult overall. After the fast, I felt almost “reset” with an optimistic view on life. I plan to write a full article on this soon. Stay tuned.

Supplementation with PQQ (Aug 1-31) – Pyrrolloquinoline (PQQ) has research to support that it can help rebuild and restore mitochondria, your cells’ power plants, increasing performance of physical workouts. I tried it for the past 30 days and I think it really helped. Fatigue was slower to set in and I was able to get more out of my body than I normally could. I will be adding this to my morning workout stack. Here it is if you’re interested.

Competition and Recovery (Aug 27-28) – I competed in my first CrossFit competition which gave me a prime opportunity to put all of my recovery techniques to the test. The competition involved four intense workouts which included weight lifting, plyometrics and gymnastics in addition to a 5k run. I posted all of my techniques on Instagram – techniques included nutrition, grounding, and infrared contrast showers. My recovery was spot on…I felt great on the second day, soreness was almost non-existent and I even had a really good workout two days after the competition. And if you’re interested in what I used to fuel my performance, check out this picture.

This month:
SISU Comfort Challenge begins – Anything that makes us uncomfortable often causes us to grow. Are people interested in stepping out of their comfort zone to grow as an individual? I am and we will see if other are as well. Let’s see how large this group gets and how interactive it becomes. Every Monday I will post a daily comfort challenge on this private facebook group. I kicked the challenge off Sept.1 with a 5-day event, each day with a new challenge. Check it out here.

40/50 Challenge – I’ve developed a simple protocol that (might) allow you to eat whatever you want at dinner (including dessert!), and still lose weight, build muscle and stay fit. I’m testing it out along with several other folks. Here are the rules…

For 30 days…

  1. Eat whole foods (no processed food or anything with added sugar) for breakfast, lunch and snacks. This includes healthy fats (coconut, avocado, olive, yolks, nuts/seeds, whole dairy), veggies, fruits and protein.
  2. Do 40 air squats and 50 Russian kettlebell (KB) swings As Fast As Possible (AFAP) before dinner. Break it up into multiple sets if you have to but have the goal to do all 50 in one set.
  3. Eat whatever you want for dinner. You must eat within a 2-hour window following 40/50. NOTHING AFTER (that includes midnight snaking).
  4. Once a week do 100 KB swings AFAP. Keep track of time (baseline to track progress)
  5. DO 40/50 EVERY DAY BEFORE DINNER!

For proper weight, I recommend men start with 35lbs and women 18lbs. You can purchase a kettlebell here. Or make your own – here’s how.

Sleep Smarter book review — Is $16 worth radically improved sleep?

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I’ve been listening to Shawn Steveson’s podcast The Model Health Show for a few years now. He puts complex, researched-based health topics into easy to understand common folk lingo. And he keeps you engaged and laughing the entire time.

I just finished my advanced copy of his new book Sleep Smarter and the book reads just like his podcast. Before I knew it, I was half way through and had implemented several of the many sleep tips that he recommends – and feeling the difference!

I wrote a sleep hack post in 2013 in which I offered up various tips I had learned from his podcast. The book includes many of these hacks and much more.

I didn’t realize how bad my sleep quality was until I started implementing some of Shawn’s recommendations.

I literally went from falling asleep at the wheel on my morning commute to mornings being my most productive and energizing time of the day.

In Sleep Smarter, Shawn recommends several power tips at the end of each chapter — simple tactics that can be implemented right away. If you try just a fraction of the many power tips recommended, YOU WILL GET BETTER SLEEP, I promise. It’s an easy read with humor sprinkled throughout.

Shawn covers how important sleep is and everything you need to improve it, and it’s all based on the latest scientific research.

Best and most important of all, Shawn focuses on improving QUALITY, not necessarily increasing the quantity of sleep. Most of us get as much sleep as we can fit in, but it’s the quality of that sleep that counts. Shawn teaches us how to make the most of what sleep we CAN get. It’s a much more realistic approach.

The book even includes a 14-day sleep improvement plan.

Learn how to radically improve your sleep with Sleep Smarter -> SleepSmarterBook.com

Exercising in the Heat

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I’m looking forward to the hot weather, especially the hot workouts at my CrossFit (rightfully named The Hot Box).

A large body of sports science shows that heat acclimatization, or increased heat tolerance, through exposure to a controlled hot environment such as a sauna or a hot gym, can lead to heat acclimation (a series of adaptations that occur in response to heat stress).

Heat acclimation can allow athletes to perform better in high heat environments and increase their work output as well as:

To avoid any potential negative side effects, drink enough water that contains electrolytes and minerals. Adding a pinch of Himalayan salt is one of the best ways to added these minerals. Electrolytes will help your body absorb the water better and contradictory to popular belief, good quality salt like Himalayan salt is actually good for you, especially if you sweat a lot.  Himalayan salt contains over 84 different minerals and trace elements critical for health. Another option is to take an electrolyte supplement. Avoid any electrolyte supplements that contain sugar, especially sugary drinks like Gatorade.

Gut problems such as gastric distress can often result from athletes who exercise intensely in hot environments. This may be caused by the combination of stress and the simultaneous raising of your body’s core temperature, resulting in increased intestinal permeability (also called leaky gut), allowing toxins to leak into the bloodstream.

One research study revealed that taking colostrum may mitigate the negative effects of intestinal permeability and the potential for heat stroke. Colostrum, the fluid that a mother produces within the first 24 hours after giving birth, contains growth factors designed to strengthen the gut lining. This is crucial for a newborn mammal whose very permeable gut needs to toughen up fast. This is also why babies or children raised on soy milk – or anyone who has ever been on a bout of gut disrupting antibiotics – should undoubtedly be considering colostrum. This is the colostrum I use.

It’s recommended to take colostrum for two weeks prior to exercise — basically a “loading phase”  to prevent and heal intestinal permeability.

So get out in the heat every once and a while and become heat acclimated – you’ll get better cardiac output, increase your efficiency of cooling, improve your tolerance to hotter temperatures, and enhance overall endurance and performance. Just make sure to take the proper hydration precautions.

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