Discussion: Heat

Just out of curiosity, is there some training benefit to "heat" or is it just because it feels good? (Or and easy way to pad the training hours? :-) )

It does show up on my public log totals, but the numbers on my training calendar log only tally effort levels 1-5, thus filtering out the heat and some other occasional stuff that I don't consider 'training', but that I want to keep track of, which are logged at intensity 0. So I don't consider it padding.

Lyme spirochetes are known not to tolerate temps above 30C (ie body temperature), so I'm trying to add in steam room/sauna/whirlpool on a regular basis to try help with the Lyme. One of the bodies defenses against Lyme and an early symptom is non-respiratory flu-like symptoms (fever/sweats/etc). So the heat is an attempt to mimic those conditions on a regular basis. I'm doing the heat after working out so my blood is circulating to the periphery as much as possible while exposing to heat.

Admittedly, the reading I've done on this has been anecdotal and I haven't found any peer-reviewed research that confirms it, but it certainly can't hurt. Heat has been shown to improve immune system response and most of my current treatment (aside from the antibiotics) centers around improving immune response.