Wondering if anyone else gets sore muscles after spending time in a sauna, or if it's just me.
To be clear, I don't know if I have CFS. I officially had (had?) Lyme and now fibromyalgia. Hyperthermia is one route of chronic lyme treatment, and saunas are also supposed to be good for FM, so I've started doing sauna sessions around 2x a week.
Last week I didn't get my usual sauna time because I was in bed with a pregablin-induced migraine (yet another med to cross off the list!). But on Saturday I was feeling good enough for the previously-scheduled girls-day-out at a spa with my SIL. This was a european sauna/baths spa, so I spent close to nine hours doing sessions of various saunas, salt bath, whirpool, and resting (and a long dinner with plenty of vegetables, fruit, salmon, etc.). I felt great, though tired, when I got home. Sunday when I woke up though, ugh, I felt like I got hit by a truck. My tailbone was sore from laying on the wooden benches, but my muscles also ached terribly. Like the soreness you get the day after you do a hard workout. I also felt mentally exhausted.
I started feeling better Monday, so I went to my usual sauna session at my fitness club. There I have a routine of IR, steam cabin, then swedish - about 40-50 minutes in the heat. Again, the next morning my muscles felt sore.
My heart rate does increase in the sauna, I measured 145 after I came out of the swedish once. I sweat plenty when I'm in the sauna. I also feel great in the heat - I usually feel cold, like cold "to the bone", and I love that the sauna warms "my bones" up. I also drink plenty before, during, and after the sauna. I make myself a homemade electrolyte drink with pink salt and raw honey to drink during the sauna session.
Googling tells me that sauna therapy is good for FM, tight muscles, and sore muscles. Yeah, but what about sauna causing sore muscles? I mean, I can be hopeful and wish that the muscles soreness is a "herx" and caused by the heat killing the lyme or whatever toxins lyme left laying around - sure. Or maybe it's my FM muscle-tightness acting up - maybe. Or maybe the doctors are right and I'm terribly deconditioned and the high HR is causing a passive workout and sore muscles are to be expected - umm, despite what theories doctors spin, I'm not actually that deconditioned, really. Or maybe I do have CFS and this is just a sign of PEM - maybe?
All the base theories are fine, but what physiologically is causing the muscle soreness? It is a passive workout of a sort, so am I getting lactic acid build-up or something? Is there something else I should be doing before, during, after the sauna to prevent this muscle soreness?
And more importantly, is all this a sign that I'm getting better? Or is this making me worse?
To be clear, I don't know if I have CFS. I officially had (had?) Lyme and now fibromyalgia. Hyperthermia is one route of chronic lyme treatment, and saunas are also supposed to be good for FM, so I've started doing sauna sessions around 2x a week.
Last week I didn't get my usual sauna time because I was in bed with a pregablin-induced migraine (yet another med to cross off the list!). But on Saturday I was feeling good enough for the previously-scheduled girls-day-out at a spa with my SIL. This was a european sauna/baths spa, so I spent close to nine hours doing sessions of various saunas, salt bath, whirpool, and resting (and a long dinner with plenty of vegetables, fruit, salmon, etc.). I felt great, though tired, when I got home. Sunday when I woke up though, ugh, I felt like I got hit by a truck. My tailbone was sore from laying on the wooden benches, but my muscles also ached terribly. Like the soreness you get the day after you do a hard workout. I also felt mentally exhausted.
I started feeling better Monday, so I went to my usual sauna session at my fitness club. There I have a routine of IR, steam cabin, then swedish - about 40-50 minutes in the heat. Again, the next morning my muscles felt sore.
My heart rate does increase in the sauna, I measured 145 after I came out of the swedish once. I sweat plenty when I'm in the sauna. I also feel great in the heat - I usually feel cold, like cold "to the bone", and I love that the sauna warms "my bones" up. I also drink plenty before, during, and after the sauna. I make myself a homemade electrolyte drink with pink salt and raw honey to drink during the sauna session.
Googling tells me that sauna therapy is good for FM, tight muscles, and sore muscles. Yeah, but what about sauna causing sore muscles? I mean, I can be hopeful and wish that the muscles soreness is a "herx" and caused by the heat killing the lyme or whatever toxins lyme left laying around - sure. Or maybe it's my FM muscle-tightness acting up - maybe. Or maybe the doctors are right and I'm terribly deconditioned and the high HR is causing a passive workout and sore muscles are to be expected - umm, despite what theories doctors spin, I'm not actually that deconditioned, really. Or maybe I do have CFS and this is just a sign of PEM - maybe?
All the base theories are fine, but what physiologically is causing the muscle soreness? It is a passive workout of a sort, so am I getting lactic acid build-up or something? Is there something else I should be doing before, during, after the sauna to prevent this muscle soreness?
And more importantly, is all this a sign that I'm getting better? Or is this making me worse?
