A RMIT University study compared the benefits of exercise with spending time in an infrared sauna and found that the sauna offered nearly the same cardiovascular benefits as moderate-intensity exercise. This shows that just sitting in an infrared saunas mimic exercise. Used a Sanctuary 2 Full Spectrum Infrared Sauna.
This clinical study looked at how a session in an infrared sauna compares to moderate exercise in healthy women. The researchers found that infrared sauna use significantly raised core body temperature—actually more than exercise did—without increasing breathing rate. In other words, your body clearly registers the sauna as a meaningful heat “workout,” but without making you breathe harder or feel out of breath like you would during physical exercise.
When it came to heart and blood vessel health markers—things like blood pressure, arterial stiffness, and heart rate variability—the sauna and exercise produced very similar short-term responses. That suggests infrared sauna use can place a comparable, gentle stress on the cardiovascular system, even though it doesn’t activate the lungs or muscles the way exercise does. Overall, the study concluded that infrared sauna benefits seem to come mainly from heat-driven, thermoregulatory effects (how your body responds to heat), rather than truly mimicking exercise—but those heat responses may still support cardiovascular health in a meaningful way.
