What Dr. Andy Galpin Says About Sauna
Dr. Andy Galpin, PhD, is one of the world's leading exercise scientists and the Executive Director of the Human Performance Center at Parker University. He has spent two decades working with Olympic gold medalists, world champions, and elite military operators. Unlike many voices in the wellness space, Galpin approaches sauna therapy with the same rigorous, evidence-based skepticism he applies to every recovery tool — which makes his endorsements all the more credible. His position is clear: sauna is genuinely beneficial, but only when understood correctly and used in the right context.
The 57-Minute Weekly Threshold
One of Galpin's most cited sauna recommendations comes from his Huberman Lab recovery episode (Guest Series, Episode 5), where he references the research threshold established by Dr. Rhonda Patrick: 57 minutes of uncomfortable but safe heat per week is the minimum dose required to trigger meaningful physiological adaptations.
"The values that she's come up with, which seem to be good thresholds for making sure that an adaptation response is triggered by heat and cold, is 57 minutes per week total of uncomfortable but safe heat — in that case sauna — and that can be all in one session or breaking it up into a couple of sessions on the same day or different days."— Dr. Andy Galpin, Huberman Lab Guest Series Ep. 5, ~1:14:00
This threshold is not arbitrary. The 57-minute figure is derived from the Finnish population studies that tracked sauna frequency and duration against cardiovascular and all-cause mortality outcomes. Galpin frames this as a minimum effective dose — not a ceiling. The key insight is that the sessions do not need to be consecutive: you can split the 57 minutes across three 19-minute sessions, two 28-minute sessions, or any other combination that fits your schedule.
Sauna After Strength Training: The Augmentation Effect
Galpin's most performance-specific sauna claim is that using heat immediately after a hypertrophy (muscle-building) session may actually augment muscle growth — not blunt it, as cold exposure does.
"There are a handful of studies that have looked at this immediately post [hypertrophy training] and it seems to even augment hypertrophy."— Dr. Andy Galpin, Huberman Lab Podcast #65, 2:43:15
The proposed mechanism is straightforward: heat increases blood flow to the trained muscles, driving more nutrients in and flushing metabolic waste products out. This is the opposite of what cold does — cold constricts blood vessels and blunts the inflammatory cascade that signals muscle growth. Galpin's recommended recipe is:
| Training Goal | Post-Workout Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Hypertrophy / Strength | Sauna or hot bath immediately after training |
| Recovery / Rest Days | Cold plunge or ice bath |
| Endurance | Either modality; cold is less of a concern |
A 2022 study in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living found that repeated post-exercise infrared sauna sessions were associated with improvements in neuromuscular performance, with heat shock proteins (HSPs) identified as a likely mediating mechanism. A separate 2025 review in the Journal of Applied Physiology confirmed that passive heat therapy can promote skeletal muscle hypertrophy and accelerate muscle recovery following exercise-induced damage.
The Critical Caveat: Sauna Is Not Exercise
Galpin is unusually direct about a misconception he sees spreading in the biohacking community — the idea that sauna can substitute for exercise. He considers this one of the most important corrections he makes.
"In terms of general health outcomes, it is clearly a beneficial thing. This is a really good idea to get hot a lot. It is not a substitute for exercise though. It's a very important distinction. If the options are nothing or sauna, get in the sauna. It's a really, really good idea. If the exchange is though, 'I don't need to work out because I did the sauna,' bad. This is not a winning solution."— Dr. Andy Galpin, Huberman Lab Podcast #65, 2:46:30
This is a nuanced and important position. Sauna produces many of the same acute physiological signals as exercise — elevated heart rate, increased cardiac output, heat shock protein activation, growth hormone release — but it does not produce the mechanical loading, neuromuscular recruitment, or metabolic demand that drive true fitness adaptations. Galpin's hierarchy: exercise first, sauna second, as a complement — never a replacement.
The Blood Volume Advantage for Endurance Athletes
One of the most underappreciated benefits Galpin discusses is sauna's ability to expand plasma volume — the single most important adaptation for endurance performance. He notes that heat exposure after training stimulates blood volume improvements through a process of slow rehydration, effectively giving endurance athletes a legal, non-pharmaceutical method of increasing their oxygen-carrying capacity.
"Heat exposure, such as sauna use after training, can enhance performance by stimulating blood volume improvements through slow rehydration."— Dr. Andy Galpin (via Ask Dr. Andy Galpin — Cold vs. Heat Exposure clip)
This mechanism is well-established in the sports science literature. A landmark 2007 study by Scoon et al. found that three weeks of post-exercise sauna bathing produced a significant enhancement in endurance running performance, attributing the improvement primarily to increased blood volume. A 2015 study by Stanley et al. confirmed that post-exercise sauna bathing expands plasma volume and that these changes can be tracked via heart rate variability.
PubMed: Effect of sauna-based heat acclimation on plasma volume and heart rate variability — PMID 25432420
The Growth Hormone Warning: Don't Misread the Mechanisms
In a passage that distinguishes Galpin from most wellness influencers, he explicitly warns against over-interpreting the molecular data on sauna and growth hormone. While sauna does produce measurable spikes in GH, he cautions that molecular changes do not linearly translate into functional outcomes.
"It's easy to see a paper that says, okay, we put you in a hot bath or something, and we saw a growth hormone increase 300%. That is not going to result in a 300% increase in muscle size. In fact, 300% might result in absolutely no change in physical size. So the reason I'm saying this is because there's a lot of people in this space that will misapply the mechanisms, and they'll grossly overestimate what these things can do."— Dr. Andy Galpin, Huberman Lab Podcast #65, 2:45:50
The research does confirm that sauna produces acute GH elevations. A 1987 study in Acta Physiologica Scandinavica found that heat exposure stimulates GH release via growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH), and a 2023 review in PMC confirmed that sauna promotes transient growth hormone release. Galpin's point is not that the effect is fake — it is that the magnitude of the molecular signal does not predict the magnitude of the physical outcome.
PubMed: Heat exposure elevates plasma immunoreactive growth hormone — PMID 3117831
PMC (Free Access): A study on neural changes induced by sauna bathing — PMC10681252
The Dynorphin-Endorphin Rebound: Why Sauna Feels So Good Afterward
Galpin also explains the neurochemical mechanism behind the well-being people feel after a sauna session. The discomfort of intense heat triggers a release of dynorphin — an endogenous opioid that creates a sense of unease — which in turn upregulates endorphin receptors. When you exit the sauna, the rebound from that receptor sensitization produces the characteristic "blissed out" feeling.
"If the sauna is really hot, you can get the dynorphin release, which is kind of uncomfortable, but still in both those cases, the rebound from that — in other words, when you get out, you shower, you go to bed — the next morning, you do have this kind of blissed out feeling. We know why that is: that is the rebound to that uncomfortable situation."— Dr. Andy Galpin, Huberman Lab Guest Series Ep. 5, ~1:20:00
This is the same mechanism Huberman describes in his dedicated heat exposure episode. The practical implication is that the discomfort during a hot sauna session is not a warning sign — it is the mechanism. Tolerating the heat long enough to trigger the dynorphin response is what produces the mood-elevating aftereffect.
The Fertility Warning: A Critical Note for Men
Galpin is one of the few performance experts who consistently flags the reproductive health risk of sauna use for men who are trying to conceive. He does not treat this as a minor footnote.
"Males, if you are looking to conceive in the 60 days following sauna or hot tub, do realize that both those approaches do severely limit the number of motile sperm, substantially so. And so for that reason, some people bring an ice pack and put it on the groin or near the groin when they go in, which is harder to do in a hot tub than a sauna."— Dr. Andy Galpin, Huberman Lab Guest Series Ep. 5, ~1:20:44
The 60-day window reflects the spermatogenesis cycle — sperm produced during heat exposure will be present in ejaculate for approximately two months. Men who want the benefits of regular sauna use while preserving fertility should use an ice pack on the groin during sessions, as Galpin recommends.
Combining Recovery Modalities: Galpin's Practical Framework
Galpin's broader recovery framework treats sauna as one tool among many, to be combined strategically rather than used in isolation.
"Perhaps you don't have a sauna, but you can take a hot bath. Maybe you have some percussion device, some tool, and you can use that, but you don't have a sauna. You could throw on some compression garment, put on a pneumatic compression device and sit in the sauna while you down-regulate your breath."— Dr. Andy Galpin, Huberman Lab Guest Series Ep. 5, ~1:24:34
His hierarchy of recovery tools, in order of evidence strength and accessibility:
| Priority | Tool | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sleep | Every night |
| 2 | Downregulation breathing | Immediately post-workout |
| 3 | Light movement | Same day or next day |
| 4 | Sauna / hot bath | Post-training (not post-cold) |
| 5 | Cold plunge | Rest days or 48h after hypertrophy |
| 6 | Percussion / compression | As needed |
Dr. Andy Galpin's Sauna Protocol Summary
Based on his public statements across the Huberman Lab Guest Series and the FoundMyFitness podcast, Galpin's recommended approach is:
- Minimum dose: 57 minutes of heat per week, split however fits your schedule
- Temperature: Hot enough to be uncomfortable but safe — traditional dry sauna preferred over infrared for maximum benefit
- Timing: After strength or hypertrophy training (not before; not immediately after cold)
- Hydration: Critical — sauna significantly increases fluid loss; rehydrate with electrolytes, not just water
- Fertility: Use an ice pack on the groin if trying to conceive
- Mindset: Sauna is a complement to exercise, not a replacement — the two are not interchangeable
Sources: Huberman Lab Guest Series Episode 5 (February 2023) — Watch on YouTube; Huberman Lab Podcast Episode 65 (March 2022) — Watch on YouTube; FoundMyFitness with Dr. Rhonda Patrick Episode 101 (April 2025) — Watch on YouTube