Sauna for Sore Muscles: Does Heat Help DOMS?
Key insights
- In a randomised crossover trial of 16 male basketball players, 20 minutes in an infrared sauna at about 43C after resistance training reduced muscle soreness and limited the next-morning drop in jump height compared with sitting quietly 1.
- An earlier far-infrared study found no recovery benefit at all after a strength session, and only a small jump-height advantage 30 minutes after a maximal endurance session 2.
- Most of the evidence that heat eases delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) comes from local heat packs, not saunas: a meta-analysis of 32 trials and 1,098 participants found heat applied within an hour of exercise reduced pain both inside and beyond 24 hours 3.
- A 2025 systematic review of whole-body post-exercise heating found 14 studies and just 194 participants, with acute recovery results split between no effect, benefit and, in one study, harm 5.
- The realistic reading: a moderate post-workout sauna is a reasonable, low-risk way to feel less sore, but it is a comfort tool with modest support, not a proven accelerator of muscle repair.
Ask most people what to do about sore legs after a hard session and they will reach for ice. Cold water immersion has a large research base for soreness, and we have covered it in detail in our piece on cold plunge and DOMS. Heat has always been the less fashionable option for recovery, even though athletes have climbed into saunas after training for generations.
The question is whether that habit does anything measurable for delayed onset muscle soreness, the stiff, tender ache that typically builds over the day after unaccustomed or eccentric-heavy exercise and peaks one to three days later. The answer turns out to be more interesting than yes or no: the evidence for heat in general is better than most people assume, while the evidence for saunas specifically is thin.
This piece separates those two bodies of evidence, looks at the only sauna trials that measured soreness directly, and ends with a practical protocol that stays within what the data can support.
What DOMS is, and why heat might help
DOMS is not lactic acid. It follows microscopic disruption of muscle fibres and connective tissue, particularly after lengthening contractions such as lowering a weight or running downhill, and the soreness tracks a local inflammatory and repair response over the following days rather than the fatigue of the session itself.
Heat plausibly acts on this in a few ways. Warming tissue increases local blood flow and makes muscle and connective tissue more compliant, which can reduce the stiffness that makes sore muscles feel worse. Warmth also changes how pain signals are perceived. None of these mechanisms repairs damaged fibres faster on its own, which is an important distinction: most of the outcomes in this literature are pain ratings and performance tests, not markers of tissue healing.
What the sauna trials actually show
The most direct evidence comes from Jyväskylä in Finland. Sixteen male basketball players completed a demanding session of maximal strength work and plyometrics on two occasions a week apart. After one session they sat passively for 20 minutes; after the other they spent 20 minutes in an infrared sauna at roughly 43C. The next morning, about 14 hours later, the sauna condition showed a smaller drop in countermovement jump height, less severe muscle soreness and higher perceived recovery, and it did not disrupt night-time heart rate or heart rate variability 1.
That is encouraging, but it is one small trial in trained young men, with soreness rated subjectively and participants who could not be blinded to whether they had been in a sauna. Expectation alone can shift soreness ratings.
The earlier study from the same university is more sobering. Ten physically active men used a far-infrared sauna at 35 to 50C for 30 minutes after either a 60-minute hypertrophy session or a maximal endurance session. After strength training, recovery of bench press, leg press and jump height was no different from skipping the sauna. After endurance work, jump height 30 minutes later was slightly better with the sauna 2. The authors also noted that heart rate after the infrared session was markedly lower than after a traditional sauna at similar air temperature, which matters for anyone using heat as a recovery tool rather than a stressor.
The wider heat evidence is stronger, but it is not about saunas
Zoom out from saunas to heat therapy generally and the picture firms up. A 2021 meta-analysis pooled 32 randomised trials with 1,098 participants. Both cold and heat applied within an hour of exercise reduced pain in the first 24 hours. Beyond 24 hours, when DOMS is usually at its worst, heat still showed a significant benefit while cold, as a category, did not 3. Most of the heat trials, however, used hot packs and heat wraps applied to the sore muscle, often for hours, not a whole-body sauna session.
A 2025 umbrella review in Sports Medicine then graded every physiotherapy approach to DOMS across 29 systematic reviews and 863 unique trials. Heat therapy registered pain-relieving effects at 24 and 48 hours, but only at the weakest evidence class, and just two of the 29 reviews were judged high quality 4. The authors rated contrast therapy, cold, cryostimulation, massage and compression as better supported at various time points.
Finally, a 2025 systematic review focused specifically on whole-body heating after exercise, including saunas and hot water immersion to chest depth. It found 14 eligible studies with 194 participants in total. Of the nine that looked at acute recovery, four reported no effect, four a benefit and one an adverse effect, and the overall quality of evidence was low to moderate. The authors concluded that definitive conclusions are not yet possible 5.
Realistic expectations
Put together, the evidence supports a modest claim. Heat applied soon after training probably makes DOMS feel somewhat less intense, and a short, moderate sauna may help preserve explosive performance the next day. It does not show that sauna speeds up muscle repair, and there is too little data to say whether a hot traditional Finnish sauna behaves the same way as the milder infrared sessions that were actually tested.
It is also worth weighing heat against cold honestly. Cold has the larger evidence base for soreness, particularly in the first day, while heat looks at least competitive once you are past 24 hours. For people who dislike ice baths, or who train for muscle growth and would rather not immerse in cold straight after lifting, a post-workout sauna is a sensible alternative rather than a second-best one.
A practical post-workout protocol
Go in within the first hour after training. Both the heat-pack meta-analysis and the positive sauna trial applied heat soon after exercise 1 3.
Keep it moderate. Twenty minutes at infrared temperatures of roughly 40 to 45C is what has been tested. In a traditional sauna, a shorter session of 10 to 15 minutes at a comfortable bench height is a reasonable equivalent; the goal is warmth and relaxation, not maximal heat stress on top of a hard session.
Rehydrate deliberately. You will already have lost fluid in training, and sauna sweat adds to it. Drink before and after, and include electrolytes after long or sweaty sessions.
Consider local heat on rest days. If one muscle group is especially sore on day two, the strongest heat evidence is for warming that area directly for a sustained period 3.
Skip it if you feel dizzy, unwell or heavily dehydrated after training, and speak to a doctor first if you have a heart condition, low blood pressure or are pregnant.
The Contrast Market Perspective
The only sauna protocol with a positive soreness result used a controlled, moderate temperature for a fixed 20 minutes, which is a reminder that recovery heat is about precision rather than intensity. A cabin that reaches and holds its set point reliably, with even heat at bench level, is what makes a protocol like this repeatable after every session. If you are planning a home recovery space around training, Schedule a consultation and we will help you match heater type, temperature range and layout to how you actually train.
References
Footnotes
- Ahokas EK, Ihalainen JK, Hanstock HG, Savolainen E, Kyröläinen H (2023). A post-exercise infrared sauna session improves recovery of neuromuscular performance and muscle soreness after resistance exercise training. Biology of Sport. PubMed ↩︎
- Mero A, Tornberg J, Mäntykoski M, Puurtinen R (2015). Effects of far-infrared sauna bathing on recovery from strength and endurance training sessions in men. SpringerPlus. PubMed ↩︎
- Wang Y, Li S, Zhang Y, Chen Y, Yan F, Han L, Ma Y (2021). Heat and cold therapy reduce pain in patients with delayed onset muscle soreness: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 32 randomized controlled trials. Physical Therapy in Sport. PubMed ↩︎
- Wiecha S, Cieśliński I, Wiśniowski P, Cieśliński M, Pawliczek W, Posadzki P, Prill R, Zając J, Płaszewski M (2025). Physical therapies for delayed-onset muscle soreness: an umbrella and mapping systematic review with meta-meta-analysis. Sports Medicine. PubMed ↩︎
- Ahokas EK, Hennessy RS, Hanstock HG, Kyröläinen H, Ihalainen JK (2025). Effects of post-exercise heat exposure on acute recovery and training-induced performance adaptations: a systematic review. Sports Medicine – Open. PubMed ↩︎