If someone asked you to try “the world’s easiest workout,” you would do it, right? I was told that I could burn up to 600 calories in just 30 minutes doing almost nothing, so I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to try it out for myself.
The session in question is literally titled “The World’s Easiest Workout” and it comes from Gymbox. Gymbox is a fitness brand known for introducing its members to quirky and innovative guest workouts, sometimes based on cutting-edge fitness trends.
But I was too interested to turn down such an opportunity to investigate in my journalistic capacity, so I gladly participated. And instead of dumbbells and kettlebells, I found stretches and sauna blankets. I’ll explain what happened.
What is “the world’s easiest training”?
This innovative gym brand means you won’t have to move nearly as many muscles. The 30-minute wellness class is divided into stages. Start with some light stretching to “get the blood circulating” and then slip into his blanket in the HigherDOSE infrared sauna, which slowly heats up to 70°C.
During this time, your instructor will lead you through a series of breathing activities, body scans, and guided visualization to relieve tension. Think of it as a mental and emotional workout.
My instructor explains that afterwards we may feel the same way we do when we finish a rigorous exercise-based activity. Think all the sweat, flush, and glow without the DOMS.
Gymbox claims this workout increases your heart rate to 150 bpm and burns up to 600 calories, making it the “perfect cold weather workout.” Shocked by that statistic, I jumped in.
I tried “The World’s Easiest Workout” – What Happened?
Here’s what it looks like when you submerge yourself in a sauna blanket.
Phase 1: Stretching
Begin with a gentle stretching routine designed to warm up your body, then explore popular yoga poses like cat and cow and downward dog, as well as some intuitive moves guided by your class instructor. I will do it.
From here, I practiced some breathing techniques before the big moment. Get into the sauna blanket. Starting at a fairly mild, comfortable heat (level 5/8), I slipped it into the blanket, remembering to slip a Pop-Tart into the toaster. Now that it is ready for cooking, proceed to the next stage.
Phase 2: Body scan and breathing exercises
We started by wrapping our feet and then began to position ourselves into the sauna blanket as gracefully as we would put a letter in an envelope. As the heat slowly increased, we transitioned from breathing exercises to body scans. According to Gymbox, this helps you become “aware of the mind-muscle connection.”
Our instructors recommend “squeezing and loosening” by tensing certain muscle groups and then relaxing them again. I’ve heard this technique known as progressive muscle relaxation used in meditation circles before. This is aimed at working the muscles from head to toe and reducing stress and tension in the body.
Phase 3: Beat the heat
Once the breathing exercise is finished, the blanket will reach maximum heat. As we spend the last few minutes overcoming the mental challenges of increasingly uncomfortable temperatures, we recommend focusing on our breathing and all the sensations we get from it.
And just like that, everything ends and we can return to the world.
Are sauna blankets effective?
Gymbox references a review published by the Mayo Clinic to estimate the average heart rate you can expect from sauna bathing (120-150 bpm), and suggests that sauna bathing can lower blood pressure, improve circulation and blood flow, and relax muscles. , which has been linked to benefits such as cardiovascular improvements. health.
How long, how often, or at what temperature exposure is necessary is up for debate. UCLA Health suggests that a “traditional” sauna bath of no more than 20 minutes four to seven times a week can help, but opinions vary, and HigherDOSE recommends using a blanket to We recommend 45 minutes. It also depends on the type of sauna you use, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be a sauna blanket.
The data cannot be quantified as it is strongly recommended not to wear wearable devices inside the sauna blanket. That said, I didn’t feel my heart rate increase significantly, but calming breathing techniques may have a role here.
Gymbox also cites research published in the International Journal of Business and Management that suggests you can burn 400 to 600 calories in a 30-minute infrared sauna session.
Meanwhile, a review published in the journal Postgraduate Medicine notes that heat therapy may be beneficial for muscles and relaxation, but research on the overall effectiveness of sauna blankets is limited and this session I found no evidence that it can be achieved. High in calories, or close to it.
It’s nearly impossible to quantify the amount of calories burned for every type of workout or therapy. This is one of the most difficult metrics to quantify in fitness. Your calorie-burning potential depends on factors you can control, such as lifestyle, diet, sleep, and (to some extent) stress, as well as factors you can’t control, such as genetics and metabolism.
More recently, a review in Frontiers in Physiology suggested that the gut microbiome influences most aspects of health, including metabolism. So I’m instantly wary of workouts that have 400-600 calories stamped on the label and claim to be exactly that. I never expected to burn so many calories and would be surprised if it even came close.
How did I feel after that?
Still, whenever I had the chance, I tried meditating on a cozy sauna blanket and found it very relaxing. Although I felt warm, I wasn’t sweating and my heart rate remained almost normal.
When I reluctantly emerged from my heated coffin (or sauna blanket), I didn’t feel much different physically, other than feeling a little lightheaded. But mentally, I felt calmer and slower, and while I liked it, it didn’t resemble the post-workout endorphins that flow after a tough session.
Taking an hour out of my day to meditate, do some light stretching, and benefit from some heat therapy was a breath of fresh air, but I’m not going to pass it off as a workout or exaggerate my calorie burn. Rather than positioning it. As a meditation using gentle heat.
But even when it was all over, damn, I still felt Kindness After that it was great.