Sauna at the Gym 180 Degrees!?
me and my friends always debate after we work out and then sit in sauna at gym the thermometer says it’s 180 degrees in there then they say if it was that hot outside you would die? well why would u die outside in that heat but not in the sauna? i don’t get it.
You can survive in the 180°F sauna because it has a special climate. If it has its temperature sensor in the right place, the temperature at the roof is 180°F, and it drops as you get lower in the sauna. At the floor it’s probably less than 100°F. So, if you’re sitting on the benches, your head is the hottest, and the rest of your body gets cooler as you get lower.
A sauna is also very dry, typically with less than 20% humidity. This allows your sweat to very efficiently cool your body, while the still atmosphere inside doesn’t do much to heat your body. In 15-20 minutes, you will typically see less than a 2°F rise in your body’s core temperature in that 180°F sauna.
If it were 180°F outside, it would be a lot worse for you because the temperature would be the same all over your body. The humidity would probably be higher, and there would be wind to increase the heat transfer to your body.
The other thing is, if you got too hot outside, you couldn’t just leave the sauna and go take a cold shower, because the groundwater would be pretty close to 180°F too.
Prolonged exposure at that heat with even just minimal physical activity, yes you probably would. But after at least a few hours of it.