Acute Neuromuscular and Hormonal Responses to Different Exercise Loadings Followed by a Sauna
Open accessAbstract
Rissanen, JA, Häkkinen, A, Laukkanen, J, Kraemer, WJ, and Häkkinen, K. Acute neuromuscular and hormonal responses to different exercise loadings followed by a sauna. J Strength Cond Res 34(2): 313-322, 2020-The purpose of this study was to investigate acute responses of endurance (E + SA), strength (S + SA), and combined endurance and strength exercise (C + SA) followed by a traditional sauna bath (70° C, 18% relative humidity) on neuromuscular performance and serum hormone concentrations. Twenty-seven recreationally physically active men who were experienced with taking a sauna participated in the study. All the subjects performed a sauna bath only (SA) first as a control measurement followed by S + SA and E + SA (paired matched randomization) and C + SA. Subjects were measured PRE (before exercise), MID (immediately after exercise and before sauna), POST (after sauna), POST30min (30 minutes after sauna), and POST24h (24 hours after PRE). Maximal isometric leg press (ILPFmax) and bench press (IBPFmax) forces, maximal rate of force development (RFD) and countermovement vertical jump (CMVJ), serum testosterone (TES), cortisol (COR), and 22-kD growth hormone (GH22kD) concentrations were measured. All exercise loadings followed by a sauna decreased ILPFmax (-9 to -15%) and RFD (-20 to -26%) in POST. ILPFmax, RFD, and CMVJ remained at significantly (p ≤ 0.05) lowered levels after S + SA in POST24h. IBPFmax decreased in POST in S + SA and C + SA and remained lowered in POST24h. SA…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Two studies reported transient increases in testosterone levels following a sauna session, with small sample sizes (n=8).
“Two studies reported transient increases in testosterone levels (small sample sizes, n=8) following a sauna session, 11,12”
From A systematic appraisal of emerging alternative therapies in men’s health and wellness (2025) · cites this paper as [12]
Cites
Kraemer, W. J., Patton, J. F., Gordon, S. E., Harman, E. A., Deschenes, M. R., Reynolds, K., Newton, R. U., Triplett, N. T., & Dziados, J. E. (1995) · Journal of Applied Physiology · doi:10.1152/jappl.1995.78.3.976 · Cited by 782 · see citing works
Self-citationHaemodynamic and hormonal responses to heat exposure in a Finnish sauna bath
Kukkonen-Harjula, K., Oja, P., Laustiola, K., Vuori, I., Jolkkonen, J., Siitonen, S., & Vapaatalo, H. (1989) · European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology · doi:10.1007/bf02330710 · Cited by 108 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
A systematic appraisal of emerging alternative therapies in men’s health and wellness
Qaoud, Y., Morcos, M., Macdonald, M., Shoeib, A., Qureshi, Y., Mak, M., Ross, A., Vigil, H., & Witherspoon, L. (2025) · Canadian Urological Association Journal · doi:10.5489/cuaj.9368 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Rissanen, J. A., Häkkinen, A., Laukkanen, J., Kraemer, W. J., & Häkkinen, K.
- Affiliations
- Neuromuscular Research Center, Biology of Physical Activity;
- Central Finland Health Care District (FI)
- The Ohio State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Rissanen, Joonas A.
- Venue
- Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
- Published
- 2020-02
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 313-322
- ISSN
- 1064-8011 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2972091337
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 3.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- urn.fi
- Locations
- The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Jyväskylä University Digital Archive (University of Jyväskylä) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Strength and Conditioning Association
- Kuopion Yliopistollinen Sairaala (B1703)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Orthopedics and Sports Medicine › Sports Performance and Training
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Rehabilitation › Exercise and Physiological Responses
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Thermoregulation and physiological responses
- Keywords
- sauna bathing, neuromuscular fatigue, serum hormone levels, testosterone, cortisol, growth hormone, rate of force development, bench press, countermovement jump, endurance exercise, resistance training, post-exercise recovery, recreational athletes, heat stress
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Body Temperature, Physical Exertion, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Male, Random Allocation, Testosterone, Exercise, Lactic Acid, Human Growth Hormone, Steam Bath, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
