Ben Greenfield Fitness: Diet, Fat Loss And Performance

I go to the sauna once a week, and often twice a week in the winter. I get a huge pile of the magazines or journals I subscribe to, like ESPN, Fast Company, or Mother Earth News (and sometimes even grab a book I don't mind destroying) then settle in for a good 30-45 minute sweat session. After about 25 minutes, it get pretty tough as my heart rate and core temperature rapidly rise, and I eventually get so hot that I have to quit reading - and then I simply switch to staring at the wall and doing deep, meditative breathing to sit things out for as long as I can. I pretend I'm some kind of ancient warrior sitting in an Indian sweat lodge, or a prisoner of war tossed into one of those heat torture chambers. Then I take a cold shower and I feel amazing. I've used this strategy to train for everything from racing Ironman in the lava fields of Hawaii to preparing for a tennis tournament in a stifling indoor tennis courts stadium. But why does heat work so well to enhance performance? Can you use heat to buil