The Effects of Hyperthermic Conditioning on Muscle Growth (Hypertrophy)

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Exercise induces muscle hypertrophy. Heat induces muscle hypertrophy. Both of these together synergize to induce hyper-hypertrophy.

Okay, but seriously… Here are a few of the basics of how muscle hypertrophy works: muscle hypertrophy involves both the increase in the size of muscle cells and, perhaps unsurprisingly, an accompanying increase in strength. Skeletal muscle cells do contain stem cells that are able to increase the number of muscle cells but hypertrophy instead generally involves an increase in size rather than number.

So what determines whether your muscle cells are growing or shrinking (atrophying)?
A shift in the protein synthesis to degradation ratio…and an applied workload on the muscle tissue (of course). That’s it.

At any given time your muscles are performing a balancing act between NEW protein synthesis and degradation of existing proteins. The important thing is your net protein synthesis, and not strictly the amount of new protein synthesis occurring. Protein degradation occurs both during muscle use and disuse. This is where hyperthermic conditioning shines: heat acclimation reduces the amount of protein degradation occurring and as a result it increases net protein synthesis and, thus muscle hypertrophy (as is the case during muscle use). Hyperthermic conditioning is known to increase muscle hypertrophy by increasing net protein synthesis through three important mechanisms:

Induction of heat shock proteins. [8,9]
Robust induction of growth hormone. [1]
Improved insulin sensitivity.[10]

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Exercise induces both protein synthesis and degradation in skeletal muscles but, again, it is the net protein synthesis that causes the actual hypertrophy. When you exercise, you are increasing the workload on the skeletal muscle and, thus, the energetic needs of your muscle cells. The mitochondria found in each of these cells kick into gear in order to help meet this demand and start sucking in the oxygen found in your blood in order to produce new energy in the form of ATP. This process is called oxidative phosphorylation. A by-product of this process, however, is the generation of oxygen free radicals like superoxide and hydrogen peroxide, which is more generally referred to simply as “oxidative stress”.

Heat Stress Triggers Heat Shock Proteins That Prevent Protein Degradation
Oxidative stress is a major source of protein degradation. For this reason, any means of preventing exercise-induced oxidative protein damage and/or repairing damaged proteins, while keeping the exercise induced protein synthesis, will ultimately cause a net increase of protein synthesis and therefore will be anabolic.

Heat shock proteins (or HSPs), as the name implies, are induced by heat and are a prime example of hormesis. Intermittent exposure to heat induces a hormetic response (a protective stress response), which promotes the expression of a gene called heat shock factor 1 and subsequently HSPs involved in stress resistance.

HSPs can prevent damage by directly scavenging free radicals and also by supporting cellular antioxidant capacity through its effects on maintaining glutathione. [8,9]
HSPs can repair misfolded, damaged proteins thereby ensuring proteins have their proper structure and function. [8,9]

Okay, let’s take a step back from the underlying mechanisms and look at the big picture of heat acclimation in the context of increasing muscle hypertrophy:

It has been shown that a 30-minute intermittent hyperthermic treatment at 41°C (105.8°F) in rats induced a robust expression of heat shock proteins (including HSP32, HSP25, and HSP72) in muscle and, importantly, this correlated with 30% more muscle regrowth than a control group during the seven days subsequent to a week of immobilization. [8] This HSP induction from a 30-minute whole body hyperthermic exposure can persist for up to 48 hours after heat shock. [8,9] Heat acclimation actually causes a higher basal (such as when not exercising) expression of HSPs and a more robust induction upon elevation in core body temperature (such as during exercise). [11-13] This is a great example of how a person can theoretically use hyperthermic conditioning to increase their own heat shock proteins and thereby reap the rewards.

Heat Stress Triggers A Massive Release of Growth Hormone
Another way in which hyperthermic conditioning can be used to increase anabolism is through a massive induction of growth hormone. [1,14,15] Many of the anabolic effects of growth hormone are thought to be mediated by IGF-1, which is synthesized (mainly in liver but also in skeletal muscle) in response to growth hormone. There are two important mechanisms by which IGF-1 promotes the growth of skeletal muscle:
Activation of the mTOR pathway, which is responsible for protein synthesis. [16]
Activation of the Akt pathway, which inhibits protein degradation. [16]

Mice that have been engineered to express high levels of IGF-1 in their muscle develop skeletal muscle hypertrophy, can combat age-related muscle atrophy, and retained the same regenerative capacity as young muscle. [17,18]

In humans, it has been shown that the major anabolic effects of growth hormone in skeletal muscle may be due to inhibition of muscle protein degradation (anti-catabolic) and thereby increasing net protein synthesis. [16] In fact, growth hormone administration to endurance athletes for four weeks has been shown to decrease muscle protein oxidation (a biomarker for protein degradation) and degradation by 50%. [19]

My point is good news. You don’t need to take exogenous growth hormone. Sauna use can cause a robust release in growth hormone, which varies according to time, temperature, and frequency. [1,15]

For example, two 20-minute sauna sessions at 80°C (176°F) separated by a 30-minute cooling period elevated growth hormone levels two-fold over baseline. [1,15] Whereas, two 15-minute sauna sessions at 100°C (212°F) dry heat separated by a 30-minute cooling period resulted in a five-fold increase in growth hormone. [1,15] However, what’s perhaps more amazing is that repeated exposure to whole-body hyperthermia through sauna use has an even more profound effect on boosting growth hormone immediately afterward: two one-hour sauna sessions a day at 80°C (176°F) dry heat (okay, this is a bit extreme) for 7 days was shown to increase growth hormone by 16-fold on the third day. [14] The growth hormone effects generally persist for a couple of hours post-sauna.1 It is also noteworthy, however, is that sauna use and exercise can synergize to significantly elevate growth hormone when used in conjunction with each other. [20]

You're putting this much work into a thread no one will read on a taiwanese basket weaving image board that will be deleted within an hour. Learn to express your thoughts and ideas more concisely or just stop.

Insulin is an endocrine hormone that primarily regulates glucose homeostasis, particularly by promoting the uptake of glucose into muscle and adipose tissue. In addition, insulin also plays a role in protein metabolism, albeit to a lesser degree than IGF-1. Insulin regulates protein metabolism in skeletal muscle by the two following mechanisms:

It increases protein synthesis by stimulating the uptake of amino acids (particularly BCAAs) into skeletal muscle. [21]
It decreases protein degradation through inhibition of the proteasome, which is a protein complex inside cells that is largely responsible for the degradation of most cellular proteins. [22]

In humans, there is more evidence indicating that the major anabolic effects of insulin on skeletal muscle are due to its inhibitory action on protein degradation.

For example, insulin infusion in healthy humans, which increased insulin to normal physiological postprandial (after a meal) levels, suppressed muscle protein breakdown without significant affecting muscle protein synthesis. [21,23] In contrast, insulin deficiency (such as in type 1 diabetes mellitus) and insulin resistance (to a lesser extent) are both associated with increased skeletal muscle breakdown. [22,24]

For this reason, hyperthermic conditioning may also lend itself to promoting muscle growth by improving insulin sensitivity and decreasing muscle protein catabolism. Intermittent hyperthermia has been demonstrated to reduce insulin resistance in an obese diabetic mouse model. Insulin resistant diabetic mice were subjected to 30 minutes of hyperthermic treatment, three times a week for twelve weeks. This resulted in a 31% decrease in insulin levels and a significant reduction in blood glucose levels, suggesting re-sensitization to insulin. [10]

how many scoops? i aint reading all that shit

The hyperthermic treatment specifically targeted the skeletal muscle by increasing the expression of a type of transporter known as GLUT4, which is responsible for the transporting of glucose into skeletal muscle from the bloodstream. Decreased glucose uptake by skeletal muscle is one of the mechanisms that leads to insulin resistance.

Relevance for Muscle Injury
Muscle atrophy primarily occurs as a consequence of tipping the balance towards protein degradation and away from protein synthesis in the muscles. This is particularly important after muscle injury, which causes immobilization and disuse of muscles for some time. Of course, this does result in some muscle atrophy. Animal studies using rats have shown that whole body hyperthermia at 41°C (105.8°F) for 30 minutes and 60 minutes attenuates hindlimb muscle atrophy during disuse by 20% and 32%, respectively. [9,25] In order to return to a hypertrophic state after injury, muscle regrowth (“reloading”) must occur. Muscle reloading, while important for hypertrophy, induces oxidative stress particularly after periods of disuse, which slows the rate of muscle regrowth. A 30-minute hyperthermic treatment at 41°C (105.8°F) increased soleus muscle regrowth by 30% after reloading as compared to non-hyperthermic treatment in rats. [8] The effects of whole body hyperthermia on preventing muscle atrophy and increasing muscle regrowth after immobilization were shown to occur as a consequence of elevated HSP levels. [8,9,25]

During injury you may be immobilized but you don’t have to be very mobile to sit in the sauna a few times a week to boost your HSPs! This is a clear win in the injury and recovery department. Remember, hyperthermic conditioning (from sauna use) results in an elevation in HSP levels under normal conditions and an even greater boost during exercise (or when core body temperature is elevated). [11-13]

>actual thread backed by science and research instead of usual broscience
>lol didn't read

Tldr, 2 scoops
work out, then do 2 15min sauna sessions.