What happens in your body during a SaunaGus
Heat raises your heart rate. Cold changes your breathing. A closer look at the body, and at what the research can tell us.
Turban Sauna // Journal
27 October 2026 · 5 min read · SaunaGus · physiology · research
Heat raises your heart rate. Cold changes your breathing. Here is a closer look at how the body responds, and at what the research can tell us.
You sit still in the sauna, but your body is working. It is trying to keep its temperature stable while the air around you is far warmer than your skin. When you step out afterwards, or choose the cold water, the conditions change again.
During a SaunaGus those shifts become part of a guided session with heat, breaks and the option to cool down. Some of what happens along the way is well-described physiology. The possible effects on health over the long term call for a more careful explanation.
In the heat
When your skin warms up, the blood vessels widen so more blood reaches the surface of the body. You start to sweat, and your heart rate rises. Sweat cools the body as it evaporates. High humidity makes that evaporation harder, which is part of why humid heat can feel so intense.
So the heart is working harder, even though you are sitting on the bench. In a small trial, researchers found that heart rate and blood pressure during a sauna could resemble the response to moderate cycling. The trial compared the load on the circulation, so the result cannot be used to equate a sauna with the overall effects of exercise.
Blood pressure does not follow one simple curve either. In the same trial it rose during the sauna and afterwards fell to below the starting point. So it is too simple to say that heat just lowers blood pressure.
When you choose the cold
Cold water brings a different response. The blood vessels in the skin narrow to limit heat loss, and the sympathetic nervous system is activated. That is the part of the nervous system that, among other things, readies the body to respond to a strain.
The first contact can trigger a gasp, faster breathing and a rising heart rate. This is called cold shock. With repeated exposure the response can become less forceful, but getting used to it does not make the cold risk-free.
At Turban the cold water is optional. You can also spend the break in the fresh air and choose how much contrast you want.
Breath and the break
Your breathing is one of the things you can notice along the way: how does it change in the heat? What happens when you meet the cold? And how does it feel when you sit in the break?
Research on breathing exercises suggests that particular exercises can affect both mood and breathing rate. In one trial, a daily exercise with a double inhale and a long exhale gave a larger improvement in positive mood and a larger drop in breathing rate than the mindfulness exercise the researchers compared it with.
The participants practised daily for a month. The result therefore says something about a regular breathing practice, and does not document what a few guided breaths during a SaunaGus do.
What about the effect over time?
Some of the most cited sauna studies have followed Finnish men over many years. The researchers found a link between more frequent sauna use and a lower risk of, among other things, fatal cardiovascular disease.
These are interesting findings, but the participants were not randomly assigned to different sauna habits. The studies therefore cannot establish how much the sauna itself explains. They also look at Finnish sauna use and cannot simply be used as evidence for a guided session with heat, cold water and breathing.
There is good evidence that the body responds to the temperatures. How much a particular SaunaGus format means for health in the long run is less certain.
At Turban the gusmaster guides you through the heat and leaves room for breaks. You choose the cold yourself, and you can always step out before a round ends.
If you have a heart condition, are pregnant or take medication for blood pressure, talk to your doctor before your first session, and read our [safety information](/safety).
Book a session →Sources
Zaccardi et al. (2017): Sauna bathing and incident hypertension. American Journal of Hypertension
Barwood et al. (2023): Habituation of the cold shock response. Journal of Thermal Biology
Cain et al. (2025): Effects of cold-water immersion on health and wellbeing. PLOS ONE
Russo et al. (2017): The physiological effects of slow breathing in the healthy human. Breathe
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