We recently began sponsorship of Australian Ironman Athlete Stuart Harsley in the lead up to the biggest iron man event in the world: Ironman Kona, Hawaii. He is experiencing incredible acclimatisation benefits after just six weeks of regular iHealth Sauna use.

Inspired by a pro triathlete who visited his school as a teenager, Stuart undertook his first triathlon in 1986. After that, he was hooked on the sport of triathlon.  After taking a break to get married and start a family, his triathlon journey was reignited in 2014 when he embarked on training and competing in his first Ironman 70.3, in Geelong, Australia. In the last 4 years Stuart has competed in seven half Ironmans and four full Ironmans including the world championships in 2017.

This year he is looking for the edge to break into the sub 10 hour mark. On average only 5% of starters finish in under 10 hours. So he’s pretty fit.

Stuart is using the iHealth infrared sauna to acclimatise to the heat. The theory is with continual use, his blood will increase in plasma volume and associated cardiac output will increase. After just six weeks, the results speak for them self:

Week 0:

Week 6:

The blue line represents temperature and the red line represents Stuart’s heart rate. As you can see in the second image, after 6 weeks, his heart rate at the same temperature is considerably lower. His body has adapted to the heat stress and is working more efficiently.

Four weeks ago (four weeks into sauna use) Stuart competed in an Olympic distance triathlon and completed the event with a PB. He says his is also in relation to his sauna use at the time.

We will keep you all updated with Stuart’s story in the lead up to the Iron man in Kona later this year.

To learn more about how an iHealth Sauna may benefit you
click here.