An excerpt from Smart Exercise by Covert Bailey describes the benefits of heated exercise:

  • Enhances vasodilatation so that more blood is delivered to the muscles. This means that the capillaries that weave around the muscles respond to the heat by dilation. This brings more oxygen to the muscles and helps in the removal of waste products such as carbon dioxide and lactic acid.
  • Speeds up the breakdown of glucose and fatty acids.
  • Makes muscles more elastic and less susceptible to injury.
  • Improves coordination.
  • Reduces heart irregularities associated with sudden exercise.
  • Burns fat more easily. Warmed muscles burn fat more easily than cold ones. Fat is released during stress. The stress of intense exercise causes a deluge of fatty acids into the blood stream. If you exercise with cold muscles, they can’t use the fatty acids and they end up in places where they aren’t wanted, such as in the lining of your arteries.