After, for most men and most goals. A sauna is a cardiovascular load in its own right, so putting it after training adds to the session, while putting it before mostly takes from it.
What a Sauna Before a Workout Costs You
Think about what the heat has already done by the time you pick up a barbell. Heat raises your heart rate, opens up blood flow to the skin, lifts the volume your heart moves per minute, and starts you sweating [1].
Every one of those is the sauna working correctly. All of them arrive as a handicap if the real session has not started yet.
You begin the workout with less thermal headroom and less fluid, and the load you were going to earn from training now stacks on a load you already took sitting down.
A short burst of heat before mobility work is a reasonable warm-up. A full session before anything hard is not.
What a Sauna After a Workout Adds
Run the same list at the other end and the arithmetic flips. The training is banked, so the heat is not competing with it for anything.
What you get instead is a second, separate cardiovascular stimulus, taken sitting still, on a body that has already done the hard part [2].
Repeated heat also raises heat shock proteins, the cell's own repair crew that refolds bent proteins and clears out ruined ones. The more heat you take, the bigger the rise [3].
That is repair machinery you want running after a hard session, which is the argument for putting the sauna last.
In practice: finish training, rehydrate, then take 15 to 20 minutes in a traditional room at 180 to 195 degrees Fahrenheit, or a longer and cooler sit in an infrared cabin at 150 to 160.
When Before Makes Sense
One exception is worth naming. If the sauna is the session, because you are injured, deloading, or the heat itself is the stimulus you are after, the ordering question dissolves. There is nothing to protect the workout from.
And if you only ever manage one or the other, take the frequency over the timing.
Four to seven sauna sessions a week against one carried about a 40 percent lower risk of dying of any cause, across more than 2,000 Finnish men followed for about twenty years [4]. Getting in five times a week matters more than where those visits sit relative to your training.
The Heat Does the Same Thing at Either End
Whichever order you land on, one part of you gets identical treatment.
The testicles run a few degrees cooler than the rest of you by design, which is why they sit outside the body [5]. A hot room raises scrotal temperature whether you got there before the workout or after it.
It reaches the cells that matter. Leydig cells turn cholesterol into testosterone with enzymes that work across a narrow temperature band, and the developing sperm cells are just as sensitive [6].
Sauna heat measurably affects spermatogenesis, the process that makes sperm, and the effect reverses once the heat stops [7].
That doesn't mean drop the sauna from the plan. It means the order of your training has nothing to do with this part, so the fix has to travel into the room with you.
Which Is a Kit Question, Not a Scheduling One
Oakman is built specifically for active men looking for scrotal cooling all day and want the option of a cold pack for cooling in the sauna or after heat exposure. The boxer briefs are made for a man who trains and then sits in heat. A slim removable cold pack in a medical-grade nylon shell slides into a front pocket for the sauna portion, kept off the skin by a layer of soft fabric, and comes back out for everything else.
The rest is built for the gym half of the day. The fabric is TENCEL MicroModal, naturally derived from wood pulp rather than plastic, blended with ROICA V550, a Japanese clean stretch fiber, rather than conventional spandex. Its fibers run about 20 percent finer than standard modal, which is why it stays smooth against skin that is already damp.
That matters more than it sounds. Damp skin against fabric produces markedly more friction, and that friction is the mechanical precondition for chafing [8].
The fit is athletic with a gusset, an extra panel that gives the testicles room and airflow. Dyes are bluesign approved, so what touches your skin is controlled all the way through the supply chain. One pair covers the lifting and the sauna both.
Join the Founding 100
Oakman is sauna cooling for men, launching early fall 2026. Founding members get first access and founding pricing locked in. Reserve your spot.
Frequently asked questions
Should I use the sauna before or after a workout?
After, for most men and most goals. Heat before training already raises your heart rate, opens skin blood flow and starts you sweating [1], which costs you before the real session starts. After training the same load adds a separate cardiovascular stimulus instead of competing with the workout [2].
Is a sauna ever useful before training?
Briefly, as a warm-up before mobility work, or when the heat itself is the session because you are injured or deloading. A full session before hard training works against it.
How long should the post-workout sauna be?
15 to 20 minutes in a traditional room at 180 to 195 degrees Fahrenheit, or longer and cooler in an infrared cabin at 150 to 160. Rehydrate before you go in.
Does the timing change what sauna heat does to the testicles?
No. Scrotal temperature rises with heat exposure either way, and the effect on spermatogenesis is real and reversible [7]. What keeps the temperature down is cooling the testicles during the session, not the order of your training.
This is for general educational and informational purposes only and is not medical advice. It makes no claim about fertility, sperm, or testosterone outcomes from any product. Always talk with a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, exercise, or health routine. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Oakman products are apparel and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
References
- Hussain J, Cohen M. (2018). Clinical Effects of Regular Dry Sauna Bathing: A Systematic Review. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. [Link]
- Laukkanen JA, Laukkanen T, Kunutsor SK. (2018). Cardiovascular and Other Health Benefits of Sauna Bathing: A Review of the Evidence. Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Elsevier). [Link]
- Nava R, Zuhl MN. (2020). Heat acclimation-induced intracellular HSP70 in humans: a meta-analysis. Cell Stress and Chaperones (Cell Stress Society International / Elsevier). [Link]
- Laukkanen T, Khan H, Zaccardi F, Laukkanen JA. (2015). Association Between Sauna Bathing and Fatal Cardiovascular and All-Cause Mortality Events. JAMA Internal Medicine. [Link]
- Ivell R. (2007). Lifestyle impact and the biology of the human scrotum. Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology (BioMed Central). [Link]
- Cai H, Qin D, Peng S. (2021). Responses and coping methods of different testicular cell types to heat stress: overview and perspectives. Bioscience Reports. [Link]
- Garolla A, et al.. (2013). Seminal and molecular evidence that sauna exposure affects human spermatogenesis. Human Reproduction. [Link]
- Gerhardt L-C, Strassle V, Lenz A, Spencer ND, Derler S. (2008). Influence of epidermal hydration on the friction of human skin against textiles. Journal of The Royal Society Interface. [Link]
