SaunaBox Solara
SaunaBox Solara
End of Summer Sale is live
End of Summer Sale is live
Add to cart
Road cyclist beside his bike after a long ride
SaunaBox
The cyclist's guide
Advertisement

Why cyclists are using a sauna after long rides.

63% of regular cyclists feel pain on the bike. Most decide that's normal.

See the options
Fifteen minutes after
A household outlet
Free shipping
Key facts
✓63% of regular cyclists in a 2019 survey felt pain while riding.
✓The neck and lower back are the most common places cyclists feel pain on the bike.
✓Among injured riders, overuse was named as the cause slightly more often than crashes.
✓Heat after riding supports recovery and supports sleep. It does not prevent injury.
01

Every cyclist rides thinking about the crash.

The wet corner. The car door. The touch of wheels in the group. That is not what hurts most cyclists.

In a survey of 739 regular road and mountain bike riders, 63% said they felt pain while riding. Among the riders who had been injured that year, overuse and fatigue were named as the cause slightly more often than falls. A sauna for cyclists sits after that ride, not instead of it.

Neck
23.1%
Lower back
22.2%
Knee
15.6%
Hands
13.3%

In a study of 62,758 entrants to the Cape Town Cycle Tour, 43.9% of riders with a gradual-onset injury had lived with it for more than a year.

It does not happen on the descent. It happens in the saddle, over three hours, every Sunday.

Sources: Survey of 739 cyclists, Priego Quesada et al., PLoS One, 2019, PMID 30682136. Cape Town Cycle Tour entrants, SAFER XXVII, du Toit et al., The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 2023, PMID 36281474.

Cyclist sitting on a garage floor with a hand on his lower back after a long ride
It arrives as a niggle you ride through, not as an event.
02

It's not an injury yet. That's the problem.

It is the Tuesday intervals that felt heavy because Sunday's long ride was still in your legs.

The lower back that aches getting out of the car. The hands that go numb in the last hour. The neck you roll at every red light, so you ride through it.

Sunday long ridethree hours in the drops
Tuesday intervalsheavy legs
Last hournumb hands
Logged as injurynone of it

In one small study, riders covering 160 kilometres or more a week had 3.6 times the odds of low back pain. It is one study of 66 riders, but it points the same way as the rest: the miles add up. The answer is not another ride. None of that goes in your log. It is all the same thing, arriving slowly. By the time it has a name, it has been there for a month.

03

A few minutes of stretching. A massage gun in a drawer.

You stretch your hip flexors against the garage wall while the ride uploads. You bought the massage gun. You foam roll when something already hurts.

You sleep badly after the long ride and clip in again the next morning.

That is not a criticism. It is what almost everyone does.

Your rides have a time in your week. Recovery gets whatever is left over.

A foam roller and massage gun unused in the corner of a garage beside a road bike
Everything you own for this already lives in a corner.
04

The evidence says it goes after.

47
People
8
Weeks
15
Minutes after

In a randomised trial, 47 inactive adults with at least one heart risk factor were split into three groups for eight weeks: exercise, exercise plus fifteen minutes of sauna straight afterwards, or neither.

The sauna group came out ahead of the exercise-only group on cardiorespiratory fitness and systolic blood pressure. They were not athletes, and it is one small trial. In a 2023 trial, athletes sat in an infrared sauna for twenty minutes straight after a hard strength session. Compared with resting, they reported less muscle soreness and felt more recovered. They were basketball players, not cyclists, and it was sixteen people.

This is not instead of riding. It is the fifteen minutes after.

Source: Lee et al., Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol, 2022, PMID 35785965. Ahokas et al., Biology of Sport, 2023, PMID 37398966. Heat supports recovery. It does not prevent injury or make you faster.

05

Heat after the longest ride of your week.

A gym sauna heats the air around you. Full spectrum infrared warms your body directly: the lower back, the neck and the legs you just held in one position for three hours.

Your heart rate climbs. Your blood vessels open. You sweat. That is the mechanism, and it supports recovery without anybody promising you a faster ride.

Heart rate rises
Warms the body directly
Air heat, at the skin Full spectrum infrared Skin Warms the body directly
83.5%

of 482 sauna users said they slept better afterwards.

That is a survey, not a trial. It is also where recovery actually happens.

Global Sauna Survey, 2019

Not in the sauna. In the eight hours after it.

Source: Global Sauna Survey, Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 2019, PMID 31126560. Self-reported, 482 respondents. Heat supports sleep, it does not treat a sleep disorder.

06
The bonus

The hardest part of red light therapy is standing in front of it.

You're already sitting down.

A panel costs three hundred to two thousand dollars on its own, and the protocol is standing still in front of it several times a week. Nobody does that after a long ride. You will sit down after one.

It is in the back wall. Not an upsell, not an attachment, not a subscription.

Source: Vanin et al., Lasers in Medical Science, 2018, PMID 29090398. Supports recovery. It does not treat an injury.

Cyclist sitting in a SaunaBox Solara infrared sauna with the red light panel lit
07

Every hard ride gets fifteen minutes.

It takes about fifteen minutes to warm up. Turn it on as you head out, and it is ready when you get back. Drink water first, then shower.

Sun
Long ride
then sauna
Mon
Rest
Tue
Intervals
then sauna
Wed
Easy spin
Thu
Tempo
then sauna
Fri
Rest
Sat
Group ride
then sauna

Most owners land on four or five sessions a week.

For a cyclist that is just every hard ride.

A SaunaBox Solara infrared sauna warming up in a garage beside a road bike on a trainer
Shoes off, fifteen minutes, then the shower.
08

A corner, or a closet.

About thirty minutes to put together. One person. No tools, nothing drilled, a regular household outlet. The Solara fits adults up to 6 foot 8 seated, and at 63 inches tall outside it clears a standard doorway.

The SaunaBox Solara
SaunaBox Solara

If you have a corner, a spare room or a garage.

✓Full spectrum infrared, up to 158°F
✓Medical grade 660nm and 850nm red light
✓Crafted from 100% Canadian hemlock
Add to cart
The SaunaBox Pulse PRO
SaunaBox Pulse PRO

If you do not. It folds into a carry bag and lives in a closet.

✓Portable infrared, sets up anywhere
✓660nm and 850nm red light built in
✓PFAS free, OEKO-TEX certified fabric
Add to cart
The SaunaBox Solara 2-Person
SaunaBox Solara 2-Person

Ride with a partner? It fits you both after the same ride.

✓Full spectrum infrared, up to 158°F
✓Medical grade 660nm and 850nm red light
✓Crafted from 100% Canadian hemlock
Add to cart
No tools, about 30 min
Household 110V outlet
Free shipping, mainland USA
Warm in about 15 min
09
4.6 out of 5  ·  155 reviews

From people who ride.

★★★★★
It has a time slot now

Turn it on before the session, sit in it when I get back. That is the whole trick. I have done more recovery in two months than in five years of owning a foam roller.

Marcus T.
★★★★☆
Sleep after the long ride is the difference

Sunday nights after the long ride used to be restless. They are not now. Four stars because I wish it warmed up faster than fifteen minutes on cold mornings.

Dev P.
★★★★★
Good, but measure your doorway

No complaints about the sauna itself and my legs feel better the day after a long ride. Measure your doorway before it arrives, getting the boxes round the turn at the top of my stairs was a job.

Owen B.
End of Summer Sale is live

End of Summer Sale is live.

Across the whole lineup, our biggest sale of the year. Free shipping, HSA and FSA eligible through TrueMed.

Solara, one person

Full spectrum infrared wooden sauna.

✓Type: Infrared
✓Medical grade 660nm to 850nm red light
✓Crafted from 100% Canadian hemlock
End of Summer Sale is live
Solara, two person

Our best seller, redesigned to fit two people.

✓Type: Infrared
✓Full body 660nm to 850nm red light panel
✓Crafted from 100% Canadian hemlock
End of Summer Sale is live
Pulse PRO

Portable infrared that folds into a closet.

✓Type: Infrared
✓660nm to 850nm red light built in
✓PFAS free, OEKO-TEX certified cover
End of Summer Sale is live
SmartSteam Pro

Wet heat that packs into a bag between sessions.

✓Type: Steam
✓Standard 110V outlet, no install
✓Folds into a carry bag
End of Summer Sale is live
SmartSteam with Red Light

The same steam tent with a red light panel inside it.

✓Type: Steam and red light
✓Red light panel inside the tent
✓Standard 110V outlet, folds away
End of Summer Sale is live
Forge

Our new traditional Finnish dry sauna.

✓Type: Dry
✓Heats up to 200°F
✓Powered by Harvia
End of Summer Sale is live
Free shipping to the mainland USA
HSA and FSA eligible through TrueMed
Standard 110V outlet
See the full lineup
10

Questions.

Up to 158°F, and the range starts at 77°F, so you can sit cooler on a day your legs have already had enough. It ships set to 149°F; holding TIME + and TIME − together for about six seconds unlocks the full range.

About fifteen minutes. Turn it on as you head out the door and it is ready when you get back.

No. A regular 110V household outlet at 1600W with an 8 foot cord. Give it its own outlet rather than a shared strip, and skip extension leads.

35 by 37 inches of floor and 63 inches tall, so it clears a standard doorway and sits in a corner. Measure the tightest turn on the way in, not the room. It arrives as two flat boxes, the larger 65 by 37 by 13 inches.

Yes, through TrueMed, subject to their eligibility questions at checkout.

2-Year warranty, with support by phone and text.

After. Heat before a ride is extra load you then ride on. Rehydrate, then fifteen minutes.

The Solara goes up to 158°F. Infrared warms your body directly rather than just the air, so you sweat at a temperature that feels easier to sit in.

No. Heat training studies use hot chambers, suits and long protocols aimed at performance. This is fifteen minutes after a ride that supports recovery and supports sleep.

Drink water first, especially after a hot or long ride, and start with shorter sessions. Heat straight after hard training is extra load on the body for the first week or two.

The gym sauna is there when the gym is open and someone else is already in it. Yours is fifteen steps away, straight after the session you did at home or the drive back from the gym.

Water, food and sleep do most of the work. Heat afterwards supports recovery and supports sleep, and fifteen minutes is enough once you have rehydrated.

In a 2019 survey of 739 regular cyclists, the neck and lower back were the most common places riders felt pain while riding, followed by the knee and hands.

It supports recovery and supports sleep. It does not prevent injury or make you faster, and you should drink water and build up slowly.

Intertek testedProp 65 compliantUltra low EMF2-Year warranty110V

Heat therapy supports recovery and supports sleep. It does not prevent or treat injuries, and nothing here is medical advice. Speak to your physician before starting sauna use.

Road cyclist beside his bike after a long ride
SaunaBox
The cyclist's guide
Advertisement

Why cyclists are using a sauna after long rides.

63% of regular cyclists feel pain on the bike. Most decide that's normal.

See the options
Fifteen minutes after the session
A household outlet
Key facts
✓63% of regular cyclists in a 2019 survey felt pain while riding.
✓The neck and lower back are the most common places cyclists feel pain on the bike.
✓Among injured riders, overuse was named as the cause slightly more often than crashes.
✓Heat after riding supports recovery and supports sleep. It does not prevent injury.
01

Every cyclist rides thinking about the crash.

The wet corner. The car door. The touch of wheels in the group. That is not what hurts most cyclists.

In a survey of 739 regular road and mountain bike riders, 63% said they felt pain while riding. Among the riders who had been injured that year, overuse and fatigue were named as the cause slightly more often than falls. A sauna for cyclists sits after that ride, not instead of it.

Neck
23.1%
Lower back
22.2%
Knee
15.6%
Hands
13.3%

In a study of 62,758 entrants to the Cape Town Cycle Tour, 43.9% of riders with a gradual-onset injury had lived with it for more than a year.

It does not happen on the descent. It happens in the saddle, over three hours, every Sunday.

Sources: Priego Quesada et al., PLoS One, 2019, PMID 30682136. du Toit et al., The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 2023, PMID 36281474.

Cyclist sitting on a garage floor with a hand on his lower back after a long ride
02

It's not an injury yet. That's the problem.

It is the Tuesday intervals that felt heavy because Sunday's long ride was still in your legs.

The lower back that aches getting out of the car. The hands that go numb in the last hour. The neck you roll at every red light, so you ride through it.

Sunday long ridethree hours in the drops
Tuesday intervalsheavy legs
Last hournumb hands
Logged as injurynone of it

Riders covering 160 kilometres or more a week had 3.6 times the odds of low back pain in one small study of 66 riders. The miles add up. None of it goes in your log.

03

A few minutes of stretching. A massage gun in a drawer.

A foam roller and massage gun unused in the corner of a garage beside a road bike

You stretch your hip flexors against the garage wall while the ride uploads. You bought the massage gun. You foam roll when something already hurts.

You sleep badly after the long ride and clip in again the next morning.

Your rides have a time in your week. Recovery gets whatever is left over.

04

The evidence says it goes after.

47
People
8
Weeks
15
Min after

In a randomised trial, 47 inactive adults with at least one heart risk factor were split into three groups for eight weeks: exercise, exercise plus fifteen minutes of sauna straight afterwards, or neither.

The sauna group came out ahead of the exercise-only group on cardiorespiratory fitness and systolic blood pressure. In a 2025 trial, team-sport players given ten minutes of infrared sauna after training saw increased soreness only in the group that skipped it.

This is not instead of riding. It is the fifteen minutes after.

Source: PMID 35785965. Heat supports recovery. It does not prevent injury or make you faster.

05

Heat after the longest ride of your week.

A gym sauna heats the air around you. Full spectrum infrared warms your body directly: the lower back, the neck and the legs you just held in one position for three hours.

Your heart rate climbs. Your blood vessels open. You sweat. That is the mechanism.

Air heat, at the skin Full spectrum infrared Skin Warms you directly
Heart rate rises
Warms the body directly
83.5%

of 482 sauna users said they slept better afterwards.

That is a survey, not a trial. It is also where recovery actually happens.

Global Sauna Survey, 2019

Not in the sauna. In the eight hours after it.

Source: Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 2019, PMID 31126560. Self-reported. Heat supports sleep, it does not treat a sleep disorder.

06
The bonus

The hardest part of red light therapy is standing in front of it.

You're already sitting down.

The red light panel built into the back wall of the Solara

A panel costs three hundred to two thousand dollars on its own, and the protocol is standing still in front of it several times a week. Nobody does that after a long ride. You will sit down after one.

It is in the back wall. Not an upsell, not an attachment, not a subscription.

Source: Vanin et al., Lasers in Medical Science, 2018, PMID 29090398. Supports recovery. It does not treat an injury.

07

Every hard ride gets fifteen minutes.

It takes about fifteen minutes to warm up. Turn it on as you head out, and it is ready when you get back. Drink water first, then shower.

Sun
Long ride
then sauna
Mon
Rest
Tue
Intervals
then sauna
Wed
Easy spin
Thu
Tempo
then sauna
Fri
Rest
Sat
Group ride
then sauna

For a cyclist that is just every hard ride.

A runner sitting in the open door of the Solara after a run
08

A corner, or a closet.

About thirty minutes to put together. One person. No tools, nothing drilled, a regular household outlet.

The SaunaBox Solara
SaunaBox Solara

If you have a corner, a spare room or a garage.

Add to cart
The SaunaBox Pulse PRO
SaunaBox Pulse PRO

If you do not. It folds into a carry bag and lives in a closet.

Add to cart
The SaunaBox Solara 2-Person
SaunaBox Solara 2-Person

Ride with a partner? It fits you both after the same ride.

Add to cart
09
4.6 out of 5 · 155 reviews

From people who ride.

★★★★★
It has a time slot now

Turn it on before the session, sit in it when I get back. I have done more recovery in two months than in five years of owning a foam roller.

Marcus T.
★★★★☆
Sleep after the long ride is the difference

Sunday nights after the long ride used to be restless. They are not now. Four stars because I wish it warmed up faster on cold mornings.

Dev P.
★★★★★
Good, but measure your doorway

My legs feel better the day after a long ride. Measure your doorway before it arrives, getting the boxes round the turn at the top of my stairs was a job.

Owen B.
End of Summer Sale is live

End of Summer Sale is live.

Across the whole lineup, our biggest sale of the year. Free shipping, HSA and FSA eligible through TrueMed.

Solara, one person

Full spectrum infrared wooden sauna.

✓Type: Infrared
✓Medical grade 660nm to 850nm red light
✓Crafted from 100% Canadian hemlock
End of Summer Sale is live
Solara, two person

Our best seller, redesigned to fit two people.

✓Type: Infrared
✓Full body 660nm to 850nm red light panel
✓Crafted from 100% Canadian hemlock
End of Summer Sale is live
Pulse PRO

Portable infrared that folds into a closet.

✓Type: Infrared
✓660nm to 850nm red light built in
✓PFAS free, OEKO-TEX certified cover
End of Summer Sale is live
SmartSteam Pro

Wet heat that packs into a bag between sessions.

✓Type: Steam
✓Standard 110V outlet, no install
✓Folds into a carry bag
End of Summer Sale is live
SmartSteam with Red Light

The same steam tent with a red light panel inside it.

✓Type: Steam and red light
✓Red light panel inside the tent
✓Standard 110V outlet, folds away
End of Summer Sale is live
Forge

Our new traditional Finnish dry sauna.

✓Type: Dry
✓Heats up to 200°F
✓Powered by Harvia
End of Summer Sale is live
Free shipping to the mainland USA
HSA and FSA eligible through TrueMed
See the full lineup
10

Questions.

Up to 158°F, and the range starts at 77°F, so you can sit cooler on a day your legs have had enough. It ships set to 149°F; holding TIME + and TIME − together for about six seconds unlocks the full range.

About fifteen minutes. Turn it on as you head out the door and it is ready when you get back.

No. A regular 110V household outlet at 1600W with an 8 foot cord. Give it its own outlet and skip extension leads.

35 by 37 inches of floor and 63 inches tall. Measure the tightest turn on the way in, not the room. It arrives as two flat boxes, the larger 65 by 37 by 13 inches.

Yes, through TrueMed, subject to their eligibility questions at checkout.

2-Year warranty, with support by phone and text.

After. Heat before a ride is extra load you then ride on. Rehydrate, then fifteen minutes.

The Solara goes up to 158°F. Infrared warms your body directly rather than just the air, so you sweat at a temperature that feels easier to sit in.

No. Heat training studies use hot chambers, suits and long protocols aimed at performance. This is fifteen minutes after a ride that supports recovery and supports sleep.

Drink water first, especially after a hot or long ride, and start with shorter sessions. Heat is extra load on the body for the first week or two.

Water, food and sleep do most of the work. Heat afterwards supports recovery and supports sleep, and fifteen minutes is enough once you have rehydrated.

In a 2019 survey of 739 regular cyclists, the neck and lower back were the most common places riders felt pain while riding, followed by the knee and hands.

It supports recovery and supports sleep. It does not prevent injury or make you faster, and you should drink water first and build up slowly.

Intertek testedProp 65 compliantUltra low EMF2-Year warranty110V

Heat therapy supports recovery and supports sleep. It does not prevent or treat injuries, and nothing here is medical advice.