Saunas are on a hot streak, with everyone from elite athletes to bio-hacking bros piling into cedarwood sweatboxes to reap well-documented health benefits ranging from improved V02 max to lower risk of dementia. But what about the steam room? Both are comparably hot rooms of roughly the same size, and at most gyms these facilities are mere feet apart. And yet, I don’t see any fitness influencers emerging on my feed through the humid haze of the steam room.
“In general, both concepts focus on a similar physiological pathway,” says performance physiologist Mark Kovacs, PhD, FACSM, CSCS. "Whether it's a sauna or a steam room, both get at a similar concept, which is mobilizing blood so you can re-oxygenate the muscles.”
So what gives? Are foggy camera lenses really what stands between the steam room and social media virality, or is there actually a legitimate reason why saunas get all the hype? Here’s what the experts have to say.
What’s the difference between a sauna and a steam room?
Both the sauna and steam room produce heat, but they do it in very different ways. First of all, there are different kinds of saunas. Finnish saunas use a wood-burning fire to heat stones that, in turn, make the room hot. Electric saunas are basically the same, except they use electricity to heat the stones rather than fire. Both of these are commonly called traditional saunas. And, finally, infrared saunas are powered by panels that emit far-infrared light to heat your body directly. Traditional saunas can usually be heated to anywhere between 150-220 degrees Fahrenheit, while infrared saunas operate at much lower temperatures—typically between 100–165 degrees.
Steam rooms all work the same way—with a generator that boils water to produce hot steam. Unlike traditional saunas, which create a very dry heat, the atmosphere of a steam room is palpably humid. As in, up to 100 percent. While steam rooms don’t reach the same temperatures of saunas, they can feel just as hot due to the moisture in the air. “The traditional saunas have a much higher ambient temperature, whereas steam rooms are about 100–120 degrees,” says Dr. Kovacs. “There's much more humidity in the air, which requires the temperature to be a lot lower—otherwise humans wouldn't be able to handle it.”
We don’t know that much about steam rooms
The research on saunas is varied and robust. You’ve probably heard about at least a few of the potential benefits of spending time in a sauna, which include heart health, muscle recovery, immune support, and even brain health—to name a few. This is the result of comprehensive and, crucially, long-term research—like a 2024 study, published in the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention, which analyzed over a decade of data to determine that men who used a sauna just once a week improved their cardiorespiratory fitness—and more frequent use corresponded to even greater gains.
“The evidence for sauna is really, really good,” says Christopher T. Minson, PhD, professor of human physiology at the University of Oregon. “They've done these almost 30-year prospective studies on the health benefits and longevity benefits of regular sauna use, and it's pretty compelling.”
Meanwhile, the biggest—and also the most surprising—reason why you probably don’t hear very much about the steam room’s benefits is that researchers simply haven’t spent a lot of time looking into it. "As far as any kind of controlled clinical trials—even smaller, shorter-term trials—there's very, very little on steam rooms,” Dr. Minson says.
But that isn't to say the benefits aren't there. In fact, a study published earlier this month in the South Eastern European Journal of Public Health found steam rooms to increase athletes' blood oxygen levels more effectively than both saunas and hot tubs. And a 2021 study published in the journal Advances in Integrative Medicine found that, like saunas, steam rooms may improve heart function by reducing blood pressure. It’s very possible that, with time, steam rooms may prove to be just as beneficial as saunas.
Steam may support your post-workout stretch
Even in the absence of published research, there are certain things that experts are able to deduce from the things we already know about steam rooms. For one, according to Dr. Minson, while the sauna may ultimately be hotter than the steam room, the water vapor in the air means a steam room will raise your body’s temperature much more quickly. "It’s a lower temperature, but a very equal stress, in a sense, because the water conducts the heat so well to our skin,” he says.
So, if you’re crunched for time, you’re likely to benefit more from a short stint in the steam room than the sauna. Similarly, if you’re the kind of person who likes to stretch out your muscles in the sauna after a workout, the steam room might actually be a more efficient use of your time. “If you had five minutes to stretch after a workout, then I think the steam room would raise your temperature more and get your muscles warmer than a dry sauna would,” Dr. Minson says.
Steam rooms are ideal for skin health
If you’re looking to the sauna or steam room primarily for improvements to the health or appearance of your skin, Dr. Kovacs recommends sticking with steam. "Steam rooms are better for the skin—for a lot of reasons,” he says. “Because there's more moisture and more humidity in the air, that's usually better if you're talking about skin improvement. In general, for people who are looking for skin benefits, a moist heat is usually better.”
"A benefit—that people report, at least—is how it humidifies the outer layer of the skin, which is helpful,” says Dr. Minson, who notes that, like saunas, steam rooms can also help you sweat out impurities. Just don’t expect either one—sauna or steam room—to magically detoxify you. “All this talk about sweating out toxins and stuff like that from your body is just not factual,” he says. “Certainly, if you have dirty skin or dirty pores, sweating in the sauna or steam room will help get it out. But that's just cleansing your skin.”
So, which is better for you—the sauna or the steam room?
The simple answer is that we don’t know yet. As impressive as the sauna’s science-backed benefits are, and as promising as emerging research on steam rooms seems to be, experts don’t currently have enough comparable information to definitively recommend one over the other.
"At the end of the day, I'm a scientist, so I would go with where the science is,” says Dr. Minson. “It's hard for me to advocate for a steam room. But that’s not because the benefits aren’t there; it's just that the sauna science is very, very, very strong.”
Ultimately, both are net positive for your health, and it could very well end up just being a matter of preference. “As a thermal physiologist, I’ve spent my entire life looking at how the body responds to heat, and I think most of the health benefits that people are going to get are going to be realized in a steam room or a sauna,” Dr. Minson says.“They both have a lot of value, and they both work under somewhat of a similar concept of elevating core temperature, increasing the sweating response, and moving blood around,” says Dr. Kovacs. “It's not like one's good and one's bad.”