Irene Jiang / Business Insider
I went to an urban sweat lodge in Brooklyn to see what the sweating trend was like.
- "Sweating" is a wellness trend that's been around for ages, and now there's a new way to sweat: the "urban sweat lodge."
- I went to Shape House in Brooklyn to try one of its 55-minute sweat sessions in an infrared heat bed.
- Shape House claims that benefits of sweat sessions include weight loss, brighter skin, and improved mood, among many others.
- I found it hard to get through the 55 minutes, and afterward, while I felt very refreshed, I also experienced dehydration, increased hunger, and heightened anxiety.
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Humans have always found ways to get really, really hot.
Now, there's a new one: the "urban sweat lodge."
I went to Shape House, an urban sweat lodge with locations in New York and Los Angeles. For a cool $50, you're put into a specially designed infrared bed that heats you up as you lay back and watch TV for 55 minutes, because of which Shape House claims you will burn 800-1,600 calories.
Shape House also claims that the benefits of their sweat sessions include detoxification, weight loss, improved skin, sleep, increased energy, endorphin release, strengthened immunity, improved mood, stress relief, improved hormone balance, and the alleviation of muscle soreness.
Now, those seem like a lot of unbelievable benefits from doing a whole lot of nothing. You might almost say that they sound too good to be true, especially because "detoxification" isn't really a thing.
So the curious skeptic in me decided to investigate and to investigate by trying out one of these sweat sessions for myself.
The thing is, I don't do well in high temperatures.