It’s official mamas: soaking in a hot bath is AS GOOD as exercising

Passive heating as opposed to sweating during exercise could be the key to good health.

Okay, we all know exercise is good for you and we're by NO MEANS saying that you should pack in the gym and just wallow in baths, but research suggests there are some strong benefits to so-called 'passive heating', and who are we to argue with science? Research carried out at Loughborough University investigated the effects hot baths have on blood sugar control, which is an important measure of metabolic fitness, as well as on energy expended or calories burned. Writing in Discovery Magazine, Steve Faulkner explained the process,

"We recruited 14 men to take part in the study. They were assigned to an hour-long soak in a hot bath (40˚C) or an hour of cycling. The activities were designed to cause a 1˚C rise in core body temperature over the course of one hour"

The researchers then calculated how many calories were burned in each session, while also monitoring the men's blood sugar for 24 hours after each trial. So how did the baths fare?

"Cycling resulted in more calories being burned compared with a hot bath, but bathing resulted in about as many calories being burned as a half-hour walk (around 140 calories)"

Okay, so it may not be as good as cycling, but 140 calories burned while soaking in a tub? That's still pretty impressive. Passive heating is still a relatively new field of research, despite this more and more studies are looking into the effects it has on the human body as an alternative to exertive exercise. One such study matched the intensity of heating from water immersion to that of running on a treadmill, they actually found that body temperature rose quicker in the bath than on the treadmill, which is all pretty good news for our cardiovascular health. The potential of hot baths as a therapeutic tool remains to be seen, but for now, we'll take those 140 calories...that's our workout for today sorted. Join the conversation on Twitter @HerFamilydotie