I just had to share this because it’s so incredibly rare. I did a double take the first time I saw it. Sauna is pronounced incorrectly in the U.S. so often, that when you say it right people often don’t know even what you’re talking about.
“Had a great SOW-nah last night.”
“I’m sorry, come again?”
“SOW-nahs. They’re great.”
“What?”
“SAH-nah.”
“Oh, yes, I love those.”
Physical Therapists (PTs) play essential roles in today’s health care environment and are recognized as vital providers of rehabilitation, habilitation, prevention and risk reduction services. They are probably best known in helping rehabilitate patients, including accident victims and individuals with disabling conditions such as low-back pain, arthritis, heart disease, fractures, head injuries, and cerebral palsy. PTs practice in most healthcare settings, private homes, education and research centers, schools, hospices, occupational environments, fitness centers and sports training facilities. In 2008, there were 185,000 practicing PTs in the US and the occupation is expected to experience faster growth through 2018.
Sauna use has strong potential to become a central technique in PT practice. Specific areas of physical therapy that would likely benefit from sauna are cardiopulmonary, geriatric, and orthopedic where exercise is used as a stimulus to improve cardiovascular functioning. A unique quality of sauna that makes it particularly useful to these areas is that sauna is one of the only cardio exercises that does not require movement and can therefore accommodate a wider range of patients based on ambulatory ability. Knee, hip or other joint problems are not a problem with sauna and in fact may aid in pain relief.
Several researchers found sauna therapeutic in treating high blood pressure and myocardial infarction. See: Empirical Evidence for the Health Benefits of Sauna. In the most recent study, published in The American Journal of Cardiology, researchers used sauna treatment with 41 patients with heart failure and found that sauna treatment increased the heart’s ability to pump blood, and boosted the distance participants could walk in 6 minutes from 337 meters to 379 meters. The team also noticed improved function of the endothelium – the membrane lining the inside of the heart that releases factors controlling the diameter of blood vessels, and clotting. The researchers also found more circulating endothelial progenitor cells – adult stem cells that can turn into endothelial cells. See: Effects of Sauna Treatment on Patients with Chronic Heart Failure.
Heckel HT2000M used for Whole Body Hyperthermia
One present danger in developing the use of sauna in physical therapy is that medical researchers ignore the time-tested traditional methods of sweat rituals that include multiple therapeutic variables. Researchers have followed this path in an effort to isolate the heat as being the only therapeutic agent of the experience. Some researchers would be perfectly happy with putting people into heated cylinder-like canisters. The use of a traditional form of sweat ritual is not only more human but may also be more effective. See: Sweat Therapy Theory. As medical professionals push forward, they would be well advised to take advantage of the numerous extratherapeutic variables available through the traditional use of sweat rituals.
A growing force that supports the traditional use of sauna and other sweat rituals in medical settings is the use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practices (CAM). CAM is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products, (typically forms of traditional medicine), that are not generally considered to be part of conventional medicine. The use of CAM in hospital settings is becoming common practice. The most common CAM practices offered in hospitals include acupuncture, yoga, meditation, and variations on massage such as reiki. As a CAM practice in a medical setting, sauna offers comprehensiveness yet flexibility. Sauna offers the potential for significant effects to mind, body and spirit and can be integrated with a wide range of techniques and expertise. The combination of sauna with counseling/psychotherapy further amplifies the therapeutic opportunities to patients receiving physical therapy. For more information on integrating sauna with counseling/psychotherapy into a wide range of healthcare settings, see: Sweat Therapy: A Guide to Greater Well-Being.
Whether at a health club sauna, hotel sauna, backyard sauna, cabin sauna it’s important to completely cycle your sauna rounds. We have praised the virtues of three sauna rounds, yet a sauna round isn’t complete without a clean rinse and a proper cool down.
Optimally, a clean rinse is achieved via jumping into a cold lake. Yet practically, not every sauna sits by pristine rustic shores with waves lapping and loons calling. So, an outdoor shower hooked up to a garden hose works great, especially as one is not able to temper the cold water. If at a health club or sauna with a proper shower, resist the temptation to reach for the hot water handle. Cold water is great for your pores, blood flow, and ultimately feels great.
A simple 5 gallon bucket with fresh cold water, and a plastic containers (from a grocery store deli or Chinese restaurant-without the noodles) are all you need for a clean rinse.
As a rule of thumb, cold water rinse as if you were going to towel off and go on a dinner date: get the sweat off and chill out.
Guest post from a sauna enthusiast:
Sauna. You really have to like the word.
Sauna. It just sounds right. Taking a sauna is many things, but for me, it is the one time in my entire life where a clock doesn’t exist. Time can stop, if only for the 2-3 rounds of heating and cooling one can enjoy while relaxing in and around the sauna.
A ritual has crept upon me as I take a sauna.
A slow start at a moderate temperature develops into a sweat BURST on my entire body – anywhere there is skin as the sauna temperature rises! I’ve often wondered if it is good to sweat a lot or a little when in a sauna. Are you better off sweating a ton or just enough or just a little. My sweat bursts on the scene with an explosion from my pores. This can last for a several minutes before a good pace is grooved to carry me through the majority of my sauna time. Next, after a few hits of water on the rocks, my time is nearing its end in the sauna for the round at hand. It is precisely at this time that I put my hands together, lean forward, bow my head slightly while in a sitting position and meditate as drops of water roll from the tip of my fingers. A count to 100 DROPS rolling from my hand signals the end to another round and the beginning of the cool down as I exit the sauna.
Trying frowning and saying the word “sauna”. You can’t. Sauna is a smile word, enjoy the sweat and the last 100 drops.
There’s a recent New Scientist article entitled “Saunas could heal your mood and your heart.“ The article explains that “neurons that release the ‘happiness molecule’ serotonin respond to increases in body temperature, perhaps explaining the sauna’s pleasurable effects.”
We sauna enthusiasts are easily amused.
There were no road signs or traffic rules 125 years ago. People got in their cars and just drove. That’s how sauna should be and certainly is if you own your own sauna. Yet as sauna becomes more popular in public places like hotels, health clubs and spas, for better or worse, people need rules, signs and instructions for sauna.
Chris at Saunascape provides a guide to sauna etiquette. These are public sauna tips: like sit on a towel, don’t spit on the rocks, and shower before entering sauna as “if you’ve been swimming, there is chlorine on your body that will volatilize in the sauna and can irritate everyone’s eyes and lungs who shares the sauna with you.”
All great tips.
However, with your own sauna you don’t need signs or a list of rules, it’s back to pioneer days. As my then 10 year old son noted in his school report: “There are no rules to the sauna except no yelling, keep away from the stove and most importantly DON’T leave the door open. So that’s the end of my project hope you learned a lot.”
No rules. Reason number 14 to get your own authentic Finnish sauna idling in your own backyard.
I can’t think of a better way to end the work week and kick off the weekend than to entertain some friends at my home with a three beer sauna on Friday night.
My friends arrive around 8ish and meander around, get their things ready, change their clothes and fill up their water bottles. We get into the sauna and then finally get a chance to catch up and learn about new happenings while the smell of sage fills the air. People begin to decompress and its time to punctuate the moment with a blast of steam. In between sauna rounds, the cold Fall night cools off the bathers and its soon time for the next round. Nothing like an ice cold beer in your sauna on Friday night! By the end of the third round, everyone is completely relaxed and in the right frame of mind. A great way to top off the evening is with a bowl of hearty chicken noodle soup, especially on a cold night.
Below is my favorite recipe. You can make it the day before so you’re not rushing around before your guests arrive.
MAKES ABOUT 3 QUARTS, SERVING 6 TO 8
INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
Today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune has an article here about how “setting foot in a cold tub can be like stepping into Lake Superior, but a lot of (Minnesota) Vikings swear by it for aches and pains.”
The article explains how sitting in cold tubs “bring new blood and fresh cells to an injured or sore area. They also flush lactic acids and reduce inflammation.”
Yet maximum benefits are achieved by the rubber band theory of sauna therapy: 10-15 minutes in an authentic Finnish sauna, then a proper cool down (jumping in a cold lake, or a long cold shower or a cold tub). Repeat three times.
Saunatimes suggests that the Minnesota Vikings, and all pro football teams for that matter, carve out 50 square feet or so to outfit locker rooms with an authentic Finnish sauna, wood burning preferred. With a little proper instruction, players will be able to double the benefit they are currently achieving with cold tub therapy.
NOTE TO ATHLETIC TRAINERS: Position a walk through shower between sauna and cold tub, so participants may wash off sweat prior to cold plunging.
SUMMARY: Cold therapy is just half the story. Sweat Therapy and cold therapy work together for the ultimate “ahhhhhhh!”.
Vikings Eric Frampton sat in the cold tub after a Thursday practice at Winter Park.
What you’ll need:
Cut 7 stub lengths off your 1x2s and build a profile for your arch supports.
Cut your first arched profile on your 1x4 with jig saw.
Temporarily set your test arch for the best feel. You want the arch to support the lower back, that little Lumbar support gig.
Unscrew your test arch and use for pattern to make three more arches, total of four.
Lay out your arches and set your center cross piece with recessed finish nails. Lay out arches so they line up to wall studs behind the sauna bench.
Set your other 6 cross pieces. Set with recessed finish nails.
Set your new Lumbar Sauna arch backrest in place with 2" screws underneath... oh, wait, what have we here?
Ah ha! A string of $2.99 Christmas lights behind the Lumbar sauna back rest. Plugged into a dimmer outlet, outside hot room. Not OSHA approved, but those guys are too wound up to dig sauna anyway.
