» Sauna culture

Do I really need a changing room?

Glenn — Mon, 10 May 2010 13:59:24 +0000

If I had a stick of firewood for every time i’ve been asked this question, I could keep my wood burning sauna stove on idle most of the winter:

1. Double doors. Why do grocery stores all have a double set of entry doors? Imagine you are a check out clerk at a grocery store and it’s below freezing with 25 mph winds and some old lady is standing in the doorway adjusting her hat. Now imagine that you build your own sauna without a changing room and some old lady is standing in the open doorway adjusting her hat. Close the door!

2. Equalize your body temp. A backyard sauna with a changing room is a wonderful hang out space between rounds. After a well deserved cold outdoor shower, it’s nice to sit in the changing room and hang out, visit, indulge in a sauna music play list as your body equalizes. This is not only fun, but important!

3. Expand your space. A sauna changing room is critical for a sauna party. Offering hang out zones gives your sauna party structure and expansion. How come people hang out in the kitchen at parties?

I built my mobile sauna with a changing room for all the above reasons, oh, yea, and you

4. have a place to hang your clothes.

Click here for the ultimate sauna plan. It’s the perfect design for a Minnesota sauna or a Finnish sauna or a backyard sauna or even a mobile sauna.

Finnish Embassy, Washington DC

Glenn — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:42:13 +0000

Here’s a link to yesterday’s article in the Washington Post. For those not registered I copied, pasted here:

At Finnish Embassy, the heat is on

Kari Mokko, press secretary and spokesman of the Embassy of Finland. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

By Jason Horowitz

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 18, 2010

On a recent Friday evening in the basement of the Finnish Embassy, a half-dozen men, all sweating profusely and wrapped in white towels, turned to resident sauna authority Kari Mokko to settle a dispute.

“Kari,” Josh Block, a spokesman for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, said through the vapor, ” ’schvitz’ isn’t a Finnish term, is it?”

“Shivit?” a bewildered Mokko replied when asked about the Yiddish word for steam room. He stood up, sans towel, to ladle some more water onto the sauna’s rocks. “Shwi? What?”

Despite his unfamiliarity with the term, Mokko, the embassy’s press secretary, is running a monthly Power Schvitz for the policy staffers behind Washington’s power players — and the journalists who cover them.

The Diplomatic Finnish Sauna Society of D.C. counts among its 150 members the operatives who make Washington spin: Capitol Hill staffers, public-policy wonks, lobbyists, administration officials — and reporters eager to pick up some off-message analysis.

“You don’t wear your politics on your sleeve when you are not wearing sleeves,” said Alex Conant, a former RNC spokesman currently working for Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota. “Mostly you just talk about how damn hot it is.”

The society’s founder and gatekeeper, Mokko is a 43-year-old Tampere native, with a trimmed goatee and chiseled cheekbones. On hiatus as the anchor of “Silminnäkijä,” or Eyewitness, a Finnish Broadcasting Co. current-affairs program, he is at home with reporters, delighting in the exchange of phone numbers, story leads and private information at the sauna. He believes networking in the nude to be an absolute moral good.

“It became a great ‘I scratch your back, you scratch mine’ sort of thing,” he said, flatly.

The sessions began two years ago to compensate, Mokko said, for Finland’s “predictable” reputation and low international profile. “We don’t cause problems,” he explains. “We needed something to catch attention.” (The Finnish ambassador lays low in his own sauna, in the official residence.)

The society’s private Facebook page, which Mokko maintains, expounds that the society’s mission is to “exchange breaking D.C. news and hot scoops, create buzz and get refreshed in great company” and to “spread the word about the joys of Finnish sauna culture and other great achievements of Finns inside and outside the Capital Beltway.” Conant, for example, offered that the sauna society inspired him to visit Helsinki last summer.

Mokko says his great ambition is to host Vice President Biden, who lives directly across Massachusetts Avenue, but in the meantime he keeps the guest list small, diverse and bipartisan: “I try to be civil and benevolent.” He regales guests with a barrage of Finnish sauna facts (”We have more saunas than cars,” “When Finnish peacekeepers are sent to Africa, the first thing they do is build a 190-degree sauna”) and argues tirelessly for the superiority of Finnish saunas over Swedish ones. (”Theirs is a lot milder: 130 degrees. It’s just like a hot room.”)

Regulars include Christina Sevilla, deputy assistant U.S. trade representative and lead singer for the group Suspicious Package, which has played embassy events. There’s also Rick Dunham, the Hearst Newspapers bureau chief, who hasn’t shown up since building his own Finnish sauna in his basement last month. (”In the embassy, it’s an endurance test of Americans to see how long they go before they wilt,” he said. “Now I understand the science of it.”)

At 6:30 on a Friday evening, as a conflict between the United States and Israel over East Jerusalem housing plans came to a boil, a bartender arranged cranberry juice, water, and bottles of Dos Equis, pinot gris and cabernet sauvignon on a table.

Eve Conant, a Newsweek correspondent (no relation to Alex), and Deborah Horan, a former war correspondent who is now a government analyst, walked down a sweeping staircase.

“I’m here for the secret sauna club,” Conant announced.

Surrounded by an art installation depicting the white-bearded hero Väinämöinen doing battle in the national Finnish epic “The Kalevala,” the three clinked wine glasses and compared sauna notes.

Conant, who reported from Moscow for a decade, said she was familiar with Russian saunas, which use steam. Mokko, dressed in a blue blazer and purple shirt, protested: “That is a Finnish sauna — not a Russian sauna.”

Melissa Merz, a principal at the public affairs firm Podesta Group, arrived with her husband, Robert Mackey, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and historian hired by the government to declassify documents. The group then grew to include Lynne Weil, the communications director for the House Foreign Affairs Committee; her husband, Nils Bruzelius, an executive editor at the Environmental Working Group; and Christine Mangi, a spokeswoman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) at the Senate Republican Conference.

“There’s a client I’d love for you to meet,” Merz pitched to a fellow guest, as Weil credited the sauna with creating “harmony in Washington” and advised everyone to “watch your alcohol intake before going in.” Mackey talked excitedly about archival finds (”He’s very excited because he saw J. Edgar Hoover’s signature today,” his wife said), and Mangi assured the society newcomers, “Your skin will feel wonderful for days.”

A short time later, Mark Landler, the New York Times diplomatic correspondent, arrived with his wife, Angela Tung, a lawyer who wore a made-in-Finland Marimekko dress. Wall Street Journal correspondent Jay Solomon and Block, the AIPAC spokesman, followed. Conversation subjects included mosquitoes in Alaska and the difference between East Coast and West Coast Navy SEALs. Mangi told a story about how, the day after a sauna visit, she met a man at a party who commented that she looked a decade younger. “I said, ‘God, that sauna does amazing things for the skin,

“So where is this sauna? Does it really exist?” Horan interrupted.

“It’s hotter than the Swedish one, right?” Merz said.

“Oh, yeah,” Mokko said, “double.”

At 7:30, Mokko led the group down three flights of stairs, past a sign on a door that read “Varoitus. Lattia Liukas!” (Warning, Floor Is Slippery!). The basement was decorated with brightly patterned Marimekko pillows on wooden furniture, photos of fair-skinned Finns stretching on rock beaches and a projector beaming Wolf Blitzer’s “The Situation Room” onto the wall. A bottle of Finlandia vodka awaited guests on a bar across from a buffet of red gravlax and white trout, shrimp and Finnish meatballs.

Following the usual rules, the women disappeared down a short hallway and into the sauna, leaving the men to fill their plates and wait their turn.

Merz emerged from the sauna after only 10 minutes or so.

“She’s out already?” Bruzelius said, looking up from his smoked salmon mousse.

“I lasted seven seconds longer this time!” said Merz, whose face had turned the color of gravlax.

Mangi came out four minutes later with wet hair and glowing skin.

“It’s a lot hotter in there than last time!” she said.

Horan followed, and, after rehydrating, wondered, “Should we go check on them? Has anyone checked?”

When all the women had emptied out of the sauna, the men rotated into a changing room where piles of kulho (pots) and haude (grills) sat under shelves of folded towels. The society members disrobed under wooden pegs, shed their glasses, grabbed towels and brown pelfetti (sauna seat mats), and snatched beverages from an aluminum ice bucket brimming with beer cans and water.

At first blush, the sauna does not feel so blistering. (”It’s got proper airflow so you don’t feel like somebody is putting a blowtorch in your face,” said Erik “Erkki” Lindstrom, who built the embassy sauna in 1994.) Its walls are built from Virginia pine logs, and its benches are made from boards of African obechi wood. (”It’s cool to sit on,” Lindstrom explained in a phone interview.) An electric heater in the corner warms 200 pounds of igneous rocks and, according to a thermometer on the wall, raises the room’s temperature to about 190 degrees.

Dousing the rocks with water, or, as Mokko sometimes does, beer, causes an overwhelming wave of löyly (”the steam that comes off the stones,” Mokko translated), but the temperature stays the same. (”It’s like an August summer in D.C.,” Lindstrom said. “When you have 100 percent humidity, it’s going to get bad.”)

The men picked out spots on the upper benches (”Whoa!” someone yelled. “Scorch them berries!”), and the sweating started instantly. Mokko added water, the stones shushed and the men groaned. The aluminum tops of the beer cans scorched their lips, and the surface swigs grew warm. The heat slowly slackened postures, and, after some serious-sounding talk about the current American-Israeli crisis, loosened tongues. Discussion turned to Donald Rumsfeld’s socks, UFOs and things that cannot be printed in a family newspaper. Mokko, whose bare legs dangled beside the water pot, splashed the rocks and caused another gust of steam.

“I might jump in the shower real quick,” Block said. Bruzelius, who had an appointment to undergo medical testing for sleep apnea that evening, followed. (”He slept great!” Weil, Bruzelius’s wife, later reported.) Landler, Mackey and Mokko succumbed soon after. Solomon was the last to leave, about 25 minutes after entering, and emerged from the changing room with the same peaceful look as his fellow sauna society members.

“I’ve never seen a person exit the sauna angry,” Mokko said.

The Sauna Is… by Bernard Hillila – book review

Glenn — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:53:55 +0000

A few excerpts from his 1979 book:

Time: “The sauna was not built for saving time, but for spending it well.”
Honesty: “Perhaps the setting is conducive to honesty and getting at the bare facts of an issue: rank and status disappear with the clothing, and one must communicate simply as one imperfect individual who must accept another individual.”
Sleep: “After a sauna one does not worry about insomnia. And one doesn’t need a prescription for a tranquilizer.”
Scalp: “Bathing… in sauna is, in fact, and excellent first step for good scalp care, which contributes to healthy hair.”
Skin: “The sauna does give the skin an aura, and it is said that a woman looks her most beautiful an hour after sauna. In the sauna… dead skin is removed, and live skin is rejuvenated.”
“In this age of slick promotion, the concept of the sauna has at times been misunderstood and misrepresented.”
“The acme of the sauna experience is achieved when the shower is replaced by a dip into a lake and when one can sit outside in the altogether, dried by unpolluted breezes. Some brave souls enjoy a roll in the snow or a dip into a hole in an ice covered lake. While contemplating such an experience can be a shock, the sensation itself is delightful.”
“Many persons find it particularly enjoyable to combine exercise and sauna bathing. A good workout in tennis, swimming, bowling, or jogging, followed by relaxing and cleansing heat, is a most satisfying experience.”
“In Finland it is very natural to ask friends or neighbors to come for sauna. As more Americans build saunas, this custom will develop naturally.”
“In the sauna a very unusual combination of processes develops: a person sits peacefully at rest while his blood vessels, nerves, and glands work hard. After such an experience, the person may well feel that he has had a strenuous workout, even though he has been quite relaxed and at ease. It is difficult to gain a greater senses of physical renewal than that which is provided by this unique combination of exertion and rest.”

“There is no rigidly prescribed procedure – one should use the style he enjoys most.”

Minnesota sauna

Glenn — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:36:54 +0000

I get sauna inquiries well beyond Minnesota.

Estonia, Canada, Finland, even some guy named Apou from India, oh, wait, scratch that one, he was trying to sell me Viagara really cheap. What is exciting is how a centuries old tradition from a relatively small country, Finland, has spread and blossomed to far reaches of the world.

Saunas in Minnesota are a logical thing:

Minnesota has a big Finnish population. Daryl Lamppa is a third generation Finnish sauna stove maker. He personally welds and inspects EVERY sauna he makes in his Northern Minnesota factory. His craftsmanship is a jewel to Minnesota, and the sauna tradition. Here’s his website.
Minnesota shares a climate ideal for saunas. Saunas evolved out of necessity. In a climate below freezing 5 months of the year, with no running water, inventive Finns learned how to bathe and recreate, creating the sauna experience. Here in Minnesota, some think we have two seasons: winter and July 4th.
Minnesota has over 10,000 lakes to jump into after a sauna round. In the movie “Bucket List”, Jack Nicholson convinces Morgan Freeman to skydive. If Nicholson’s last name was Hankkennnen or similar, I think he’d have jumping through a hole in the ice on his bucket list.

If you live in Minnesota, a Finnish sauna is probably not too far away. This winter, 2009-10, click here for an up to date schedule of where you can experience my first mobile Finnish sauna at an event near you!

If you don’t live in Minnesota and want to experience an authentic Finnish sauna, I have a great idea for you: click here for how to build your own Finnish sauna.

Sauna: what’s your favorite temperature?

Glenn — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:31:58 +0000

There is lots of discussion about sauna temperature. Some like their sauna at around 200 degrees f. Others enjoy their sauna around 145 degrees f. That can be quite a range, but a friend of mine said it best:

“The perfect sauna temperature is one that gives you 10-15 minutes of comfortable relaxation.”

That about sums it up. I find that a 10-15 minute round is ideal. It gets your body temperature up, you start sweating, can feel the release of toxins, your muscles relaxing, and your pours opening up.

There is this machoness to sauna temperatures, where some try to drive others out with overwhelming heat. But a sauna is all about what makes you comfy, not Sven with a silly grin tossing water on the rocks to try to drive you out. However, sometimes Sven gets it right, a nice blast of water on the rocks and riding it out is as exhilarating as that jump into a cold lake.

Above is my favorite sauna thermometer.

It looks nice and is easy to read in the dim light of a sauna.
It has a hydrometer: fun sometimes to know where you’re at humidity wise.
It shows temperature in both Fahrenheit and Celsius, good for both you and Sven.

Mobile Sauna Festival, Teuva Finland 8 August 2009

Glenn — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:36:44 +0000

I would like to organize an American delegation to join the 6,000 plus Finns that will be at the 2010 Mobile Sauna Festival. If anyone has a lead on sponsorship or airline tix, shoot me an email.. here’s the scoop:

“In tiny Teuva Municipality in the West Coast of Finland, mobile saunas get together at beginning of August. There are only two rules for the saunas. First they have to be mobilised and secondly they have to be so big, that one person can bath in the sauna. Every year there shall be some new sauna participators. There are no tickets, so you are welcome to join us. However for car park there shall charge of 2 euros.

In year 2008 there were 37 saunas and about 2000 persons. In year 2009 there were even more: 47 saunas and about 6000 persons. This event for all sauna friends was first time in the center of Teuva in year 2006 with 18 saunas and second time in Parra in year 2007 with 37 saunas.

Please bring your own towel and swimsuit and entire family along with you! One should be old enough to enjoy a sauna on their own to avoid any mishaps. However it becomes ones own responsibility in case of any mishap. ”

Glenn’s note: In the Finnish translation, they call it ”mishap” i call it “escort guests to the property line.”

Kids in the sauna

Glenn — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:22:57 +0000

“Ummm.. I think I want to take another round.”

My 10 year old had a friend over. My son is no stranger to the sauna, but it was his friend’s first authentic Finnish sauna experience. I thought i’d sit quietly on the bench and see how he took to it. After a good amount of time on the upper sauna bench, they escaped the hot room to prance around under the outdoor backyard shower.

After a bit of standing around steaming in the crisp air of an early fall night, my son asks.. “so, what do you want to do now?” There was a whole list of things they could have chosen: TV, computer games, etc. etc. but a smile came to my face when I heard: “Ummm.. I think I want to take another round.”

Taking a sauna with kids is a great way to reconnect: unplug from the screen, sit together and share an experience of simplistic therapy. A virtual escape to a vintage cabin without electricty and distractions: share stories, or just sit quietly. It’s the simple moments of parenting that count. Family psychologists talk about the importance of eating a meal as a family, as a time when parents and their children can reconnect, and i’ll offer that a sauna presents the same opportunity. If you’ve ever heard your child, or your child’s friend say , “Ummm.. I think I want to take another round” you’ll know what I mean.

Sauna Benefit #14: Community

Glenn — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:29:07 +0000

Our cabin sits on an island in Northern MN. There’s a little foot path connecting a bunch of cabins along the Eastern shore. We have our own sauna of course, but my 10 year old and I often trek down the path to join a few others in “the Birmingham Sauna.”

Why do we go there? The unemployment rate may have jumped, housing sales may have dropped, Michael Jackson may have died, but at that moment, sitting pensively in a sauna on an island on a lake 240 miles from Minneapolis, all that interests us is:

Water pump from the lake: “how did you set yours up?”
Duluth: “can you pick me up a box of 2 1/2″ deck screws?”
Fishing: “Jack caught a twenty four incher off Comet last week.”

May sound a tad trite, but where do you go find your community?

Rainy day sauna at the cabin

Glenn — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:46:42 +0000

Not sure where it came from, but hanging on our cabin wall is a little sign that reads:

cabin (ka ben) n. 1. a place where Minnesotans go every weekend to spend two days waiting for the fish to bite, the bugs to go away, and the sun to come out. written by Lori Olson c. 1985

Now, i’m not about to start picking away at her glass half empty typical Minnesotan style, Garrison Keillor would be proud. What I will take to task, however, is that one need not sit looking out the window wishing for the sun to come out. Weather happens whether we wish, will, or whine about it. With a sauna, a rainy day is a WONDERFUL day.

Every cabin/cottage should have a sauna, an insurance policy against cabin fever and Murphy’s Law. Chances are a family reunion will fall on a weekend when a misty morning builds into a downpour by dinner. We’ve turned a long rainy day into a wild fun party, speakers turned out the windows, floaty toys bobbing around the dock, and even an awesome game of Bocce Ball, all in the rain, thanks to the sauna, humming along, providing warmth and joy and a new outlook on a rainy day.

Does your cabin/cottage have a sauna? If not, what is your weather insurance policy?

Food: What do you eat after a sauna?

Glenn — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:23:24 +0000

We have the drinking water issue covered in this post here, but what do you like to eat after a long sauna party? I have experienced folks who dive enthusiastically into a candy bar (very American) and Finn’s traditionally break bread and slice up salty makkara sausage, but for me, I’ve refined my after sauna food to:

Pretzels – little sodium replenishment and no oily fats.
Cheese – dairy protein jives much better at night than meat protein.
Fruit – natural vitamins and fiber via Granny Smith apples or any fresh fruit.

These three foods work well together, without any red dye #5 or poly-splenda-msg-benzoate.

I sleep great after this light snack… Any other suggestions?