Sauna How To | Saunatimes

Sauna and revolving doors

March 19, 2010 By Glenn Leave a Comment

Seth Godin is one of my favorite current writers. He applies metaphors in a way that makes me smile. He’s from my home town, Buffalo NY, and I like to think he has gained insight and wisdom from our common humble origins.

His metaphor on change and revolution is exactly the right metaphor for when folks discover the authentic Finnish sauna experience:

It’s like watching a confused person in a revolving door for the first time. They push backwards, try to slow it down, fight the rotation… and then they embrace the process and just walk and it works.

Filed Under: Philosophy, Sauna how to

Backyard sauna: first outdoor shower of the season

March 15, 2010 By Glenn Leave a Comment

March 14, 2010. Who would believe it?

Ah, outdoor shower: welcome back, and about a few weeks early to boot! I laid out my garden hose in the spring sun, softening it up, then hooked it up to my backyard shower. Happy to report that even in a cold climate like Minnesota, one can enjoy an outdoor shower 8 months of the year. Here’s my post on the last outdoor shower of the year.

Everyone should have their own outdoor shower, and here’s a way to rig one up for $15.00.

Filed Under: Building a sauna, Product reviews, Sauna how to

How do you take a sauna?

January 6, 2010 By Glenn 1 Comment

What is this?

This is an authentic wood burning Finnish sauna. Northern Europeans have been taking part in this ritual for centuries.

How is this sauna different?

Experience the wood burning sauna stove. It was hand welded and crafted by a third generation Finnish stove maker, Lamppa Manufacturing, Tower, MN. The stove weighs over 300 lbs. and has about 80 lbs. of special rocks that hold thermal mass. This creates a different sort of heat, one that naturally radiates through the body and produces negative ions for a natural, therapeutic experience, offering many unparalleled benefits.

What are the benefits of an authentic Finnish sauna?

1. Health and wellness: Sauna therapy is perhaps the best way to detoxify, ridding one’s body of slow metabolizing bad stuff. Saunas rejuvenate, clear and promote healthy skin. Alternating between the sauna room and outside, saunas help with respiration Saunas are great for muscle relaxation, whether stiff from a cold winter day or exercise.

2. Escape: beyond the physical benefits, sauna therapy is great for stress relief. Imagine having your own cabin escape right in your backyard. No driving, no big mortgage, just a “staycation” where you can turn a corner of your backyard into an enjoyable working asset, a place for social interaction with family and friends.

3. Green: with a small solar panel, this entire unit can be ‘off the grid’. It is efficiently wood heated with minimal smoke output. Today I am heating using Minnesota red oak, harvested from private land.

How do I take a sauna?

The cool thing is that there are few rules to a sauna. A few basic suggestions:

Drink a big glass of water before going into sauna. Stay hydrated throughout. This encourages sweat and wards off dehydration.
Wear as little as possible. Whatever you are comfy getting wet.
Have a towel handy for drying off when you’re all done.
Enter the hot room. Most people stick around for 10-15 minutes. Toss a bit of water on the sauna rocks, if desired.
Getting too hot? Try sitting on the lower bench and work up to:
Go outside and dump water over your body or jump in the lake.
Stay outside and cool off, let your body equalize for a few minutes.
Repeat 1-7.

Oh, and keep the sauna door closed!

Disclosure

By reading this, you are using this sauna at your own risk, if you feel faint leave the sauna immediately. The sauna stove is very hot and if you touch it you will get burned. Please look at but do NOT touch.

Filed Under: Health and wellness, Product reviews, Sauna how to

Sauna: what's your favorite temperature?

October 31, 2009 By Glenn 1 Comment

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.

Filed Under: Product reviews, Sauna Culture, Sauna how to

Food: What do you eat after a sauna?

June 3, 2009 By Glenn 7 Comments

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?

Filed Under: Health and wellness, Sauna Culture, Sauna how to, Sauna party

Saunas: the power of the number three

April 4, 2009 By Glenn 2 Comments

There are so many “threes” relating to saunas:

Three major attributes of saunas.

Health and Wellness
Escape
Fun

Three sauna rounds make for a complete sauna.

Round 1: heat up and cold rinse
Round 2: induce loyly (steam), sweat heavy, and cold rinse
Round 3: sweat heavy, muscle stretch, skin cleanse and clean rinse

When you build your own sauna, consider the three zones for optimal sauna enjoyment

sauna room: 7′ high ceiling max. optimize your cubic footage, consider bench height.
changing room: lots of hooks, music and small fridge for cold water and beverages, good flow.
outdoor patio: outdoor shower, nice sitting area to chill out and look at the stars, privacy, buffer.

Three beers make for a good sauna party.

Three guests make for a fun sauna party.

Three hours is about how long a good sauna party lasts.

Ever heard the one about fish and guests both start to stink after three days? 3 saunas a week can minimize this.

Filed Under: Building a sauna, Health and wellness, Philosophy, Sauna Culture, Sauna how to, Sauna party

Hotel sauna: how to take one

March 18, 2009 By Glenn 5 Comments

Ever notice how many hotel saunas seem neglected and underutilized? Well, whether you take a hotel sauna solo, or share the hotel sauna with a talkative shower curtain salesman, or end up sitting next to someone like this girl, try following this plan:

1. As soon as you check in: Go to the hotel sauna and turn it on full blast. Make note if there’s a shower in the area, or if this girl needs a drink.

2. Check into your room. Unpack, check email etc. After 20 minutes or so, grab the ice bucket or small plastic garbage can from your room (leave the poly bag) and return to the hotel sauna.

3. Flush the hotel sauna. Generously douse with fresh water:

the bench area where you’ll be sitting.
the hotel sauna rocks with water (they should bark back, if not, the sauna is lame, call housekeeping if you’re especially irritated).
anywhere else you feel the urge.

Why? underused hotel saunas can build up dust and stagnation, this ‘cleansing’ will get your hotel sauna fresh and ready to rock.

4. Crank the hotel sauna timer again and go work out for half an hour or go for a walk.

When you return to the hotel sauna a third time, it should be 150 degrees plus, clean and fresh, and recovered from the shower you gave it.

5. Take a first round: keep it dry. Try sitting in the hotel sauna 15 minutes or so, relaxing, and just chill out from your road trip. No water on the rocks, but drink plenty of water. When you feel the urge, douse some water on the rocks and try riding out that storm. Don’t throw too much water on the sauna rocks, and don’t rush out of the hotel sauna from the blast of steam. Take the lower bench if necessary. Be gentle when tossing water on sauna rocks, not a bull in a china shop. It’s better to toss some water on the rocks two times than it is throwing too much water on the rocks the first time. Enjoy the Loyly (steam from water on the rocks). Loyly is your friend. When you’ve had enough:

6. Cold shower plunge. Hit the shower and have it as cold as you can stand it. Don’t bother drying off, let the water steam up on your skin. Find a cool place to sit, do NOT return to the hotel sauna immediately after showering. Let your body cool. I’ve been known to march through a hotel lobby, through the front doors and sit outside on a cold Wisconsin night. Most hotel saunas have pools and most pools have a door to the outside. This is an excellent place to chill out for a hotel sauna experience. TIP: Here’s a good spot to stash an ice bucket with a couple of Wisconsin beers.

7. Return to the hotel sauna. Now you can toss water on the rocks, right away. All that water you were drinking during your first round starts escaping through your pores, cleaning your skin naturally. Ride this round out in similar fashion, shower again, and return to your outdoor chill area.

It’s like the instructions on a box of laundry detergent: sauna, rinse, chill, repeat.

8. Dry off after your final round (I always take at least 3 sauna rounds) and your ready to hit the town or your pillow back in the hotel room.

Filed Under: Sauna how to

Sauna party: Friday afternoons

March 7, 2009 By Glenn 1 Comment

Some like saunas in the mornings, others before bed, and most enjoy a nice sauna after a workout or running. Not all these times are sauna party times. However, I think a great time for a sauna party is a Friday afternoon.

A Friday afternoon sauna party is a great time to wind down, getting your work week over and some closure to the ‘to do list’ of the week. A great precursor to a sauna party is finishing all your work stuff!
A Friday afternoon sauna party is a great primer for your evening plans: whether it’s heading out to dinner or over to friends or even to another sauna party! It’s great to get clean and refreshed for your Friday night’s activities, or just wear a bathrobe over to your next sauna party.
A Friday afternoon sauna party may just be a party on it’s own. I’ve had Friday afternoon sauna parties that bleed nicely into the evening. Order a pizza, or fire up the grill and invite more friends. This sauna party AS a party is a traditional thing in Scandinavia. Look for more information on sauna parties, and traditional Finnish style on a later post.

I love Friday nights. Knocking off work and hitting the sauna by 4 pm on Friday is a ritual for me. It’s a party on it’s own.

Filed Under: Sauna how to, Sauna party

Jumping in the snow: why it's good

March 1, 2009 By Glenn 1 Comment

Why not jump in the snow after a 15-20 minute sauna round?

The snow melts on your hot body and makes for a terrific cleansing wash.
It gets you breathing and exhilarating like the coolest Hawaiian waterfall plunge.
It makes you feel like snow and winter ain’t all that bad of a thing!

Caution: Just as you wouldn’t jump into a lake unless you knew how deep it was, I encourage you to tread lightly into the snow:

jumping in fresh snow is preferred. Older snow crystallizes and can cut soft sauna skin like a knife: very much ouch and an end to a great sauna party.
I suggest sitting down in the snow, butt first, then laying back, using your hands to toss some fresh snow on your front. Akin to making a snow angel. It’s easier to get up from this position as well.
The sit down in the snow method also isn’t such an aggressive immersion. You can control how much snow and where.

A little snow on your head feels great, especially as it melts down your body.

You stand outside looking at the moon, and as steam billows off you think with a smile: “damn that felt good”, and the cool thing is that you can go do it all again. As your body equalizes, you grab a beer and without haste, work your way back into the sauna room.

Filed Under: Sauna how to, Weather

Water and the sauna: drinking

February 21, 2009 By Glenn 2 Comments

Drink a big glass of water before you go in the sauna.
Bring a full liter plastic jug of water to the sauna, drink most of it during your first round.
Finish your water during the second round.

That’s my recipe. Get ahead of the game, lots of water in your system promotes sweat and diffuses dehydration.

If you go to bed soon after your sauna, you don’t have to navigate to the toilet in the middle of the night, especially if you’ve had a couple of beers during your sauna session.

Clint tip: sparkling water gets into the system faster.
Julia tip: stick with still water, ‘carbon bubbles: no good for liver mon!’

Here’s a sister post, about eating after a sauna, cheers~!

Filed Under: Health and wellness, Sauna how to