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.

Chris, my friend in spirit at saunascape.com, grabbed this:

5 Simple Sauna Rules

NOT a spitoon. Photo by fooishbar on Flickr

The Chicago Tribune’s hip social news outfit, Red Eye Royalty has a post, 5 simple sauna rules. They are rules we can all live by:

1. Don’t SPIT on the sauna rocks!
2. Get permission before you turn up the heat!
3. Hurry up and close the door!
4. Don’t wear street shoes!
5. Never sit bare bottom! (“What makes you think someone wants to sit in a puddle of your booty juice?”) – General, that means you!

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:

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.

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:

1. Drink a big glass of water before going into sauna.  Stay hydrated throughout.  This encourages sweat and wards off dehydration.
2. Wear as little as possible.  Whatever you are comfy getting wet.
3. Have a towel handy for drying off when you’re all done.
4. Enter the hot room.  Most people stick around for 10-15 minutes.  Toss a bit of water on the sauna rocks, if desired.
5. Getting too hot?  Try sitting on the lower bench and work up to:
6. Go outside and dump water over your body or jump in the lake.
7. Stay outside and cool off, let your body equalize for a few minutes.
8. 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.

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.