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Jakarta gets into the authentic Finnish sauna game.

March 2, 2013 By Glenn Leave a Comment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desi Anwar visits Finland, gets taken to around to see saunas and naked butts, then pushes herself toward experiencing the authentic sauna experience.  Her article here for the Jakarta Globe reminds me of a conversation recently while cooling down on the outside deck of an authentic Finnish sauna with a great outdoor chill out zone:

“You hear about people loving the sauna at their health club.  Where do they go to cool down?  Can you imagine how they’d feel about sauna if they could experience THIS!?”

Cool air tingling on the skin while moonlight casts shadows against heavy steam billowing off the body.

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An authentic sauna enthusiast chimes in

February 12, 2013 By Glenn 3 Comments

Below is an email received today from Mike in Wisconsin.

This is why we do Saunatimes: building a tribe of sauna enthusiasts who overcome their lizard brain, and put their own dent in their universe, making something happen for themselves that embraces:

  • Health and wellness.
  • Escape.
  • Fun.

These are the three pillars that keep saunatimes afloat, from our inception four years ago, amidst all the misconceptions of what sauna is, its false claims, and marketing theater.  Thanks Mike for joining our tribe.

Enter Mike:

“I have been reading your blog for a couple years now.  I love your humor and insight.  Our kids are a bit older now, and we were at a crossroads of whether to put more money into our house in Wisconsin or move.  We agreed to stay put, and I have to say, your website influenced our decision!  My wife doesn’t enjoy sauna as much as me, but our two children love sauna – we get to use my uncle’s cabin from time to time and kids love taking multiple sauna rounds there.

Anyhow, we were so liberated to hear about how to add an outdoor sauna to our backyard.  It makes so much sense!  We both work, and facing traffic on weekends and holidays has become such a strain on us. We would arrive at my Uncle’s cabin whipped out and spend all day Sunday dreading the trip home.

My wife wanted to look at moving somewhere warmer.  She was fed up with winter.  We read on your site about how other people with saunas love winter.  We wondered if they are crazy or if it’s true.  I have to tell you.. it’s true!  We all love winter now!

So, we started with what you said, some string and four sticks, and we staked out an outdoor sauna space in our backyard.  We followed your 8′x12′ plan, and my wife designed a deck courtyard area in our back corner lot.  We had a shed company build the structure and me and a friend finished the interior.  Not sure if you remembered me, but I emailed you a few times and you were great about answering my questions.

My brother has plenty of wood on his property, and so built a wood burning outdoor sauna… what a great decision!

I can’t begin to tell you how much we love our outdoor sauna.  Kids bring friends over – they all say we have the coolest backyard in town.  We look forward to checking the weather and cross our fingers for fresh snow.  Twice now, i’ve taken off work early to be home for snow storms.  We love to hunker down in our backyard and sauna, watching the snow fly and doing snow angels.

My wife used to suffer from lower back pain.  She started going to yoga, and she tries to use the sauna more too.  Her back is much better.  I find I work out more frequently.  I used to use the health club sauna, but now, I hit the gym on my way home from work, and avoid the smelly health club sauna completely.  What a difference my sauna is compared to the health club sauna!  I’m thinking about buying an exercise bike and losing the health club membership.

We can’t wait for spring.  I”m hooking up an outdoor shower like you suggest (that was one of the first articles I remember reading from you).  Thanks for all your work on your website.  If you’re ever in the Milwaukee area, please come sauna!”

EDITOR: Here’s a few links to posts that Mike talked about:

Sauna in the snow.

Bring the family together.

Building your own sauna – where to start.

Kids in the sauna.

Build your own backyard shower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Top 5 reasons why your own sauna is better than a deadbeat health club sauna.

February 18, 2012 By Glenn 1 Comment

5. Temperature: At home, you control it.  At a health club sauna, it’s all a subject for chatter.

4. Congestion. Some health club saunas are as busy as the bathrooms at O’hare airport.  Your own sauna is as tranquil as canoeing in the Boundary Waters.  And you get to pick who you want to come along for the ride.

3. Sounds. Some prefer quiet in sauna, others prefer positive musical vibrations.  With your own sauna, you control it.  And you can control the conversation – no politics.  Is it just me or do all strangers in health club saunas suffer from post nasal drip?  “Hey dude, stop your hacking.”

2. Outdoor Chill Out. Fresh air is part of being healthy.  What a crime that all health club saunas don’t allow for an outdoor chill out area.  The Rubber Band Theory of Sauna confirms the magical moments of the clean rinse and steam billowing off one’s body whilst in the misty garden all wet with rain.

1. Loyly: Steam from water being tossed on sauna rocks.  Without it , it’s akin to trying to enjoy biking when all you do is ride around in circles in your garage.  You may get a sweat going, but you’re missing the full experience.  Wet sauna?  Dry sauna?  there is no such thing.  All sauna stoves are made to take water.

GOOD NEWS: If you enjoy taking a sauna at your health club, you are going to really enjoy an authentic Finnish sauna.

It’s time to get out of the garage.

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“Sauna’s too hot”, “turn up the heat!”: One simple suggestion for a health club manager.

December 9, 2011 By Glenn 4 Comments

Are you a member of a health club?  I bit the bullet and joined one.  This health club sauna is as bright as a hospital room: walls tiled floor to ceiling, and there’s the imposing rules and regulations sign, including the buzz kill: “do not toss or spit water on sauna rocks.”

Post workout yesterday, cautiously, I  enter the sauna joining a guy fully clothed wearing headphones bobbing along to Lady Gaga or similar: more buzz kill.  A third guy enters.  An old school guy who’se developed the art of taking a swig of water and spitting it like a hose out his mouth onto the sauna rocks.  I’m debated whether to whistle the guy out, but a little Loyly is welcome, albeit mixed with his saliva.

Next comes the ranting:  “This sauna’s too cold.  They have a suggestion box, you know.  If enough people complain..”  It’s 175f.   I decide to argue the point with him, explaining that if they crank it up, others will complain that it’s too hot.  He resigns himself to:”can’t please everybody, I guess.”

Sure you can.

Heat rises.

All Health club saunas should be built with triple benches. The Lady Gaga guy can sit in his track suit on the lower bench, others can moderate in the middle bench, and this guy can spit water to his heart’s content up by the ceiling on the upper bench.

Next dream?  The tile saw, blazing a hole to the outdoors, to a fresh air chill out zone, where after a clean rinse, members can embrace the rubber band theory raising their hands in the air like Andy Dufresne escaping from Shawshank Prison.

Saunatimes will continue to wave the flag for folks to build their own backyard sauna.  Life’s too short.  Let’s go.  Let me help you escape to your own authentic Finnish sauna.

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Three tips for hotel sauna or health club sauna

September 22, 2011 By Glenn 1 Comment

Like most sports or hobbies, using quality gear the right way propels enjoyment and satisfaction:

  • Bicycling: $100 bike shorts and you can go 80 miles without your ass on fire.
  • Canoeing: light kevlar canoe and you can portage to Montana.
  • Yoga: the right teacher and your body and mind are in synch vs. feeling like you’ve just hung sheet rock for 8 hours.

Same gig with sauna.   One’s appreciation and enjoyment of the authentic sauna experience is heightened by good technique and a good sauna.  Unfortunately, most hotel saunas and health club saunas are lame.  What’s worse, most hotel saunas and health club saunas are in environments of huge compromise, antithesis of nature and fresh air .  Three Tips:

  1. Cold water plunge.  The temptation is to turn the shower to lukewarm.  Avoid this, take as cold of a shower as you can handle.  This is important for maximizing the rubber band theory of sauna.
  2. Cool down between rounds.  Sit outside between rounds.  March through the hotel lobby in your towel and seek a cool spot outside for cool down.  Avoid the self consciousness of looking like a dork.  Nobody cares.   Fresh air is important for the cool down, body and mind.  You paid to be there, it’s not your fault they haven’t provided a nice outdoor courtyard.  Bring a beer with you.
  3. It’s ok to be a Low Bench Larry. When tossing water on sauna rocks, hotel saunas and health club saunas often suffer from burning “ouch” vs. Loyly “ahh”.   A good sauna round is 10 minutes or so in the hot room, and equal time cooling down.  With an all on or all off extreme of electric sauna stoves, sometimes the low bench is how one can ride out the burning sensation of water on the sauna rocks.

So, like an expensive road bike, or kevlar canoe or high end yoga classes, we sauna enthusiasts have chosen to build our own saunas – our backyard sauna, or cabin sauna for our own health and wellness satisfaction in the misty garden all wet with rain.

No guru, no method, no teacher, just you and I in nature.

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