You are here: Home / Archives for how to

Packing List: 10 Must-Haves for a Swedish Sauna

May 17, 2013 By Glenn Leave a Comment

With just a bar of soap, many are able to bathe just fine in the sauna.

The body self moisturizes, especially with wet hair to start.  Further, sauna enjoyed with a clean rinse after every sauna round will leave one cleaner and fresher than any combination of products purchased at Walgreen’s.

We love the thought of a good book whilst cooling down in the misty garden all wet with rain.  Free Falling as if in a Dream for sure.

Click here for the wonderfully simple list, albeit with a little product placement.

Filed Under: Sauna how to Tagged With: ,

Microbursts: sauna therapy explored on a cold windy day.

May 13, 2013 By Glenn 1 Comment

There is a small yet enthusiastic faction of the Twin City Sauna Club that gathered this past week by the shores of a crystal clear lake outside Spooner, WI.

While experiencing an extra biting cold Northwest wind, the sauna flow evolved into microbursts:

  1. go in hot room.
  2. toss a generous shot of water on the sauna rocks.
  3. heat quick.
  4. go outside.
  5. cool down.
  6. do it again.

After 8 vigorous sauna rounds, one feels relaxed, liberated and free.

There are few rules to sauna.

wicked cold northwest winds and a slow ice out: great weather recipe for microbursts.

 

Filed Under: Sauna how to Tagged With: ,

A great sauna routine for an even better night’s sleep

November 17, 2012 By Glenn Leave a Comment

I’ve had a dialogue with someone who was put on steroids for a couple of weeks for a medical condition.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Any side effects?” I ask the doctor.  “Take them in the morning, you may be a bit jittery and sleepless at night.”  Boy was he not kidding!  It was awful!! , yet luckily, after a little trial and error:

 

  • Days I didn’t exercise – I slept terrible.
  • Days I just exercised – I was pretty restless, not a good night’s sleep.
  • Days I exercised and sauna – I slept great.

Glenn’s sleep well sauna routine:

  • 4-5 pm: exercise. (rigorous outdoor running, biking, chopin’ wood, carrying water).
  • 5-7 pm: sauna.  Three rounds, clean rinse and allow for generous time for cool down between rounds.
  • 7-8 pm: dinner. Click here for four great recipe’s for post sauna satisfaction.
  • 8-10 pm: relax. If you can make it ’til 10, you may need some help getting shoveled into bed.

Additional hints:

  • Limit booze intake. The three beer sauna is sure enjoyable, yet if the focus is getting a good night sleep, tone it down.
  • Plenty of water. But cut that out after 8 pm.  Maybe a cup of sleepy time tea, but let all the fluids get through your body a couple hours before you go to bed.
  • Nothing over stimulating before bed. Scrabble game, yes.  Silence of the Lambs, no.

Sauna works excellent for sleeping disorders, showing repeated proven results.  Sauna is healthy and natural, and seems to do a wonderful job counteracting mental, emotional, AND physical issues that prohibit one to sleep well.  In the example of the reader taking steroids, exercise alone didn’t help much.  The sauna routine most likely helped “push” the drugs through his system, allowing the drugs to do what they were prescribed to do, and then getting washed out of the body.   Sweat rids toxins and chemicals in the body, oh, and he reported that he got better before the two week steroid prescription period.

How much is a good night’s sleep worth to you?

 

Filed Under: Health and wellness Tagged With: , , , ,

Sauna rules are few, as confirmed by Finland sauna guide

December 18, 2011 By Glenn Leave a Comment

The Guardian published this article yesterday, reporting on winter travel to Finland.  The journalist was escorted around by Ritva, a sauna guide “plucked from retirement by the tourist office.”

The sauna guide confirmed that “golden sauna rules are: only ever stay in as long as you want. And remember to shut the door.”

In a world of rules, regulations, and how to books, isn’t that refreshing?

Filed Under: Articles, Sauna how to Tagged With: , , ,

Sauna Party: April 2nd 2009, Minneapolis, MN USA

April 6, 2009 By Glenn 7 Comments

Ever threw a party and nobody showed?  Ever threw a party and everybody showed?  Well we had 10 at this sauna party.  Most sauna parties flow well with 4-5, but double the bodies, you’d think it would be log jam in the sauna.  However, we had flow.  If you want to have a big sauna party, I encourage you to:

  1. Set your sauna party date far in advance, so folks can get it on their calendars.
  2. Set your sauna party for a time and date that is easy for people.  This sauna party was on a Thursday, and most folks had Friday off work.
  3. Remind your invitees personally of the upcoming sauna party with a phone call or two and a personal email.
  4. Keep your sauna stove hot.  More bodies and more in and out traffic can cool your sauna faster.

My sauna in Minneapolis is NOT a big sauna (about 6′x7′).  However, what works with my sauna is flow.  A good sauna party is as much the vibe in other spaces as in the sauna room.  I took a moment a couple times throughout the night to analyze the sauna party flow, and here is a typical snap shot:

  • 4 people in the sauna room.
  • 2 people talking outside by the shower after a sauna round.
  • 2 people playing ping pong between sauna rounds.  (I had set up my ping pong table in the garage).
  • 1 person trying to talk to me, as I walked around and counted what everyone else was doing.

How can a 6×7 sauna keep up with 10 sauna enthusiasts?  Well, I encourage you to do the sauna party math:

SAUNA PARTY EQUATION:

  1. take the number of people at your sauna party
  2. multiply by 3 (avg. number of rounds for a good sauna session)
  3. multiply by 1/3  (avg. sauna round is about 20 minutes or 1/3 hr.)
  4. divided by total hours of your sauna party (my sauna parties usually run from 9 pm – midnight)
  5. equal average number in your sauna at one time.

marzo-cumple-sauna_3-party01

10 people x 3 rounds x 1/3 hour / 3 hours = 3.333 people in the sauna at one time.  Perfect.

The great thing about a sauna party is that people are free to do what they want, when they want, and can mix conversation with others at the sauna party.  It’s like one of those cocktail parties where the host puts numbers under the chairs and has people divide into odd and even and play charades.   You don’t need such chenanigans with a sauna party.  Like it says on the laundry detergent box:  Heat up, rinse, cool down, visit, repeat.

Filed Under: Events, Sauna Culture, Sauna party Tagged With: , ,