Members of the Twin City Sauna Club will be gathering in the 5621 outdoor sauna to celebrate this May Arctic blast.What is your crappy weather insurance policy?
Is it time for you to consider your own authentic Finnish sauna? Life is short. The benefits are many. The enjoyment is extensive. Come join our authentic sauna tribe.
Jeff Tweedy, Wilco, during Bayfront Park show, Duluth Minnesota, Summer 2012. I'd think Jeff would surely enjoy a nice relaxing sauna session after his performances.
Whilst enjoying sauna, many enjoy solitude.
Perhaps interrupted by intermittent soft conversation, often times just one or two words. Once, in Scandinavia, I went an entire sauna round, the only word spoken was “ya” in response to another pointing at the sauna rocks with the water ladle.
Music, however, seems to be striking positive vibrations in sauna. Especially the Friday Happy Hour sauna. A good practice may be to encourage sauna guests to submit an album of their choice to be part of a sauna party playlist. Thanks to Rhapsody, Spotify, and the ease of music streaming services, a few albums can be added to a sauna playlist, then shuffled, creating an eclectic, collaborative, fresh musical experience.
Music and sauna has been discussed here, here, and here.
What sauna tunes can you recommend?
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:
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.
“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!”
Building your own sauna – where to start.
Build your own backyard shower.
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:
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:
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:
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.
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