Swimming and sauna: they are like peanut butter and jelly. they go hand in hand.
While sitting on the bench, the time to leave the hot room is usually when the idea of an ice cold lake swim is about the best idea you’ve ever heard.
Cold swimming in all seasons between rounds: it’s what we do.
If you like swimming, you probably dig sauna.
Water Is Part of the Deal
Some people, when they go on sauna tours through any number of Sauna Circuits around the world, never use the shower in their Airbnb.
Why would you?
The cold-water element is part of the whole thing. It is integral to good sauna action.
You get hot.
You get sweaty.
You get out.
And you go swim.
Maybe it is a lake. Maybe the ocean. Maybe a cold plunge. Maybe just a cold shower.
But what’s key is that we flush our pores completely. And typically 3-5 cycles. We never feel cleaner then after we swim after sauna rounds.
If you like swimming, you probably dig sauna.
Comfortable in Water
I think there is something about being comfortable in water that makes the transition from hot to cold feel natural.
If you already swim regularly, jumping into cold water after sauna doesn’t necessarily feel like some crazy challenge. It feels like part of the tapestry.
Water is familiar.
For me, since diapers, swimming has always been in my DNA. You get in the water and a lot of the other stuff in your head seems to go away.
No phone.
No emails.
No list of things to do.
Into the rhythm, and into the mystic.
Heat up. Swim & cool down. Rest. Repeat.
Water, nature and time
I’ve always thought there are three important ingredients to a good cool down:
Water. Nature. Time.
Water cools you down.
Nature gets you out of your normal surroundings.
And time lets you just chill.
That’s the holy trinity of a cool down.
This can be simple. Ideally we swim. But we can get close to it with a $72.99 stock tank. Or an outdoor shower. Or the clean rinse from a dip in the 5 gallon pickle bucket. Yet all these are warm ups for a Dodson Dive off the dock, and some swimming between rounds.
If you like swimming, you probably dig sauna.
Swimming isn’t always exercise
This is another reason I think swimming and sauna go together so well.
Both are physical, but neither has to be about performance.
Swimming can be exercise, of course. But it can also just be swimming.
Sauna can be about heat, löyly, and wacking someone hard with a vihta/venik/wisk, especially if they talk too much. But at some point you just get up off the upper bench and say to yourself,
Time for a swim.
My wife and I are both water signs. I don’t know much about the water signs of astrology, and I’m not sure I buy into the whole thing.
But we both swim all the time.
There is something grounding about it.
Maybe it is the water itself. Maybe it is being outside. Maybe it is the repetition. Maybe it is simply having a place where you can stop for a while.
Whatever it is, it sure is a wonderful thing.
Sauna allows us to slow down. Swimming does the same thing for me.
Maybe that’s why the two seem so natural together.
If you like swimming, you probably dig sauna.
IDEA:
We could get mobile saunas deployed for high school and college swim teams. We could find a philanthropist for each team to fund the sauna, and sponsor the swim teams. Imagine the bus, heading to an away swim match, towing a kick ass mobile sauna. I think it’d be a great enhancement to a swim program.
