Sauna

[Edi]

Okay, something I've been wanting to ask of the non-Nordic people here: How many of you have experienced sauna and what did you think of it? How common and well known (or unknown) is the concept of sauna where you live?

And what was the sauna like (temperature, stove etc)? This is a relevant question, because saunas vary some from place to place and not all of them are like the traditional Finnish sauna. A typical sauna would have a temperature of between 70 to 100 degrees C (depending on air humidity, you do not want a sauna with 100C if it's very humid!), and is heated by an electric or wood-fired stove with a pile of heat-retaining rocks on top, and you throw water on the stove every once in a while to enhance the heat while you sit on the the top tier of the benches.

So, feedback, my fellow denizens! I want to know!

Edi

[Tsyroc]

I've been in a couple different ones a long time ago. IIRC they had electric heaters and I definately remember the rocks to pour water on. I don't remember them being as hot as you mention.

[Robert Treder]

There was a sauna at this one hotel I went to one time when I was a kid. I don't remember the specifics, but it was pretty fucking uncomfortable in there. I god damn hate humidity.

Most of my experiences with saunas is from the movies and humorous television commercials.

EDIT: And just so you know, while saunas aren't very widely used around here, they are just about univerally known. Like I said, they're often featured in TV and movies, and I think most gyms have them.

[Robert Treder]

And correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Fins technically not Nordic?

[Edi]

And correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Fins technically not Nordic?

Scandinavian is the term you're looking for. We're not Scandinavian, that's the Swedes, Danes and Norwegians, but when you add in Finland and Iceland, you get the Nordic countries.

I don't remember the specifics, but it was pretty fucking uncomfortable in there. I god damn hate humidity.

Saunas in general take some getting used to, and a humid sauna with too great a temperature isn't exactly pleasant. The preferred temperature is also something that varies with preference, so I guess you had a bad initial experience.

But once you do get used to sauna, it is very nice indeed.

Edi

[Robert Treder]

So just what is the point of saunaing? To be hot?

[Edi]

The point is to first get hot enough that you sweat profusely (as in dripping with sweat), then cool down for a moment before repeating the process, and finally washing yourself clean. Makes you feel incredibly clean, cleaner than you could ever manage by showering (even if you spent four hours in there), and it gives this warm, relaxed feeling on top of that too.

The point about too much heat in a humid sauna was that the more humidity, the less heat you need to get the same effects. The common sauna in our apartment block house in Helsinki typically has a temperature of 90 degrees C and anything below 85 feels cold, while the sauna at our summer cottage starts being various degrees of intolerable after 75 degrees C, thanks to the greater humidity.

The rationale behind throwing water on the stove is that it increases humidity, and thus the effects of the heat, and it also makes it feel a lot hotter because it makes the air move and thus breaks the relatively cool cocoon of air around the people sitting in there (because the body tries to keep the temp around it constant, you'd have a cocoon of air about only 45 to 50 C around you when sitting still).

I guess I should have made a more thorough explanation of what sauna is all about in the opening post. My mistake, it's something so obvious to us that we take it for granted and forget that it's uncommon to completely unknown elsewhere.

Edi

[Warspite]

Sa-u-na? What is this torture machine from Hell you keep refering to?


Never tried, but I hear is good to loose the lard off.

[Superman]

I am a weight lifter and excersize fanatic. I am also a pro wrestler on a small local circuit. I'm about 6'4," weighing in at an all time high of 260. I HATE saunas. Warspite is right; they're torture machines. Not only that, but they have NO VALUE whatsoever. People seem to think that exposing themselves to rediculously high temperatures is somehow a good thing.

I have also tried the hot spring bath houses in Japan. I hate them too.

[Edi]

Sa-u-na? What is this torture machine from Hell you keep refering to?

The proper spelling is sau-na, and yes, we use it to torture unsuspecting foreigners who cluelessly stumble into our clutches.
Mwuahahahahahaaaaaa!

My uncle actually has some interesting stories about foreign postings (he works for a big construction company that has built power plants and factories all over the world), since when you have a crew of Finns, there absolutely, positively must be a sauna, or there would be open rebellion. On one occasion, they had a construction job in Tanzania, and they converted a cargo container into an improvised sauna. The natives were certain they had some sort of temple for some weird and terrible for religious cult services there. I mean, think about it from the perspective of an African uneducated, superstitious subsistence farmer: They see a bunch of naked white men wearing only towels go into a cargo container that visibly radiates heat and come out later looking red as lobsters, and the boy who's been hired to heat the place up tells them that yes, it is literally hot as hell in there, as if in the residence of the Devil himself. We had a good laugh out of that story.

My friend Kaljamaha also has some interesting ones about how their neighbors in Nicaragua reacted to his dad building a sauna, but I'll leave it up to him to post those...

Never tried, but I hear is good to loose the lard off.

That's actually a myth. It won't help you lose the extra pounds if you're overweight, because you just lose water through sweating, and you'll gain that back afterward, because you get dehydrated in the sauna and need to drink to compensate. If you want to lose the extra weight, no quick and easy fix, I'm afraid. If the myth were true, there would be very few overweight people in Finland.

Edi

[Sir Sirius]

Edi you forgot to tell them about Sauna Vihta's.

It made from a bunch of birch twigs bound together and you are supposed to beat yourself with it while in the Sauna.

[Edi]

I am a weight lifter and excersize fanatic. I am also a pro wrestler on a small local circuit. I'm about 6'4," weighing in at an all time high of 260. I HATE saunas. Warspite is right; they're torture machines.

Not everyone likes it, and I don't expect everyone to love saunas. To each their own.

Not only that, but they have NO VALUE whatsoever. People seem to think that exposing themselves to rediculously high temperatures is somehow a good thing.

That's your take on it, but you have (at a conservative estimate) nearly 5 million people in this country (of 5.2 million) alone who disagree with you on the value part. And you really don't want me to start digging out medical studies on the effects of sauna on the health of people, do you? Sure, it can be uncomfortable if you're not used to it, and some never get used to them, but don't flush the whole concept down the toilet just because of a personal dislike.

I have also tried the hot spring bath houses in Japan. I hate them too.

I'd like to try one of those, and odds are, I'd enjoy it a lot. Too bad I've not had an opportunity so far, nor am i likely to have one anywhere in the near future.

Edi

[Edi]

Edi you forgot to tell them about Sauna Vihta's.
saunavihta
It made from a bunch of birch twigs bound together and you are supposed to beat yourself with it while in the Sauna.

Shh, don't give away all the secrets of our Finnish-Torture-Device-from-Hell all at once! We need to get the lot of them hooked first, before we tell them the whole truth, because then it'll be too late for them! Looks like Superman's already a lost cause, so we must silence him...

Seriously, the vihta is an old and beloved tradition, and for a good reason. The oils from the birch leaves that are released when you gently beat yourself with the vihta are good for the skin and they give off a pleasant smell to boot. My family doesn't really use them much even at our summer place where we could, but they are a very nice extra.

Edi

[Superman]

I realize that many people love the torture machines. We have a sauna right in our arena, and there is one at my gym. I would much rather have a massage... On my penis... NO NO, but seriously, I love getting massages.

[Superman]

By the way, what exactly are the claims that sauna users make? What is it doing for you?

[Edi]

By the way, what exactly are the claims that sauna users make? What is it doing for you?

See what I posted before Warspite's post, there's a list of the immediate effects. If you want a more scientific take on the medical effects, it helps keep your skin in better condition, and stimulates circulation for starters. I can take a look around and see if there is any study about sauna effects on health available online and what that says, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow. I'm off to home now.

Edi

[Warspite]

You crazy Finns, you!

[Col. Crackpot]

A typical sauna would have a temperature of between 70 to 100 degrees C

100 C = 212 F = the boiling point of water

*hands Edi a turkey

while you are in there, hold on to this. i'll be back in a few hours for dinner.

[fgalkin]

I love saunas, even more than the Russian banyas. In fact, my apartment building has a sauna.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[fgalkin]

Could someone split this shitloaf of a flamewar.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

I've split it. And you have a nice day too ~CO

[Johonebesus]

And correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Fins technically not Nordic?

Scandinavian is the term you're looking for. We're not Scandinavian, that's the Swedes, Danes and Norwegians, but when you add in Finland and Iceland, you get the Nordic countries.

I think what he's getting at is linguistic groups. I don't know how much emphasis is placed on it in Finland, but English speakers learn from an early age to divide Europeans into Germanic, Romanic, Celtic, Slavic, etc. Nordic is often used to refer to the North Germanic languages, so the Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders, and Danes are Nordic, while the Finns and Sámi are not, since they speak Uralic languages. Technically, Nordic is not the same as Norse, so perhaps Finns could be called Nordic, if one is considering geography rather than language, but then one generally refers to the Northern Countries. Geographically, Finland does spill onto the Scandinavian peninsula in the north, and even if most of Finland is not technically on the Scandinavian peninsula, it is close enough that Finland have always been a part of the Scandinavian world and is generally called as a Scandinavian country in common usage.

[Edi]

A typical sauna would have a temperature of between 70 to 100 degrees C

100 C = 212 F = the boiling point of water

*hands Edi a turkey

while you are in there, hold on to this. i'll be back in a few hours for dinner.

If you gave me a roll of tinfoil too, not much of a problem, wrap in tinfoil and place on stove until ready. Cooking stuff like sausages on the stove, wrapped in tinfoil is actually quite common.

It usually takes an hour to two and a half to throughly enjoy sauna to the fullest, but even half an hour plus time to wash on top of that is good. Not as bad as it might sound like, if you ever get a chance to try the sauna, you should. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Edi

[Boba Fett]

In Hungary saunas are exactly the same as in Finland.

[Vendetta]

The Gym I go to has a good sauna, and I always make time to stop off for a good session there. Though I don't stay in it for mammoth times, as by the time I leave the actual gym there's not long 'til closing time.. (usually a max of 1/2 hour, stopping every 10 minutes for a cold shower to close alll the pores up, wash the sweat off, take on some more fluid, then jump back in).

It's kept at a pleasant 85 degrees, with humidity at about 35-40%.

Some of the benefits of sauna:

Relaxation. Especially after a gym session, heat relaxes and loosens muscle fibre, and increases circulation, and oxygen flow to muscles. You're less likely to be tired and stiff next morning if you spend some time in the sauna or steam room after excercise. Your muscles relax and repair themselves faster if you use some kind of heat treatment.

Sweat. Opening the pores on the skin allows you to sweat out all the crap that builds up during the day, and heat also increases the metabolic rate, increasing the rate at which the body rids itself of toxins.

Antibacterial/viral effects. Increased heat (105+ Farenheit, for you illogical types) retards the growth of many hostile bacteria and virii, killing many outright. This is why infections often lead to fever, actually part of the body's defences. Saunas will flatten common nasties before they flatten you.

Cardiovascular stimulation. A sauna increases your heart rate, even when you're sitting still. You use up more calories (200-450 in a 20 minute session), and you increase the health of your heart.

Oh, and if you're a cancer-fiend, you can sweat tar out.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Okay, something I've been wanting to ask of the non-Nordic people here: How many of you have experienced sauna and what did you think of it? How common and well known (or unknown) is the concept of sauna where you live?

And what was the sauna like (temperature, stove etc)? This is a relevant question, because saunas vary some from place to place and not all of them are like the traditional Finnish sauna. A typical sauna would have a temperature of between 70 to 100 degrees C (depending on air humidity, you do not want a sauna with 100C if it's very humid!), and is heated by an electric or wood-fired stove with a pile of heat-retaining rocks on top, and you throw water on the stove every once in a while to enhance the heat while you sit on the the top tier of the benches.

So, feedback, my fellow denizens! I want to know!

Edi

I've been in numerous saunas in (well, okay, Canada and the U.S.), and found that in general they match what you describe--except that only a few of them had something to throw water on the rocks with, and usually those places were the ones that were the hottest, too.