The benefits of taking a regular sauna

11th March 2012

Taking extremely hot saunas raises the core temperature in the body and momentarily brings on flu-like symptoms. The body fights back by producing white blood corpuscles and by repeating this procedure over time, your body's natural defenses against illness are fortified.

After two or three saunas a day for three weeks, I find my post-sauna recovery period has improved; my heart rate returns to normal and I stop sweating much quicker now than at first. However, I'm not sure whether the same can be said about my resistance. This is a pretty basic stove-with-stones-in-a-small-wooden-box type sauna and doesn't have any of your modern digital readouts or temperature settings. I can't really control it so that the temperature is the same every time. Sometimes I get in when it's 100 degrees, once I've been in at 120, but it is usually between 80 and 100.

I sit in the same place with my elbows on my knees, bending forward. I time how long it takes for the first drop of sweat to hit the bench below me on which my feet are placed. I used to do a similar thing on the treadmill when I was training for the marathon. The greater my resistance, the later will be the first drop of sweat. This improves over time.

My aim is to completely cover in sweat the plank of wood exactly in the middle between my two feet. I move my head around to control the drops of sweat. I yawn and the wrinkling effect on my neck causes a stream of sweat to drop onto the board below. I raise my head slightly and a river runs down my nose and cascades like a waterfall below. Hmmm. I've now caused the sweat to form a big pool in the middle of the plank. I cheat; I bend forward and gorilla-like, brush the sweat with the backs of my knuckles until the plank is evenly wet all over.

...

I tell Maria, one of our board members, about my sauna training; not in great detail.

In Japan the saunas were usually around the 100 mark and you would limit yourself to 12 minutes at a time before plunging into the cold water pool. You should not repeat this cycle more than three times in a row; very strict and clear rules; very Japanese.

Maria, who had lived in Germany for several years, said the Germans had a similar approach and she didn't think they actually enjoyed their saunas; they treated it as more of a challenge.

She laughs.

She isn't impressed with my sauna tactics. Something must be wrong.

...

A week later, with Esa and Minna at the spa land, I observe real Fins in a sauna. I join Esa and his boys in the large sauna in the men's shower room and find it is quite pleasant. My heart is not pounding as if I am running a race. I am warming up nicely and then Esa throws a few ladles full of water onto the hot rocks and we are covered in a hot steam.

It's really rather pleasant and not at all chore-like.

Mind you, Maria might be from Pohojanma but she is not a man and Esa might be a man but he is from Tampere; most certainly not Pohojanma.