Saunas as An Ancient Health Tool
You’ve been living under a rock if you haven’t heard someone talk about how saunas, along with cold plunges, are all the rage in the health and wellness space. But let’s be honest… Do you actually know the benefits of sauna or just that it’s supposed to be good for you? Because to be honest… I couldn’t have told you the actual benefits of using the sauna until recently! I would have definitely just said, “Uhh it’s good because it makes you sweat and it’s a mental challenge to sit in a 170-degree box”.
Of course, like most things that are good for humans, the practice of sauna use is an ancient and cross-cultural one. In this article, I want to dive into the ancient practice across cultures and how those cultures viewed sauna (or practices similar to the sauna), why we’ve moved away from it, and how we can integrate it back into our daily lives.
Sweat Lodges - “The Sweat”
In Native American culture, sweat lodges or purification ceremonies, or simply “the sweat”, were spiritual in nature. They were only to be led by an elder who knew the language, songs, traditions, and safety protocols to be able to properly lead participants in prayer and in healing.
These ceremonies were led inside huts or domes that were covered in natural materials, including trees and animal hides. In the center of the lodge, a fire pit was dug, where rocks could be heated to produce the thermal effect inside the dome. To many Native tribes, this dome represented the womb of Mother Earth and was a place for prayer, purification, and spiritual reflection to the cultures that practiced them. Sweat lodges weren’t a place where one would go because they felt like getting a good sweat in- they were deeply intentional and a spiritual experience and treated with the utmost respect.
Hot Springs - “Onsen”
Hot springs are produced when a body of water is heated by molten rock beneath the earth’s crust. So, a hot tub, but instead of being powered by your power grid, it’s powered by the geothermal power of the earth! Because of this, hot springs have been enjoyed by humans for thousands of years. Even primates like the macaque in Japan utilize hot springs to warm themselves when the temperatures drop (we’ve all seen the pictures I’m sure).
The existence and use of hot springs or “Onsen” in Japan are documented dating back to the 6th century, being described as a purifying ritual in the ancient Japanese religion of Shinto, as well as a place to be enjoyed by the emperors.
Eventually, the bathing culture of onsen spread across the country and down the social ladder to the common citizen. Today, there are nearly 30,000 Onsen hot springs in Japan, becoming a major tourist attraction.
It is believed that Onsen has healing potency that is derived from the mineral content of the heated water. So, depending on where you go and the variation in mineral content in your selected Onsen, you may derive different benefits. People in Japan credit Onsen (along with diet) as being one of the leading contributors to their longer-than-average life expectancy!
Steam Saunas
The philosophers of Greece would write on the importance of their restorative baths, but it was the Romans (who, in fairness, took the idea from the Greeks) who popularized the steam bath and spread it across Europe.
Roman steam showers or bathhouses were often very large and included a variety of rooms and facilities, from swimming pools to relaxation areas. They were places where people of all socioeconomic statuses could come to meet, and spend the day socializing and relaxing. They were also generally free or at least very affordable for all to enjoy. The Romans recognized the benefits that steam provided to the body, especially when they combined salts, herbs, and oils in different mediums to elevate the steam’s healing powers. You see traces of this today in “halotherapy” or salt rooms and essential oil diffusers. Rome just happened to use steam on a much larger architectural scale to help its citizenry absorb the benefits.
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The Finnish Sauna
There are about 2 million saunas in Finland - a lot for a country of only 5.5 million. So you could say sauna culture in Finland is quite strong. The Finnish Sauna is likely what you think of when the sauna comes to mind, being a small wooden room, heated by either wood or steam that is created from thro throwing water on hot stones (löylyä).
In the early days of Finnish Sauna culture, the small rooms didn’t have a chimney, so when wood was burned to heat the room, the soot and smoke would stay inside. As you can imagine, this could be quite dirty. Over time, chimneys were installed to allow the smoke to escape while the wood would burn.
In Finnish culture, you would typically bring in birch twigs or branches – called vihta or vasta, and whip yourself with them. It sounds strange, but this practice is believed to be good for your skin. Fins will also mix tar, pine, or birch oil with the water that is used to pour on the rocks to elevate the experience.
Finnish culture believes, that sweating in a sauna cleans your skin and your body of toxins, helps your muscle pains, increases the quality of your sleep, and relieves stress. These benefits are the ones that are most closely tied to our modern-day use of sauna, so they’ve definitely stood the test of time.
Interestingly, the Fins would also take an ice bath right after the sauna because they believed (rightly so in our opinion) that it would increase your energy, improve your mood, reduce blood pressure, and decrease stress in the body.
Infrared Saunas - The Newcomer
The infrared sauna is a newcomer to the ancient practice of sauna. The main difference is that while the ancient variations of heat therapy involved heating the air or water around a person, an infrared sauna heats your body directly using light without warming the air around you.
Generally, this means that an infrared sauna can give similar results as other modalities of sauna, but at a lower temperature, because it is heating you up from the inside.
Take Action:
Today, we have the benefits of modern technology and the internet to spread the ideas and healing modalities of other cultures for our benefit. Sauna use has become popular enough in the United States, that nearly any gym has one, and depending on how fancy your gym is, you might run the spectrum of all of the above.
So it is quite easy for you to start reaping the benefits of a sauna, including cleansing your skin and your body of toxins, helping your muscle aches, increasing the quality of your sleep, and relieving your stress.
If you are in the Phoenix area like us, be sure to check out Optimyze where you’ll find infrared saunas along with many other healing modalities!
-Sebastian