What is a sauna?
A true sauna is a wood-lined room with a dry heat source (wood burning stove, gas, or electric elements in a metal body) with rocks on top of or around the elements or heat box. Humidity can be kept to a minimum or raised considerably when water is poured on the rocks. Cedar, when installed properly, will reflect heat “softly”, even at high temperatures of 60°C to 100°C in the Sauna. The hot, dry air promotes heavy perspiration that has a cooling effect on the skin. The “heating up” of the body is in the second stage, followed by deliberate cooling down. The lungs are quickly cooled in fresh air, the skin particularly by cold water, sometimes by snow. Thus, the Sauna is a contrast bath: Heating up in the hot-dry air in the Sauna Room and cooling down with fresh air and cold water. Due to the stimulating effect on the body, the refreshing stage of cooling down is no less important than the relaxing and soothing heat. The single sequence of heating/sweating and the deliberate cooling dow
