Got back into the gym recently and they have a sauna. Every once in a while, I’ll see a guy in there, sweating his ass off. Back in my high school wrestling days, I can see that being an awesome way to drop a few quick pounds right before a weigh-in, but are there longer term benefits of using one? How long are you supposed to stay in there?
Saunas were originally meant for bathing. Mothers used to have their children in there because it was the cleanest part of the home. Now they’re used to cure ailments, such as tense muscles, and sinus problems. Stay in there 5-10 minutes, you just need to know your limits. I like to take them and shower afterward, it cleans out your pores a lot. They’re definitely a good thing. 
My Finnish friend gave me a lot of that information.
“There are 3 possible cures: sauna, alcohol, and tar. If they don’t cure it, it’s fatal”
-a paraphrased Finnish proverb.
Some of the supposed benefits of the sauna I heard from a spa owner:
- Elevates heart rate and acts as a form of passive exercise.
- Sweats “toxins” out of the body.
- Improves circulation to skin and extremities.
- Sweats off “excess water.”
IMO, all of these are bullshit. She said you should stay in mo more than 15 minutes and follow up with a cool shower.
Well, one benefit claimed in the flyers for home saunas is that the act of sweating requires energy, which burns calories, which causes (or contributes to) weight loss. They claim that there are studies to prove it, but I’ve always been skeptical.
I use a sauna to sooth body aches. I stay in until I’m bored or overheated.
Here is some sauna information for you. IMO, gym sauna’s are a poor imitiation of the real thing. They get nowhere near hot enough. And you can’t even pour water on the rocks, for god’s sake!
Anyway, among Finnish immigrants in the upper Midwest it was common for extended families to get together for saunas. Both my family and my wife’s family did that frequently.
Lastly, just remember it’s pronounced sow-na.
St. Urho
Thankfully, this isn’t GQ, because I don’t have a factual answer. I don’t know what they are for, but I used saunas the same as laurelann; open up the pores and follow up with a shower to really cleanse oneself. I found them very relaxing after a workout. Unfortunately, the gym here at my office does not have one, else I might go more often.
Oh yeah, ideally you’ll be able to go jump in a lake, then go back into the sauna again.
Since we’re in IMHO, in my own personal experience the long-term benefits of a sauna are that occasionally you will find a future girlfriend there. Oh, and women hang around in bathing suits (at most) there. W00t, as they say.
You beat me to it! Most Americans pronounce it ‘sah-na’; but my mother’s husband was from Finland, so I pronounce it ‘sow-na’. 
Here in da UP - an area settled mostly by Finns, and with a healthy Finn population even now - saunas (pronounced sow-na) are pretty common. We put one in our house last year; two of my brothers have one in their homes. I’d go so far as to guess that at least 50% of the population here has a sauna in their homes, and I could be guessing low. I’ve rented apartments that had saunas in them - they’re that common.
They’re used for the same types of things that people use hot tubs for - relaxing, socializing, and you get clean in the process. It’s not uncommon, for example, for Mr. Athena & my brother to get together to watch a football or hockey game and hop into the sauna before or after the game, typically with a beer or two. In fact, a lot of people have beer fridges or kegs set up near the sauna. A nice cold beer and a hot sauna are good companions
Like others have said, a real Finnish sauna has very little resemblance to those things you find in hotels or gyms. First and foremost, a Finnish sauna is wet - you throw water on the rocks, and it get steamy. The walls and benches are cedar, which makes it smell nice. You usually sit in the sauna for 5-15 minutes at a time, then get out and jump in the lake (if you have one) or a snowbank (in the winter) or just hang out in a cooler spot for a few minutes, then get back in. You keep repeating this for as long as you’re having fun - it’s not uncommon for saunas to last for an hour or more.
Okay…that explains it. I had no idea what the little pool of freezing water was for right outside the sauna at my gym.
Saunas are a great place to meet naked, sweaty men.
Heck, you can do that at my place!
My neighbors just put in a sauna in their backyard, next to their jacuzzi and pool.
While this might seem like a good idea…we live in Las Vegas. It gets to be 128 degrees here in the summer. I guess they could use it then to go in and cool down…
(Slight hijack: Went to a sauna in Berlin, in the basement of a large building, and it was next to an elevator you were to then take to the roof top to cool off after the sauna. Imagine my surprise when the elevator stopped on the main floor and two fully clothed elderly ladies got on with me, and I was wearing nothing but a skimpy wet towel. They were cool about it, so I guess they were used to the fact.)
We built a sauna in our basement this year. I love it. I don’t buy into the crackpot ‘leeching toxins from the skin’ nonsense, but a sauna is very refreshing. Sometimes I get a real bone-chilling cold after working outside, and a hot sauna is just wonderful. You come out totally heated up - your fingers, toes, nose, etc. And you stay warm for a long time afterwards.
It’s also very relaxing. After 20 minutes in the sauna, you just feel like a wet noodle. It’s great to stretch out on the couch after and watch a movie or read a book.
We got some ‘sauna essence’, which is an aroma that you can mix in with your water pail for pouring on the rocks. You only use a capful of the stuff in a half-gallon of water, but when you pour it over hot rocks, you get a blast of steaming eucalyptus or cedar or whatever the extract is. It’s great when you have a cold. Makes you feel so much better.
I visited Japan for a couple weeks last summer with a college group. I don’t know how close the baths are to to the saunas, but we took baths every other day or so where you’d go sit in HOT HOT HOT water and sweat until you felt like you were going to pass out. The native Japanese kept laughing at us for our low heat tolerance. Then you’d rinse yourself off in the cold shower, get something to drink, and you were nice and relaxed.
But after sweating so much so often, my skin felt SO GOOD at the end of those two weeks, better than it’s ever been (and I’ve had skin problems in the past). I was amazed. My skin was very very soft and my face so incredibly unproblematic! Perhaps it won’t help you lose weight but, IMHO, lounging and sweating was a great skin experience.
And if you are lucky enough to live in, say, the Czech Republic, the women don’t wear anything at all. And, being the Czech Republic, they are on average stunningly beautiful. And they shave their pubes into interesting designs.
Have I ever said I love this place?
I go to sauna once or twice a week. Now that i have started exercising again, I generally go in after lifting - it feels great. I love the penetrating heat and I do believe that it helps cleanse your body of toxins. I have gone into a sauna hung-over like the bejeezes and come out feeling much much better. When you do a full-cycle sauna (also pronounced sow-na in Czech) (Shower, sauna, shower, cold pool dip, sauna, rest - then sauna again or shower and leave) you sweat copious amounts. So if you combine it with drinking tons of water you are essentially flushing your system. I’ll drink 2 liters of water while in the sauna, and then drink another 2 liters within an hour afterwards. Nothing magical here w.r.t. toxins, just mass quantities of water get processed- faster than without the sauna.
I also think it helps fight off infections and sickness. My friend’s dad is a Native American priest and has told me (and shown me) of the different types of ‘sweat-lodges’ that they do. One is specifically for sickness and was a reason for so many deaths with small-pox back-in-the-day. The theory goes that your body gets a fever to elevate the temperature above what most bacteria and viruses can live in. So you raise the temp over 102F, nasty things die, you live. Small-pox, however, doesn’t die off until something like 108F+ (so I was told), thus people were getting into these sweat-lodges, the temp wasn’t doing anything, so they raised the temp and stayed in longer until they baked their brains and died. I can believe this easily- the hottest sauna I have ever done was a sweat-lodge - and you do those 4 times with only short breaks jumping into the snow.
But, really, I’ll admit it, I’m a perv. I think one of the best bonuses to saunas are the nekkid women getting hot and sweaty, wiping the sweat off each others back, rubbing the towels ever so slowly…thwack OKOKOKOK…I’ll stop. 
-Tcat
almost every sauna I’ve been to in the States lets you pour hot water over rocks and is made of cedar. I guess I’ve been in those that are all tile, but I’ve been in the cedar ones more often.
I like a sauna just because it feels good.
At the last gym I went to that had one, they had 2 shower stalls right next to the sauna. I’d sweat for like 20, then ICE COLD SHOWER, then sweat for another 20, then shower off. Sometimes I’d do more repeats than that.
IMO, a sauna is really meditative. All your mind is really focussed on is how your body is feeling the heat.
Finland? The UP? Hello! These people are just cold and they are trying to warm up!
They are also great for movie scenes.