Putting this in IMHO because I’m not sure there can be a clear factual answer; Mods move to GQ if you think it wise.
My chiropractor recommended a steam bath – wet heat, not sauna-dry – for my intractable muscle pain and cramping. At the time I was living in Miami-Dade County, where a local YMCA had a steam bath, which seemed to do some good. But only one branch had one. Since I moved back to Tampa, I can’t seem to find a health club with a steam room, with the sole exception of Harbor Island Health & Fitness (and if you don’t know Tampa, you’d better be sure of your finances before you even go window-shopping on Harbor Island). (There’s also a local “Japanese Spa” with a steam room, but it costs $80 to use and comes with a “body shampoo.” I won’t inquire further.) Some of the clubs apparently used to have a steam room but shut it down. One guy mentioned sanitation problems – I’m not clear on the details; seems to me cleaning a tile-lined concrete room would be fairly simple. From movies I’m vaguely aware of the existence of establishments which are steam baths and nothing else – they seem to be a preferred venue for certain kinds of perfectly legitimate business conferences, and/or a certain kind of fun’n’games that went out when the HIV virus came in – but that must be limited to the Northeast; certainly there’s no category for such in the local Yellow Pages.
This is curious. I seem to be observing the slow and unremarked decline of a tradition at least as old as the Roman caldarium.
I’m also a fan of steam baths and likewise I’ve found they aren’t as widespread as I’d prefer. It seems like they’re always out of order and falling apart. From this I gather that they’re costly and high-effort to maintain. Really, an environment that is constantly operating in superheated steam seems like it would be a wonderland for corrosion, mold, bacteria, and grout deterioration. Gyms operate on a pretty slim margin and need to be as low-maintenance as possible.
If you’ve been prescribed ‘wet heat’ and you can’t find a steam room, I’d bet that a hot tub would be just as good. It’s wet, it’s hot. And while you’re at it, ask your chiro where his other clients find their wet heat.
FYI authentic saunas are wet heat. You might have problems finding an authentic one in Florida, but if places advertise a sauna it might be worth it to ask if it’s wet or dry.
Just thought that I’d add that the new gym I just joined has a steam bath and a sauna in the locker room, as well as a hot tub and a 25-yard pool. I’m in heaven.
I’ve been looking for a gym with a hot tub and a pool since I graduated from college nearly 20 years ago.
I’d never seen a steam bath before. I tried it for the first time last week. I didn’t think it was all that great–I had trouble breathing. I remarked to the other guy in the steam bath that I’d always wondered what an actual steam leak would have looked like when I was in the Navy–and of course this was very low temperature, low pressure steam. You still couldn’t see farther than a foot or two away when the steam was on. An actual major engine room steam leak on a Navy sub would likely have killed everyone in the engine room in short order if the main steam valves weren’t shut.
I thought authentic saunas (by that, I mean Finnish saunas) are generally dry, with a temp of around 80 C, which would be completely intolerable in a wet heat. When I lived in Budapest, both Finnish saunas and Turkish hammam were available, the former reaching temperatures approaching 100C, and the latter topping off at around 50C. The sauna would involve the occasional dousing of rocks with water, but it wasn’t the constant wet heat of a hammam, which would probably kill you at sauna temps.
