Sauna Experience

Sauna, the wooden heat box, the Dante’s Inferno, the furnace, the pit, and a great stress reliever and detoxifier – 12 minutes of pain! Sitting in a Swedish style heat box with other sweat masters and detoxologist motivated me to push myself to the limit. Inhaling and exhaling, clinched fists, and closed eyes lids, heart pounding in my chest. Billions of tiny little beads of sweat bursting out of my pours flooding the wooden deck with excessive salt and waste deposits from an overly excessive and toxic body from last nights beer fest.

The hardest part was breathing. In a sauna every breath counts. There’s just something about hearing our own breath as you exert energy just to breathe. You have to pace yourself, you see. You need to learn how to breathe in moderate rhythms so that you don’t over exert yourself. A good way to do this is to close your eyes and relax as much as you can. Pretty soon you’ll be approaching your maximum tolerance then afterwards you can reward yourself with an ice cold dunk in a mizu buro(cold water bath) which will feel like heaven on ice after 12 grueling minutes in a hot sauna.

My routine is as follows: Shower down first, at a local sento (public bath). I like to scrub my body with a very coarse nylon towel which when rubbed on the skin will create a bit of agitation on the surface opening up your pores. After that, I use a plastic brush to thoroughly brush my scalp. This stimulates the pores in the scalp wonderfully. Once done, I gargle a mouthful of water, not swallow, then spit and then enter the sauna.

Once in the sauna I stay for 12 minutes then get out and rinse the excessive sweat off my of my skin then I slowly get into the mizu buro. I submerse myself off and on for a few minutes. Overall I stay in the mizu buro for 3 to 4 minutes then come out and recuperate my constitutions by sitting down and catching my breath. I do this again for about 4 to 5 sets! By the time you finish your sweat will taste like water and you will feel wonderful. Drink tons of water after you finish your last set, not during the sauna session because your intestines will store the excess water from your kidneys making you feel bloated. If you get too thirsty just gargle in between sets only ( I’m not a doctor. This technique was recommended to me by a friend). Then jump into the mineral laden onsen water so that your body soaks up all the mineral content it lost during your sauna session. Bathe for about a half and hour then drink a sports drink, preferably an isotonic drink in order to restore your mineral loss.

Athletic Alley Blog Carnival - June 10, 2009