Sauna Use/Etiquette

[BenTheMan]

Ok, I just joined a gym here (I'm in the Bay Area for a few months, for grad school), and was wondering what the use/benefit of a sauna/steam room was for.

I mean, it's great to sit in the hot room for a while after lifting, but is there any real benefit to it?

Further, what level of conversation is appropriate with the naked elderly man sitting next to me?

Please advise.

[superstring01]

Nudity in public saunas is actually prohibited by most state health codes (I know it is in FL, OH and AZ). Tell the dude to slip on some shorts or throw on a towel. Nothing more distracting that loose nuggets in a sauna.

~String

[iceaura]

Nudity in public saunas is actually prohibited by most state health codes ? There is no God.

Honest to Pete, we're going to end up in hijabs. I know it.

You have to sit on a towel. That's just common courtesy. But shorts?

When I was a kid, clothes were prohibited in the pool at the local Y. They certainly weren't standard in the sauna.

I mean, it's great to sit in the hot room for a while after lifting, but is there any real benefit to it? Finns swear by them - add years to your life, cure what ails you, etc. But they beat themselves with sticks (yellow birch twigs are favored), and run them pretty hot - probably hotter than you get at a gym.

Watch the dehydration.

[superstring01]

? There is no God.

Duh. I coulda' told you that.

Honest to Pete, we're going to end up in hijabs. I know it.

Some guys just need to keep their cloths on. The gym I work out at has the requisite "fat guy" with junk hanging halfway to his knees who walks from shower to locker full monty. It's enough to make a gay man straight... and trust me, I'm very gay.

You have to sit on a towel. That's just common courtesy. But shorts?

Shorts aren't totally necessary, but a fully wrapped lower section is (at least where I live, it is). Again, it's health-code run amok, but I'm not complaining. If it were all the hot, buff, younger men who pranced around in their birthday suits, I'd be a bit more reserved in my protestations against nudity in saunas, but seeing as how it's always the WWII age men who have no use for clothing in the locker room, I feel it's best for morale and comfort to require some sort of junk-covering in saunas.

When I was a kid, clothes were prohibited in the pool at the local Y. They certainly weren't standard in the sauna.

Damn. I was born two decades too late.

Finns swear by them - add years to your life, cure what ails you, etc. But they beat themselves with sticks (yellow birch twigs are favored), and run them pretty hot - probably hotter than you get at a gym.

When I was living in Spain, I befriended a Finnish family who had one in their home. While I refused to enter therein unclothed (they did), I did get to partake of it on several occasions while listening to them regale me with its many health benefits.

~String

[rpenner]

I'm very gay.
Freaking gaydar sidelobes always screwing up my television reception!

[lucifers angel]

Ok, I just joined a gym here (I'm in the Bay Area for a few months, for grad school), and was wondering what the use/benefit of a sauna/steam room was for.

I mean, it's great to sit in the hot room for a while after lifting, but is there any real benefit to it?

Further, what level of conversation is appropriate with the naked elderly man sitting next to me?

Please advise.

they're very good if you have a cold, and they clear the skin aswell, which is always good :)

[John99]

Steam rooms are better with their wet steam but saunas are more of a dry heat which is not particularly good.

I think you wear a small towel in both of them and if the guys are naked then i wouldnt go into them. I have showered with large groups of naked men but that was due to necessity.

[John99]

Steam rooms are better with their wet steam but saunas are more of a dry heat which is not particularly good.

I think you wear a small towel in both of them and if the guys are naked then i wouldnt go into them. I have showered with large groups of naked men but that was due to necessity.

[cosmictraveler]

When I went to the gym I had to wear bathing trunks into the steam and sauna rooms. I'd think that should be the case everywhere when a public gym is being used. Now as for conversation of course you can discuss stuff with whomever might be there.

[BenTheMan]

Some guys just need to keep their cloths on. The gym I work out at has the requisite "fat guy" with junk hanging halfway to his knees who walks from shower to locker full monty. It's enough to make a gay man straight... and trust me, I'm very gay.

Ehh...that's probably me, except the junk hanging to my knees part. I mean...it TOTALLY hangs to my knees.

Either way, I AM down about 35 pounds since may.

I checked this morning and it only says you have to sit on a towel. Gotta love California :)

[Steve100]

It would piss me off if I had to cover up.

[MacGyver1968]

I don't want to see no shriveled up grampa junk..that looks like beef jerky that got left out in the sun to long. Dude...wear a towel!

[BlueMoose]

Here in Finland at least the city I live in you must be full naked if you want to go to sauna in swimming hall and get showered before entering (not the lame ass steam room) because of the health issue ! The towels and shorts and that stuff are the items that carries all kind of germs in ! Last time when I was there I had great conversation with half older man than me about...the sauna lol :D and then the conversation went by itself to many direction, in the sauna everybody is kinda equal and in that atmosphere its kinda easy to talk about, just pick your subjects carefully at first, meaning no outright political or religious outbursts ;) Inhaling the humid air does good for your lungs, also its very relaxing and the warm opens up tight spots in my back. I like medium heat, with heat maniacs sauna is everything else than pleasure.
Also it has teach us from the young age to be comfortable about nudity.
We did get sauna in last summer about 30 times or so, most of those in my friends summer houses, sauna and swimming in the lake in sun setting, breath taking.

[one_raven]

I'm confused, BlueMoose.
You said inhaling the humid air is good for your lungs, but saunsa don't have humid air, they have dry air, humid air is in the steam rooms 9which you called lame ass).
Please explain.

[John99]

Because they keep throwing water on the rocks.

[John99]

My girlfriends house has a sauna by the pool but it hasnt worked for years. The wood and the rocks and breathing all that in. Didn't seem too healthy to me.

[BlueMoose]

Its not good sauna if the air is dry, often in electric heated sauna are dry aired.
Real good sauna offers humid air when water throw to sauna stove (kiuas), and those kind of stoves are heated by wood, building a good sauna is real art :) I bet I would have hard time to find out of Finland as good saunas as I´m used to use ;) I was in sauna first time so little that I cant even remember it.

[BlueMoose]

My girlfriends house has a sauna by the pool but it hasnt worked for years. The wood and the rocks and breathing all that in. Didn't seem to healthy to me.

-You havent been in real sauna it seems, there are chimneys for the smoke ya know ;)

[John99]

I have been. I know the ones i was in had rocks and no electric. I can walk across to a real sauna anytime i want.

[BlueMoose]

I have been. I know the ones i was in had rocks and no electric. I can walk across to a real sauna anytime i want.

-Wouldnt guess that from your comments !

-And in electric stoves there is rocks also...

[John99]

No its real. i cut the fire wood myself. There is an outdoor pool with a sauna on the side and a full kitchen right off the pool as well. The rocks go above the fire and is where you throw the water.

[BlueMoose]

I believe you but I still doubt that you havent been in real good sauna ;)

[John99]

Well i would say they were pretty good. TBH i would rather just drink some Finlandia and forget the sauna entirely.

[BlueMoose]

No, in sauna with cold beer, swimming in lake, then drinking some Bowmore whiskey, thats the way :)

[Asguard]

steam is really good for the sinus as LA said, throw some eucoliptus oil in the steam and breath THAT in:)

[iceaura]

throw some eucoliptus oil in the steam The birch twigs the Finns beat themselves with have some kind of menthol in them (you can ID a yellow birch by the menthol taste ).

Most memorable sauna I recall was lakeshore in December, with tinkling ice debris from wave breakup on the water, and a light snow of very big flakes, no wind. Ducked under you could hear the ice like some kind of million tiny bell carrillon. Treading water you could watch the snowflakes touch black water and very, very slowly melt.

Far as grampa junk - and grandma flapjacks too, sorry to inflict the image - you get used to it in about five minutes. Price you pay for the 18 year old grandchild, and the good conversation. And don't worry about inadvertent erections - unless you're a better man than I've ever been, it ain't gonna happen.

[superstring01]

I think the risk of "inadvertent erections" ends in the early twenties. I'm 33 and have reasonable control over the vascular dilations in my penis. I don't know when that changed, because I can distinctly remember my late teens when I would get uncontrollably painful erections that came and went at their own discretion.

~String

[sk8erboyla2004]

Good for the skin, and to lose weight via dehydration, alot of boxers and fighters do this

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