What are the other essential elements of the sauna?
Finnish public saunas employ older women who wash men and women using the sauna, as the body cleaning is considered by the Finns as the goal of the sauna.
Manual massage becomes a very popular form of body care and special therapy. While in hospitals, sanatoriums and physiotherapy offices, massage is used as a curative treatment, in the case of athletes as a factor in improving condition, the massage of healthy people, which is carried out in saunas, means taking care of the body to improve blood supply and purification of tissues.
The aim of the massage is, therefore, to increase the impact of the sauna. A deeply effective massage can be carried out on muscles that are well relaxed by heat. Thanks to the massage, tissue fluids are activated, along with sediments and infectious substances. This is manifested by particularly intense perspiration during the sauna used after an earlier massage. The remnants of the lubricant used during the massage do not interfere with sweating. Natural oils are used to lubricate the skin during the massage; the absorbed portion is beneficial to the skin.
Another type of massage, which is widely used in hospitals, in particular sports injuries, as well as in the case of obesity for fat deposits, is underwater massage with a water jet. It is carried out in a huge pool, well-regulated in terms of temperature. The heat that passes from water to the body favors beneficial changes. If this method was used in conjunction with a sauna, it could interfere with the rhythmic action in the sauna system of cold heat/stimulation and could affect the benefits derived under the influence of the sauna.
If, therefore, according to the recipe, both treatments should be used on the same day, underwater massage should be carried out in advance, followed by – after 1/4 to 1/2 hours. breaks – you can use the sauna.
The same advance should be used when using other types of heat. For example, a swimming pool with warm water 38’C or a room with steam should be used before the sauna. After using them and before using the sauna, the body should be cooled down sufficiently. If you have an indoor pool, it should be noted that the warm, humid air in the room (often above 28’C) is so unfavorable for supplying the body with oxygen during the sauna as a swimming pool with warm water. Swimming in a pool with warm water, which is usually recommended in the absence of physical activity should always precede the sauna. Swimming first, then sauna (no swimming)!
Generally, we should say: first effort, then renewal, it is: first swimming, gymnastics, running etc. and then sauna. If after bathing in the sauna we want to use the solarium or sun bath, it should be remembered that due to the loss of the cornified epidermis, the skin became more sensitive to irradiation.