Should I Use a Sauna in Summer?

A shockingly widespread misconception is that saunas aren’t supposed to be used in summer. The reasoning behind it is that saunas are good for warming you up, and you don’t need to be warmed up when the weather is hot. People assume that in Finland, the home of the sauna, the hot pinewood rooms provide refuge from the Nordic chill of the winter months, which they do. But what they don’t realise is that Scandinavians usually have a sauna at their summer house.

In the Nordic countries, saunas are often placed near lakes, so that in the summer they can be enjoyed in conjunction with a cooling dip in the natural waters. The scientifically proven benefits of the saunawork for your body at any time of year. It can actually make the heat of summer feel more comfortable as it acclimatises your body to heat. This is why the Italian football team trained inside a sauna in advance of their visit to Brazil in 2014.

Even if it is summer, the sauna can still help you burn calories, lose weight, improve your cardiovascular health and respiratory function, and of course it relaxes your muscles and feels so great. The hot rooms at Spa Experience which can be enjoyed as part of the Thermal Spa Experience are derived from an ancient Roman tradition. Roman baths involved the use of three hot rooms of different temperatures known as the tepidarium, the caldarium and the laconicum. These were used as part of a cleansing process after exercise and were widespread across the Roman empire from as far North as Britain to the baking heat of Algeria. Clearly the heat of the African sun in no way dissuaded Romans from making use of the hot rooms.

Even today, Turkish baths, which derive from Roman baths, provide heated water and hot rooms to bathers in very hot Middle Eastern and North African nations. The Ottomans, the Norse and the Romans all made use of heated rooms all year round because of the numerous health benefits.

So no matter how hot it gets this summer, don’t let the heat dissuade you from taking a nice relaxing lounge in a Spa Experience sauna or steam room. This should be followed by a cooling shower or a dip in a plunge pool to lower your body’s temperature. The sauna in summer experience will leave you feeling relaxed and balanced, and will actually make the heat of the summer easier for your body to handle.