Saunas

I recently joined a pretty awesome club, and actually went on a tour of the facilities before my family and I decided to join. We saw lots of exercising equipment (treadmills, ellipticals, various muscle-training machines, cycling machines, weights and dumbells etc.), squash courts, large and open yoga/exercise rooms for classes, conference rooms, whirlpools, and wet and dry SAUNAS. I personally don’t have any firsthand experience with saunas at all; heck, that was the first time I’ve seen one in real life! So I went home and did my research, and for those who are just as inexperienced with saunas as me, this is for you.

There are two types of saunas: wet and dry. Both involve rocks being heated, which results in high temperatures.
Wet: rocks are heated, then water is thrown over them to create steam. This is also known as the “steam room.” The temperature usually ranges from 110-114F. 
Dry: rocks are heated, and that’s it. They tend to be more tolerable than wet saunas, but it mostly depends on personal preference. The temperature usually ranges from 160-200F. 
Some believe that sitting in a sauna and sweating everything out eliminates bad toxins in your body. The heat also relieves muscle tension and stress, improves blood circulation, and cleanses skin by opening up the pores. After a long workout, sitting in a sauna can help your muscles to loosen up and relax. 

A common misconception is that it helps with losing fat; that is not true because sweating only eliminates water, not fat. You might be able to lose a lot of weight by sweating buckets, but that weight will come back easy and fast. So sitting in a sauna is not the way to get skinny; results you should be hoping for are relaxation and skin-cleansing.