Often people who have an inaccurate idea of how to properly wash in a Russian bath believe that there is absolutely nothing special about this procedure. However, one can argue with this!
Photo of the interior arrangement of the steam room
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The art of taking a steam bath is a whole complex of important components:
- preparing optimal heat;
- creating and maintaining the required level of air humidity and pleasant aromas in the steam room;
- selection, proper preparation of a bath broom, as well as skills in its use.
What to take to the steam room
To make bathing not only useful, but also comfortable, you need to have a certain set of bath accessories, which include the following items:
- hair wash;
- soap or shower gel;
- washcloth;
- a couple of towels;
- massage mitten;
- sheet or swimsuit;
- slates;
- special bath cap;
- various infusions or decoctions of herbs for inhalation and hair rinsing;
- Banya broom.
Accessories and hair and body care products for the steam room
Much depends on your preferences.
Washing in the bath
Start rubbing from the neck.
Movements in this sensitive area should be gentle and light. Massage only the sides and back of your neck. Then move on to rubbing your chest and shoulders. Rub your chest in two directions - first from the sternum to the neck, then to the armpits. It is advisable to use a sponge to wash the armpit areas. Rub your hands from the elbow joints upward, then wash your hands and forearms. If the skin on your elbows is keratinized, cracked and rough, soak your elbows in a basin of soapy water for 10-15 minutes. After the bath, apply nourishing cream to them. After several procedures, the skin on your elbows will become smooth and soft.
When rubbing your legs, start from the inner thigh. Use light circular motions and gradually move to the side and back areas. Then rub the washcloth onto your shins and feet.
You should pay special attention to washing your feet. In addition to the washing basin, which usually has a round shape, take an oval basin designed specifically for washing your feet. Fill it with warm, slightly soapy water, add a pinch of soda and place the basin on the floor. While you wash, let your feet rest in it. At the end of bathing, rub each foot with a pumice stone, removing the stratum corneum. As a result, the skin will become elastic and you will feel extraordinary lightness in your legs. After the bath, you can lightly lubricate your feet with olive oil and let it absorb.
Lastly, wash your hair. Hair must be immersed in soap suds diluted in a basin. Regular soaps containing large amounts of alkali irritate and degrease the hair and scalp. It is best to wash your hair with egg shampoo, which contains everything you need to nourish your hair and enhance its natural shine.
The water should be soft. Snow or rain water is most suitable for washing hair. If there is none, soften plain water by adding a teaspoon of ammonia or baking soda.
Let's talk about brooms
Whisking a broom over the body of a steaming person is an old Russian massage tradition. Such movements enhance blood circulation, promote temperature contrast, increase sweating and accelerate metabolism in the human body.
A bath broom is an essential item!
Using a broom in a steam room helps open the pores of human skin and cleanse it of accumulated toxins and germs. When a broom is patted on a person's body, an antibacterial effect is created.
The fact is that broom leaves contain large quantities of volatile substances - phytoncides, which neutralize the negative effects of pathogens. It is also worth noting that in the process of light blows with a bath broom, essential oils get onto the skin. They speed up metabolism and slow down the aging process of the skin.
Experienced bathhouse attendants say that a broom made from fresh birch branches is considered the best. The price of such a product in specialized stores can be very high.
But you can do it yourself. Then you won’t have to pay at all.
Advice! If you use a dry bath broom, you need to know how to steam it correctly. Keep the broom in warm water for a while, and only then can you pour boiling water over it. Otherwise, the leaves on the branches may fall off.
Methods for using a broom in a bath
There are several ways to use a broom during bath procedures.
Can:
- fan, stroke, quilt and whip the skin;
- apply compresses to certain parts of the body;
- perform stretching or rubbing.
It is better to use these techniques in a single complex.
Regular bathing procedures are the key to good health
The fanning procedure involves lightly waving a broom without directly touching the human body. You need to walk along the body several times, starting from the feet and ending with the head, and wave the broom, which creates a pleasant hot wind.
In turn, stroking is a leisurely movement of a broom along the body from the heels to the neck and back. The procedure can also be performed several times and on both sides. And when the temperature in the steam room is not high, you can not tear the broom away from the person at all.
Patting with a bath broom must be done carefully, without causing pain to the person. At first, do not whip the body sharply. It’s better to lift the broom up and shake it well. This way it will warm up to the optimal temperature faster.
The next time you swing the bath broom, you need to try to bring the steam to the body. When the first drops of sweat appear on the body, the pats are intensified.
This procedure begins from the back. You can also add a green compress during this procedure.
Bath procedures strengthen the immune system
A green compress is another method of using a broom in a steam room. To carry it out, you need to wave a broom in the air, place it on your body, whipping another bunch of branches on top of it.
A steaming effect is created, which in its effect on the human body resembles a compress. It improves heat exchange, reduces discomfort and muscle soreness, stimulates sweating and warms up the skin thoroughly.
Men don't float anymore
Western European travelers who visited our country in the 16th-18th centuries were also surprised by the presence of bathhouse attendants in the steam rooms, who helped both women and men cleanse themselves of dirt. These girls were called rubers or wavers because they rubbed the bodies of bathhouse visitors and waved brooms. The Dutch politician Nicolaas Witsen, who visited Moscow, Pskov and Novgorod in 1664-1665, wrote the ethnographic work “Journey to Muscovy.” It says that pretty serf girls often worked as polishers, bathing the family and guests of their landowner. At the same time, Andrei Dachnik claims that wavers also worked in public baths. A researcher of Russian antiquity did not find any reliable historical evidence that these women could provide intimate services to their clients, writes Andrei Dachnik. But after the division of these public institutions into male and female representatives of the stronger sex, exclusively strong guys - bathhouse attendants - began to soar.
Getting ready and steaming
How to wash in a bathhouse? If you have already entered the bathhouse, be sure to take a shower first. Rinse with warm water for hygienic reasons.
Although it must be admitted that many experienced bath attendants neglect this procedure, assuring everyone of its uselessness.
But steaming with a wet head is highly not recommended. The fact is that you can overheat if you go into the bathhouse with wet hair. Therefore, you need to take a shower before the steam room wearing a protective cap.
When you are finished showering, you can remove the cap.
Instead, wear a special bath cap or simply tie a towel on your head.
Original head caps for baths
Advice! You should steam without rings, earrings or chains. It's no secret that metal products heat up when exposed to high temperatures in a steam room and can cause burns. But many still forget about this.
- When you find yourself in a steam room with high air temperature, it is better to breathe through your nose. Nasal breathing cools and humidifies the hot air inhaled by a person. This is a simple instruction, following which you will not be in danger of increasing your body temperature.
Advice! If you doubt whether you can take a bath during your period, then know that doctors do not advise carrying out such bath procedures during this period.
- And so, you have achieved moderate sweating, now you should sit below for a while;
- Then, if you feel strong, you can lie upstairs. Your muscles should be in a relaxed state. You should close your eyes;
Children love this procedure too!
- If the internal arrangement of the bathhouse does not allow you to lie down, sit as comfortably as possible so that your legs do not hang off the bench, since the temperature difference at the level of your head and legs can reach 15 degrees. This can negatively affect your well-being.
Advice! It is better for a beginner to stay in the steam room for no more than five minutes. But experienced bathhouse attendants can pamper themselves with half-hour treatments.
Steam bath treatments improve health
- After you have warmed up thoroughly, you can give yourself a five-minute rest in the dressing room. And only then can you proceed to procedures with a broom;
- Of course, steaming together is more comfortable. You can take turns patting each other with a broom. After all, in order to perform whippings with a bath broom, you need to have a certain physical skill. You can persuade a friend or boyfriend to join you in the steam room.
Steaming is very useful and pleasant
Many people are interested in the question of whether it is possible to wash in a bathhouse with a sore throat. Experienced bathhouse attendants say: it is not only possible, but also necessary. After all, the bath helps to warm up the whole body, which increases its immunity.
How to prepare your baby for a sauna or steam room?
Warming up in a steam room and steaming with brooms is the final stage of hygiene procedures in a bathhouse or sauna. To ensure that your stay in the steam room brings maximum benefits, wash your baby first and make the water for rinsing the body a little colder than the child’s usual temperature.
The first entry into the steam room should be short and not exceed one minute. Adaptation to the heat of the sauna may take several months: during this time, the duration of stay in the steam room should not be increased, and one visit to the steam room will be enough. When the child’s body adapts to temperature stress, you can visit the bathhouse once a week, and spend no more than three minutes in the steam room.
Before visiting the bathhouse, the baby needs to be given something to drink, but the last meal should be no later than 2 hours before the water procedures. It is recommended to take berry juice, tea without sugar or a decoction of herbs with you to the bathhouse - this way you will prevent dehydration of the child’s body and you can give him a tasty healthy drink.
Washing after the steam room
First, you need to thoroughly rub the body with a terry mitt and soap. This will remove the dead skin layer.
A mitten made of natural material will help remove dead skin layers
If some areas of the skin are covered with acne, you can use tar soap and salt:
- Lather your skin with soap;
- Next, pour a little salt onto the washcloth;
- Lightly scrub your body with a washcloth. Do not overdo it, otherwise you can damage the skin and get an inflammatory process.
Miller's Dream Book
A factory working shower or bathhouse in a dream means success in the business sphere. You are expecting a salary increase, a bonus or a change in position on the career ladder.
The people with whom you took a bath in a dream will become your close friends in reality. You can rely on them in the most important or personal matters. Those who were not close to you will begin to evoke unpleasant emotions in reality and will seem boring, unworthy objects for wasting time.
Contraindications for ice swimming
Despite the obvious benefits of hardening in an ice hole, it also has obvious contraindications. You should not dive into icy water if:
- cardiovascular diseases;
- hypertension;
- inflammation and chronic diseases of the kidneys and urinary tract;
- dysfunction of the thyroid gland;
- respiratory diseases;
- epilepsy;
- cerebral circulatory disorders;
- tendency to seizures;
- various infectious and colds.
Even without these contraindications, every visitor to the bathhouse (experienced or beginner), before thoughtlessly climbing into an ice hole, is obliged to consult a family doctor. And only after receiving the “good” from him can you gradually get used to winter hardening, of course, with a firm decision to carry out all the necessary preparatory bath procedures.
What happens to the human body when swimming in an ice hole
The effect of cold water on the human body begins with the fact that blood vessels narrow under the influence of cold, reducing blood flow to the skin and peripheral organs. Blood flow to the internal organs, on the contrary, increases, supplying them with additional portions of oxygen and nutrients. Thus, heat is retained inside the human body.
After swimming in ice water, the effects of cold stop, the body begins to warm up, and the blood vessels dilate. A person experiences a pleasant feeling of warmth coming to the skin. His physical activity increases, vigor and joy from what he has done appear. We can say that this is similar to gymnastics of the cardiovascular system as a whole, thanks to which the efficiency of metabolic processes in the body increases.
Ice water also increases the activity of the respiratory system - it becomes deeper and easier. A strong nervous system, thermoregulation and protective functions of the body of a person who regularly engages in winter swimming have a beneficial effect on his health. Such common diseases as colds and viral diseases occur much less frequently in him than in a non-hardened person.
It must be borne in mind that staying in cold water for too long leads to a large loss of heat in the body. Constricted blood vessels are unable to compensate for this loss, and as a result, hypothermia with all the negative consequences. Dosed and correct stay in the ice hole should be the main criterion for any person.
