Snacking in the bathhouse is a standard entertainment for our people. This snack includes barbecue, alcoholic drinks, and snacks. But is it useful? What can you eat or drink in the bathhouse and before visiting this place? What is the proper nutrition before and after a bath so as not to harm the body? The article is useful not only for bathhouse lovers, but also for those who want to lose weight by visiting a steam room.
Let’s immediately clarify that this article is about all types of steam rooms: Russian bath, Finnish sauna, Turkish hammam, Roman, etc. Everyone chooses their own version of a bath or sauna, but the effect should be positive. For example, someone who is accustomed to a temperature of 80 degrees can easily endure the procedure and the effect will be the same as for those who are accustomed to steaming at “cooler” temperatures.
Contraindications to visiting baths and saunas
- Heart disease, hypertension
- Oncological diseases
- Flu and other acute viral infections (with fever)
- Epilepsy
- Pregnancy (with caution)
- Critical days for women
- Head injuries
- Contagious skin diseases (in this case you can simply infect others)
- Alcohol intoxication
- Empty or too full stomach
An alternative for those who cannot, for some reason, visit a classic Russian bath or sauna is the so-called “cedar barrel”.
When going to a bathhouse or sauna, collect the necessary set of things that will be useful to you in the steam room and in the relaxation area. Observe the rules of hygiene especially carefully and use individual bath accessories in public baths and saunas; it is unknown what diseases you can pick up there. Be carefull!
The benefits of a bath
Using hot bath steam, you can cleanse the skin of old cells and stimulate the secretion of sweat and sebaceous glands.
Toxins and wastes, excess lactic acid come out with sweat. The mucous membranes of the respiratory tract are also exposed to intense heat in the bath.
The bath brings invaluable benefits to the human cardiovascular system: blood easily moves through the veins and arteries, this helps improve metabolic processes in cells, more active absorption of oxygen by tissues and eliminate stagnant processes.
With the help of bathing procedures, the acidity of gastric juice is reduced and digestion is improved. And massage, contrast baths and the use of a broom perfectly relieve nervous tension. So after a busy week of work, go take a steam bath!
The bathhouse will be especially useful for those who lead a sedentary lifestyle. After a bath, the number of leukocytes in the blood increases, which actively participate in the body’s immune defense.
The bath will also help improve a person’s psychological state. With the help of the heat of the sauna, muscles relax, the feeling of overwork is relieved, and vital activity is restored.
If you have a cold, which is also accompanied by a cough and runny nose, then the steam room will be a salvation for you - there you can get on the path to recovery. After several sessions in the steam room, you can easily recover and recover even from long holidays. Staying in the bath helps to dilate blood vessels, and a pale face will acquire a slight blush.
Do you want to lose weight? Go to the bathhouse! In the steam room you can lose up to one and a half liters of fluid from the body and get rid of excess fat deposits. But do not overdo it in order to prevent weakness, exhaustion and dehydration of the body.
Don't overeat
If overeating cannot be avoided, you should go to the bathhouse no earlier than after 4-5 hours. Under high pressure due to temperature, blood moves away from the internal organs to the skin. But for good digestion, the intestines must be supplied with blood. It turns out that food in the steam room is not digested, but “ferments” in the stomach, causing discomfort and sometimes pain.
How to steam in a sauna correctly?
You need to get used to the heat of the bath gradually.
And before visiting the steam room, it is recommended to rinse lightly with warm water without getting your hair wet. After you douse yourself with water and enter the steam room, wipe yourself dry with a towel, as moisture will only delay sweating. To avoid overheating your head, wear a special woolen bath cap.
As soon as profuse sweating begins in the steam room, it would be better to lie down on a shelf so that the body can receive heat evenly, and if you are not prepared for intense heat, start getting used to it from the lower shelves. There is no need to set records, the most important thing is to feel good about it.
After your body has warmed up and you have sweated well for 8-10 minutes, leave the steam room, rinse with water and rest for 5-7 minutes.
Then you can steam, adding heat to the stones with water, and disperse the steam throughout the steam room with a damp broom. After this, lightly pat the body with a broom, first on one side, then on the other. By the way, how to choose the right broom for a bath and how to use it correctly is also an important issue and you need to approach it thoroughly.
Repeat the procedure until you can stay in the steam room. After this, go out and cool your body in a cool pool, if available, under the shower, or you can wipe yourself off with snow. But don't let yourself get chills.
The procedure with a broom is repeated three times; it is strictly forbidden to drink alcohol during this process. After all, the heart and blood vessels are already loaded and alcohol would be inappropriate here. Try to make your stay in the bathhouse pleasant and as useful as possible, so that the bathhouse makes your health strong and cannot cause harm.
