Matvei Isakov steps down from the top level of the sauna with his water and bottle of tea tree essential oils. He looks around at the sweat-covered faces of the others in the room and asks, “Mind if I put some water?”
“Go for it,” said one of the other two people in the sauna. So Isakov drips oils and a splash of water onto the hot rocks of the stove, creating a loud sizzling noise. One of them lets out a sigh, and then the other, as the steam makes its way around the 172-degree room.
Isakov, a fourth-year mechanical engineering major from Moscow, is a veteran sauna-goer who has endless stories to tell of his long history with banyas, the Russian iteration of sweat baths.
Now a regular at Northeastern’s two saunas, Isakov enjoys their health and meditative benefits, but what he really relishes is the community he’s found there.
Many students regularly attend the sets of two saunas located in the locker rooms of Marino Recreation Center and SquashBusters on campus. Saunas are known for their physical health benefits, which range from increased production of beta-endorphins, — which induce the feeling of a natural high — to an increased ability to fight viral illnesses. However, the social culture that surrounds them is lesser known.
“It’s a matter of focus time; you’re disconnected from the phones, distractions and you’re going through a journey together with the same heat, the same cold, same experience. Like a hike in the woods or something,” said Glenn Auerbach, creator of SaunaTimes, a website, journal and podcast dedicated to the education and dispersion of all things sauna.
Kiran Patel, another avid Northeastern sauna attendee, shared a similar perspective on the social aspect of the activity.
“Retreating into yourself isn’t as good as retreating to somewhere with other people,” said Patel, a fourth-year psychology major. “Just seeing where the vibe would go with a couple friends is nice. I appreciated that, and once I could organize it … I gathered some friends to do that.”
Also key to sauna use are the immediate physiological benefits, which are known to be borne from a chemical reaction in the brain once the heat hits.
Studies show that saunas help produce beta-endorphins and a chemical called ACTH, a hormone that helps regulate the body’s response to stress, said Earric Lee, leading researcher on the health benefits of sauna and postdoctoral research fellow at the Montreal Heart Institute. He explained that people may also experience a drop in heart rate, a drop in arterial stiffness, continued aerobic metabolism and even a reduction in symptoms of illness when fighting a virus. “These chemicals are responsible for making you feel good, which is why, after going to the sauna, you leave feeling like ‘this was great,’” he said.
The history of sweat bathing
The sauna is the Finnish iteration of sweat bathing, a practice that involves a heated chamber, which forces the body to perspire.
The use of sweat baths can be traced back to the beginning of humanity, likely because they stem from our most basic human fascinations with fire and heat. Sweat bathing was believed to cleanse the body by opening up pores and flushing out bacteria, grime and toxins.
“The minute we were using fire to heat a structure, that’s where the sweat bath was born,” said Mikkel Aaland, author of “Sweat,” a book on the history of sweat bathing and co-founder of Sauna Aid, a worldwide initiative that provides movable saunas and supportive services to people facing natural and man-made disasters.
Sweat baths come in a variety of architectures, customs and procedures and are present in almost every culture on the planet. Some of the earliest iterations of sweat baths likely involved a simple process of placing heated rocks in the middle of an enclosed structure and pouring water on them to create steam. The American Indigenous peoples’ iteration of the sweat bath, called the inipi or sweat lodge, works most similarly to this today.
Now, a traditional sauna is typically a cedar wood-paneled room with three levels of benches, the ceiling an arm’s length above someone sitting on the top bench and a stove that heats rocks that provide crucial steam when water is poured on top.
The two saunas at Northeastern both feature most of the characteristics of a traditional sauna; however, they only have two levels of benches. They also have different variances in heat distribution, as the SquashBusters sauna has a much larger stove.
Most Northeastern sauna-goers have their opinions on which location is better. Patel, a frequenter of the SquashBusters sauna, shared that he prefers that one because of the proper use of etiquette of those who attend.
“It’s one: less stinky. Two: a little less crowded. … I feel like there’s something nice about it that everyone in there really appreciates how tightly that door needs to be shut,” Patel said. “In Marino, I’ve had a lot of bad experiences where people are just gonna leave that main door open. All of that … sauna heat just leaves — everyone is disgruntled.”
While some try to avoid the sauna crowds at Northeastern, being around people is what drew many to sweat baths hundreds of years ago in vast cold places like Scandinavia and Russia. In these areas, where people were so sparsely distributed, sweat baths became crucial places where individuals gathered to share time, commune and socialize, because outside of that, they wouldn’t, Lee said.
The same is true at Northeastern, a university that fosters self-reliant, career-oriented academics. Community, like what is found in the saunas, is fundamental to the social health of the student body.
Armaan Ajoomal, a fourth-year psychology major, said this is why he prefers the Marino sauna.
“The cultural experience at Marino is unparalleled,” Ajoomal said. “As someone who cares more about the sauna culture and interacting and connecting with people instead of just sweating in a room for 20 minutes by my lonesome, I really prefer the Marino experience.”
The three pillars of the sweat bath
Sweat baths and saunas are closely related to some of the most basic human desires: physical, spiritual and social needs.
Many students like Jack Roath, a fourth-year business administration major, began saunaing to aid his recovery after workouts.
“I started going to the sauna mostly because it was great for recovery. I found that any time I went into the sauna after a hard lift … I would be rejuvenated the next day every time. I would have no soreness, my energy levels would be up and I would be a bit more relaxed as well,” Roath said.
There is a long list of physical health benefits beyond recovery that sauna-goers reap.
Lee has conducted numerous studies that have found that the benefits of saunaing are accentuated with the supplement of exercise. He found that if the sauna is used immediately after physical activity, there is a drop in systolic blood pressure and cholesterol levels as well as an increase in cardiovascular fitness.
Beyond physical benefits, sweat baths can fulfill some of the most basic human desires for spiritual meaning.
In many cultures, the sweat bath is a religious experience. The inipi is a current-day example of this. Even if the experience isn’t directly related to faith, this could be why the nature of interactions with strangers in the sauna often leans in the direction of metaphysics.
“I feel like that’s something about the sauna that needs to be said. It’s understated how philosophical people get in there,” Patel said. “I think it’s the heat … you’re just sitting there, and you’re having to go slow with your breathing. There’s nothing else to do other than to take it slow and try to survive. In those moments, I think your survival thoughts come out.”
Perhaps most importantly, sweat baths fulfill basic needs for social interaction and community. This seems to be the aspect that is so enchanting, leading people to become enthusiasts and even devote their lives and careers to it.
Saunas function as what is called a third place — social spaces outside of home and work that allow for community connection. Some examples of third spaces are parks, cafes, bars, churches and libraries. Experts say they are crucial to maintaining a healthy work-life balance, lowering stress levels in daily life and combating loneliness.
“People in those third spaces find what we call psychological flow, which is where you’re feeling like … your skill sets are being well used,” said Mark Prokosch, a Northeastern professor of social psychology. “So [saunaing] usually goes pretty fast and it felt good while you were doing it — it felt good after you did it. The more flow states you can feel during the day, the better off you’re going to be in terms of your mental health.”
Aaland related the three basic human needs to pillars that hold up the sauna in its sustained popularity throughout time. He emphasized how crucial the social pillar is by using an analogy of a trend in Norway during the 1970s where people installed private saunas in their basements. With the social aspect of sauna taken away, the fad did not last long and 10 years later, they were “all being used as storage rooms,” he said.
“You take away that social pillar, and now you … probably don’t have the spiritual [pillar] anymore either. Maybe you have the physical [pillar] only because, ‘Oh, it feels good,’ — it’s good for you too, but you’re not going to hold up the popularity. It’s not sustainable over thousands of years,” Aaland said. “Any good bathing culture is sustainable because it has those three pillars holding it up. You take away the social [pillar] and it wavers.”
However, millennia after its advent, the cultural phenomenon of the sweat bath is still a healing activity that brings people together.
“The modern world is so full of superficiality and so fragmented,” Aaland said. “To have this opportunity to work with something that is about wholeness and defragmenting and bringing us back into a state of … balance, it’s really important.”
The Northeastern saunas seem to bring this healing and unity to a community of students with vastly different lives and backgrounds.
“I think opening up more of these third spaces and facilitating these conversations both for men and women, is something that is desperately needed on Northeastern’s quite anti-social climate and campus,” Ajoomal said. “I really do believe … it is a refuge for people who want to talk about how they truly feel but don’t always know how to express it in the best way possible.”
