Forget the pub, saunas are the new social hotspot

Samantha Bluemel only opened Auckland wellness studio Mode a year ago, but she’s already noticed an influx of younger people hitting the studio for a bit of quality time in the sauna.

"We’ve definitely seen the younger generations spending time together without alcohol, particularly Gen Z, they’ve kind of moved away from that," she says.

"They’re a lot less interested in drinking as their primary source of socialising and instead a lot of them are turning to healthier ways to do it, and sharing a sauna certainly fits the bill for a lot of them."

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Bluemel’s set-up puts a big focus on recovery, with two private suites featuring saunas and ice baths for the ultimate contrast therapy.

She says the use of sauna – a Finnish tradition of high heat and low humidity in a small, wood-panelled room – is proving especially popular for people who just want to unwind and share quality time in a lowkey setting.

"It's hitting two birds with one stone, because you’re getting that lovely physical and mental benefit from spending time in a sauna, but you're also getting in some social time."

Bluemel says the term being used now is ‘social wellbeing’ - which stems from the idea that wellness is made up of more pillars than just the physical.

"There’s a lot of research that says our strong social connections mean we’re happier, we’re less stressed... it’s not just about going to the gym five times a week and having a protein smoothie afterwards.

"It's important to take a more holistic view on everything when it comes to wellbeing, so those rooms are developed for mental wellbeing and a happy consequence of that is social wellbeing as well."

Mode’s recovery suites comfortably sit two people at a time and even feature a deck of conversational cards full of funny questions, and some serious and intimate ones too.

"Our clients get a lot out of them and I think saunas just create an environment that takes away the noise of the outside world, and that definitely lends to deeper conversations with friends. It's an opportunity to step away from the hustle and bustle of the world."

While modern saunas are becoming popular globally, the tradition of communal sweat bathing has roots in cultures such as Japanese onsens and Turkish hammams.

In Finland, saunas are an integral part of the culture and lifestyle, with an estimated two million saunas in homes and community centres across the country.

Finnish sauna builder Petri Knuuttila is on a mission to strengthen the culture of saunas in New Zealand.

"Saunas have been going on for thousands of years. It’s part of our genes, it’s part of our culture. Besides purifying the mind and body, it’s where Finns socialise and do business."

Knuuttila says saunas have even historically been a place where Finns prepared for life's milestones, including births and deaths.

“The original sauna is what we call today as smoke sauna. It took eight, 10 hours to heat up. We would use it as a place to wash the bodies of deceased before burying them in a coffin, and for women giving birth, it was a hygienic place to keep warm during winter.

“My daughter was in the sauna the day after they came home from hospital, and my Swedish wife was terrified, but that’s just how we do things over in Finland. She loved it and she still loves it.”

Sauna use has been linked to many claimed benefits over the years, from improved cardiovascular health, muscle relaxation and respiratory benefits to stress reduction, improved sleep, and even claims of improved skin health.

At Wellington's HealthFit Collective, exercise scientist and academic director Carl Hammington's role revolves around researching whether "sensationalised" wellness trends stack up.

He says the studies around sauna certainly indicate real physical benefits, pointing to a 2015 study in Finland that found people who used saunas regularly, around four to seven times a week, showed a 50 percent reduction in cardiovascular disease risk.

"They found there was a definite correlation, not causation, which is important to differentiate... one of the things worth noting with correlational research like that is, it can't take into account everything.

"Are people who use saunas more likely to exercise or eat healthy or be from a higher socio-economic status? All of these other wellbeing factors... it needs to be put in context."

Hammington has created some protocols around the use of HealthFit's recovery room, which features a sauna, a cold plunge pool, and a massage facility.

"The sauna fits three people at a time and bookings can be made for an hour or 90 minutes. It's usually 15-20 minutes in the sauna, then either a rest or cold plunge in between. Generally I try and encourage people to try and bring their temperature back down to as close as normal level in between rounds."

Hammington says this contrast therapy is based off the Finnish practice of sauna.

"The Finns would generally go in the sauna and they'd either go and roll around in the snow, or jump in an icy pond between rounds.

"It comes back to this idea around metabolic flexibility, so when you get hot, something happens called vasodilation where your body sends a whole lot of blood to your periphery. When you jump in the cold, it's the opposite, it sends a whole lot of blood to your core to protect your organs. So it has these really beneficial circulation effects."

For Blumel, saunas became a vital part of her own wellness journey during a challenging time in her life. When her mother was terminally ill with breast cancer, she turned to contrast therapy and sauna to manage stress.

"Fitness was the thing that kept me sane, but I realised after a while that it wasn't quite enough. My stress levels were so high dealing with such a big horrible situation... contrast therapy and sauna was like a physical access point for a session around mindfulness."

For Hammington, saunas have always been an outlet to connect with people and do good by his mental health.

"One of my colleagues and I used to go every Wednesday to a local sauna, it was a healthy form of socialisation and I got so much out of it. I slept well, got to connect with him on a social level, and we both just felt multiple benefits from that experience every week.

"I'm a bit older now, I'm 42, and I was sort of raised where I guess drinking was a big part of socialisation and I realised reasonably young that that wasn't a super healthy thing for me to do on a regular basis... and I just found sauna so nice.

"You can sit there, you can chat, you can have a bit of a laugh, and I guess trauma-bond with the heat and cold. It takes you out of your head and into your body, and I found that really beneficial for my mental wellbeing."