Brief sauna etiquette: How to get the most out of your sauna visit

The positive effects of the sauna: going to the sauna is healthy!

Most people know that visiting the sauna promotes your health. However, how does it affect us exactly? The healthy effect of regular sauna sessions is evoked by the increase in body temperature – comparable with an "artificial fever". The interplay of heat and cooling leads to multi-layered metabolism activation. On the one hand, the immune system is stimulated and on the other hand, the circulation and regeneration of different skin layers is promoted. Regular sauna visitors are proven to get ill from minor infections or colds less often due to the boosted defences. Going to the sauna trains the cardiovascular system and improves circulation.

You will see: Those who enjoy the sauna properly will reap many positive effects for their well-being!

Visiting the sauna makes you beautiful and promotes physical well-being

Visiting the sauna is also a perfect anti-ageing treatment, as it not only cleanses but also counteracts skin ageing. But the regeneration of the muscles is an essential aspect. This not only helps to break down stress, but also to boost stress resistance and thus enormously increase well-being. In order to achieve these positive effects, it is, however, also important to sauna properly.

How to sauna properly

Only those who regularly visit the sauna can enjoy the complete effect it has on health. Ideally, you should take time to visit the sauna once a week. With three rounds plus quiet phases, a sauna visit takes around three hours. In the process, the interchange between heat and cold is crucial for the result. While the sauna is a sweat bath, it is the cooling off of the body that causes the positive health effects.

How do you behave in the sauna?

Whether a sauna pro or beginner: to achieve a truly recuperative and healthy result, several ground rules should be observed.

• Do not go into the sauna hungry or with a full stomach.

• Before beginning the sauna sessions, shower thoroughly and dry off properly. If the skin is still moist, the water has to evaporate first before starting to produce sweat.

• Hygiene is important! Make sure that you are always completely sitting or laying on the towel in the sauna and that your sweat does not drip onto the wood.

• The sauna session lasts around 8 to a maximum of 15 minutes. It is best to sit closer to the bottom at the beginning. Warm air is known to rise, meaning it is not as hot in the lower rows.

• After visiting the sauna, the first cool-off phase begins in the fresh air so that the lungs are provided with oxygen again. This helps the circulation to get used to the sudden lower temperature.

• The second cool-off phase involves the cold water pool or cold showering and potentially, Kneipp treatments. Tip: Start at the extremities before cooling the torso. Or simply use our exclusive snow sauna to carefully restore your body to normal temperature. The cool-off phase should last at least as long as the stay in the sauna cabin.

• After the cool-off phases, the resting phase of around 30 to 60 minutes begins before moving on to the next infusion. More than three sauna sessions do not boost the health effects.

Tip: A sauna bath also prepares you optimally for a therapeutic massage in our exclusive AVITA PREMIUM Spa.

Sauna tips and important information for your optimal sauna visit

• Bathing shoes

For hygiene reasons, it is recommended that you wear bathing shoes when visiting the sauna. These also prevent the feet cooling down between sauna sessions. Bathing shoes are also recommended for safety reasons, as they significantly reduce the risk of slipping by the pools and showers. Moreover, the shoes are not taken into the sauna, but rather left outside. This is because firstly, bathing shoes bear a certain accident hazard when getting on the sauna benches, and secondly, so-called plasticisers could leak from the plastic shoes due to the effect of the heat.

• Towel

For hygiene reasons, we ask that you use an appropriately large towel in the sauna cabins that allows you to completely sit or lay on it. Your feet should also be placed on this. For the same reason, the loungers should be exclusively used with a towel. A towel is therefore compulsory in the Eden Sauna Garden – not only for drying off. 

• Personal well-being

The most important rule when visiting the sauna is to not to do anything that you makes you feel uncomfortable or that could make others feel uncomfortable. Personal well-being, however, also serves as a natural indicator for the number and duration of sauna sessions. Dizziness and discomfort are a strong sign that you should leave the cabin and cool off or drink something.

• Sauna fragrance

What would a sauna infusion be without an infusion fragrance? Different fragrances can crucially shape your stay in the sauna. The sauna fragrances at the AVITA Resort are composed of high-quality oils and are carefully selected by our sauna masters. Pouring spirits, strongly scented essences or flammable infusion concentrates on the oven is strictly forbidden and can cause a fire in the sauna.

• Sauna masters

Our sauna masters are exactly what the name says - the masters of their trade. Years of experience and enthusiasm for the career are just a few of many things that make our competent employees.

• Drinking

It is important to provide your body with sufficient hydration after visiting the sauna. The ideal thirst quencher during or after the sauna visit is mineral water, diluted juices or even non-alcoholic beer. Alcohol in turn prevents the most important medical effect of the sauna: vascular training. It is optimal to balance your water supply before entering the sauna and then to drink sufficiently, if possible, at the end of the sauna visit. In this way, when sweating, the body does not retrieve fluids from the mineral water bottle which would minimise the detoxification effect, but rather from the body itself. However, here, the number one rule applies - listen to your body!