A variety of baths, an infrared cabin, a hamam, a Roman bath, a Moroccan bath, a kraxen or a hay bath, a Korean mineral bath, as well as an intensive Russian and Finnish bath.

The benefits of a bath for human health, his condition, mental and physical, have been known for a very long time.“B an effect ”Arises from regular trips to the bathhouse.The blood vessels are trained, the state of health improves.The variety of baths of the peoples of the world guarantees everyone the opportunity to choose the most comfortable steam for themselves. Baths can be "soft" and "intense" according to their properties. We choose the best option for ourselves.

The softest infrared bath, its radiation is able to heat the human body absolutely safely. Warming starts at room temperature and exerts minimal stress on the heart. The duration of the session is 15-30 minutes. Natural humidity, air temperature 45-60° C

Hamam - Turkish bath... Temperature 45-55 ° C, humidity 65-85%. The body is heated on a marble table where various treatments such as peels and massages are performed.

Roman bath... Temperature about 45 ° C, humidity 100% is achieved by the operation of the steam generator. Such a comfortable bath is ideal for women, the superficial layers of the skin are ideally moisturized with steam.

Moroccan bath... Temperature about 45° C , air humidity - natural. All procedures are carried out as in a Turkish bath on a warm marble table (peels, massages with aromatic oils)

Kraxens or hay bath... The miraculous effect of such a steam bath, which passes through the hay, absorbs its aromas, envelops the body, steam is supplied locally in the lumbar region.

Korean or mineral aroma bath There are mats on the warm floor. The mineral jadeite has a beneficial effect. Jadeite is used in oriental medicine.recoverydisturbed human bioenergetics.

“ Intense “ baths

Russian sauna... Temperature 70-90° C, humidity is about 80%. It is hot here and there is enough steam. This balance of temperature and humidity allows the steam to be light and soft.

Finnish sauna... Temperature 100-120° C, humidity is about 30-50%. Low humidity allows you to raise the temperature to 120° C As a result, the coverage of heat in such a sauna is greater.

Japanese bath - ofuro... Immersion in water with a temperature of 40-42° C heats up the body. Further, contrasting effects of hot (45-46° C) and cold (8 ° C) water.In terms of the load on the body and the cardiovascular system, this is the most intense bath.

Ofuro- a bathhouse for lovers of contrasting sensations, which, according to the Japanese, has a rejuvenating effect.

Sauna for walruses, thermal baths in Baden-Baden, Budapest thermal baths, Rzhevskaya steam bath and other baths around the world, which are worth warming up in. At different stages of its history and in the most different places of its habitat, mankind has discovered approximately the same ways of unhurried, but very effective rejuvenation, recovery and, at the same time, just relaxation. The main ingredients of this recipe are steam and hot water. Condiments are very different: birch and other brooms, massage, scrub, whipped soap and other additions that vary from region to region. For those who feel like a new person after a steam room, Forbes magazine compiled a list of the most remarkable baths on the planet.

Bani Gellert (Budapest, Hungary)

Where: H-1118 Budapest, Kelenhegyi út 4 There are 118 thermal springs in Budapest. The ancient Romans steamed in them, and in the 16th century, together with the Turks, the first hammams appeared here. But the glory of the European capital of steam brought to the city the majestic bath complexes built at the beginning of the 20th century. And the most famous of them is Gellert, a masterpiece of Budapest Art Nouveau, which opened in 1918 at the foot of the hill of the same name on the banks of the Danube. The doorman at the entrance, marble columns, tall arched vaults, stained-glass windows in the lobby, mosaics in baths and steam rooms - all the signs of a great style are evident here: it is not for nothing that they say about Gellert that when you swim in his pool, it seems that you are taking a bath in a cathedral. On the lower level there is a hammam with eucalyptus steam, a sauna with an antique clock and three baths with cold, warm and hot water. Here, for a fee, you can order massage, mud baths and other medical procedures. One floor above - the same "cathedral" pool with a sliding roof, the appearance of which reminds of Roman baths: along the perimeter it is surrounded by a two-tiered colonnade with a gallery at the top. In the 1930s, during the reign of Admiral Horthy, the best balls in the city were rolled here: the pool was covered with a glass floor, and the orchestra was located on the gallery. Now there are only palms in tubs and a cafe where you can have a cup of coffee with Unicum balsam or just a glass of Tokay. Or you can go out into the courtyard, where there is another pool - with an artificial wave, stone cascading terraces and a pavilion decorated with majolica, worthy of the best palace parks in Europe. Cost of admission: from 3600 (weekdays) to 3900 (weekend) forints (€ 13-15) Read more: www.gellertbath.com

Rauhaniemi (Tampere, Finland)

Where: Rauhaniementie 24 Tampere is home to the oldest sauna in Finland - built in 1906 by Rajaportin. But the younger sauna Rauhaniemi (it appeared in 1929) is much more popular - and not only among the locals: this place is called the best sauna for walruses in Finland. Rauhaniemi stands on the shore of the beautiful large lake Näsijärvi, and in winter, heated paths lead from the sauna to its shore, ending in a spacious hole, into which a staircase with a handrail descends. In the ice-hole (the water temperature is from two to four degrees), pot-bellied Finns and burly Finns, as well as rare and timid foreigners of various sizes, snort and grunt. Then all together they gradually go to warm up, and for these purposes there are actually two saunas in Rauhaniemi (the largest - it is the hottest - can accommodate 70 people). Having thoroughly steamed, the red-bodied people slowly return to the polynya - and so three or four times. Before leaving the sauna, good form it is considered to ask: "Heytyankyo leuluya?" - whether to add, that is, a couple? And if everyone says “Heitya vaan” or simply “Küllä”, then you need to splash some water on the hot stones. By the way, in summer the quality of the steam is no worse, you can even sunbathe on the beach, and next to the stairs leading to the former wormwood, you will see a two-meter diving tower. Entrance fee: € 4.5 Read more: www.rauhaniemi.net

Daikoku-Yu (Tokyo, Japan)

Where: 32-6 Senju Kotobuki-cho, Adachi-ku In traditional Japanese public baths, instead of steam rooms, there are hot water baths where people sit, sweat and relax. And the king of sento is called the Tokyo Daikoku-Yu bath, which has been operating since 1927. In the nineties, it underwent a large-scale reconstruction, which mainly affected the internal structure: from the outside, the bathhouse still looks exactly the same as eighty years ago, and more like a Buddhist temple. Daikoku-Yu is open from three days to midnight, and inside, sterile cleanliness and turtle calm and unhurriedness reign here. Behind the locker room with small compartments for clothes, weights and massage chairs, there is a hall with a full-wall view of Fuji, taps with water and three baths, moreover, massage ones. The hot water temperature is 42 degrees, but there is also cold, 15 degrees. In the inner courtyard, under the roof, there is a roten-buro - the so-called outdoor bath. It has the same 42 degrees, and around it there is a small garden with a traditional stone lamp: contemplation also helps to relax and forget about vanity. Usually, people with tattoos are not allowed in sento, but in Daikoku-Yu it is quite possible to sit in a bath next to a yakuza covered with patterns from head to toe. In the bath, however, they are very good-natured. Entrance fee: ¥ 430 (approximately $ 5.4)

Sauna Deco (Amsterdam, Holland)

Where: Herengracht 115, 1015 BE Surprisingly, an old Parisian department store played a major role in the fate of a small sauna in the center of Amsterdam. When in the 1970s the owners of the famous Le Bon Marche store decided to renew the interior, designed in the 1920s according to the sketches of the renowned Art Deco master architect Louis-Hippolyte Boileau, a huge number of decorative details were simply dismantled. They were acquired by the agile Dutch, who gave their bath the appropriate name. A wooden staircase with a bronze cast balustrade, along which Parisians hurried to shop, now leads to the second floor of the sauna to the relaxation room, a glass elevator shaft separates the pool from the rest of the rooms, and the gilded stained glass windows in the lounge and pool were used as lanterns on the roof of a department store. Now these luxurious Parisian interiors are wandering completely naked and wrapped in towels, people of both sexes: like most Dutch baths, Sauna Deco is mixed, and bathing suits are not allowed here. After visiting two saunas with different temperatures and a hammam with eucalyptus steam, you can go to the pool with hydromassage, relax in the tiny garden in the courtyard, and then head to the lounge to look at photographs of the same department store: there is a pyramidal glowing object on the floor, crowned with a vase of flowers , used to be a chandelier in the trading floor. Another reason to visit Sauna Deco is the best massage therapists in Amsterdam, with whom you need to make an appointment in advance. In addition, the local beauty salon offers seaweed wraps and facials that are specially imported from Brittany. Entrance fee: € 21 More information: www.saunadeco.nl

Gedik Pasha (Istanbul, Turkey)

Where: Hamam Cad. No. 65 - 67 Gedikpaşa, Beyazit Hammam Gedik Pasha, which is located next to the Beyazit Mosque and the Grand Bazaar, is one of the oldest in Istanbul: it was built during the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror, in 1475. Most of the guidebooks write that only locals go to it, nevertheless, it may happen that the locals will be in the bathhouse in the minority, but there will be many well-read tourist guidebooks. Tourists, as a rule, leave here not too satisfied and deceived in expectations: the bathhouse attendants are lazy, and the massage is weak. But in fact, this is one of the best hammams in town, and tips help greatly improve your experience of it. In the hall with a marble fountain, they give out pestemals - either towels or sheets, without which it is not customary to be in the hammam. In the center of the main hall, which is called hararet, there is a large marble elevation, hebektashi, that is, the "stone of the belly." This stone is hot, and the attendants lay clients on it and do massage-peeling with the help of a rigid mitten (it removes the skin from a layer of dead cells), and also wraps it in foam from head to toe and kneads the body properly (in the women's department of the attendant, at the same time and sing lingering songs). In hararete, by the way, it is not too hot, because here it is customary not to take a steam bath, but rather languish, from time to time diving into a cool pool. However, there is also a small sauna in the hammam. Entrance fee: 50 Turkish Lira, or approximately $ 30 (massage included) More information: www.gedikpasahamami.com

Sandunovskie Baths (Moscow, Russia)

Where: st. Neglinnaya, 14, pp. 3-7 The most famous Moscow baths were founded, oddly enough, by the actor: Sila Nikolaevich Sandunov served as a comedian at the Imperial Theater, but he approached his business project seriously. Having sold, as legend has it, a diamond necklace presented by Catherine II for the wedding of his wife, he bought up plots on the banks of the Neglinka River, which had not yet been hidden in a pipe, and in 1808 opened stone baths. Subsequently, the Sanduns changed owners many times, and by the end of the century they were greatly dilapidated, so the next owners - the millionaire Vera Firsanova and her husband, Guards Lieutenant Alexei Ganetsky - decided to build a new bathhouse on the same site. The complex of buildings, erected by the architect Freudenberg, is a masterpiece of eclecticism: through the pompous neo-baroque arch of the main facade you can see the “Moorish” arch in the courtyard, and in the interiors with marble columns, stucco and gilding, you can find everything - from Gothic to Art Nouveau. The clientele of the Sandunov reopened in 1896 in their diversity was not inferior to the interiors: ordinary people washed for 5 and 10 kopecks, and serious merchants rested in a luxurious department for fifty rubles per person: with a hairdresser, a fireplace and separate offices for 5 and 10 rubles. The system of "ranks" has survived to this day: in modern Sanduny there are five departments - three for men and two for women, but all the main beauties are a "Gothic" hall with wooden carvings, a "Turkish" one with ceiling paintings and stucco moldings and a pool with an Ionic colonnade, where Eisenstein filmed episode "Battleship Potemkin", open only to visitors of the highest male category. However, the famous Sandunov couple, about which Chaliapin said that he "frees" the voice, is still available to everyone - as well as the services of the bathhouse attendants who work here in dynasties. Visit cost: 1500-1800 rubles More details: www.sanduny.ru

Kotiharyu (Helsinki, Finland)

Where: Harjutorinkatu 1, 00500 Half a century ago there were about 120 public saunas in Helsinki, but now there is nothing left (Finns now prefer to arrange private baths in the basements of high-rise buildings or even in apartments). And only one works on wood at all - Kotiharyu, located in the Kallio working district, which in Finnish is now slowly going through the gentrification process. This sauna (a family business, by the way, owned by the couple Risto and Merja Holopainen) was built in 1928, and in 1999 it was thoroughly reconstructed - and with the help of the Helsinki Culture Capital Foundation: in commemoration of the fact that 2000 was Helsinki became the cultural capital of Europe. There are one and a half tons of stones in the stove there, and it takes a cubic meter of firewood and five to six hours of time to warm up the sauna. To add a couple or not, according to tradition, those who sit on the top, hottest benches decide. Regulars from neighboring quarters, students, creative intelligentsia - and, of course, tourists come here. To cool off, hot visitors wrapped in towels go straight out onto the street - they drink beer and sing songs in chorus in front of passers-by who, if not singing along, then listen attentively. And they also do great massage here. Entrance fee: € 10, subscription for 10 visits - € 90; birch broom - € 5 More information: www.kotiharjunsauna.fi

Dragon Hill Spa (Seoul, Korea)

Where: Yongsan Gu, Hangang-ro Dong 40-713 Korean steam does not tolerate fuss, and whole families come to the local baths - jimjilbans - not only to steam, but also to eat, take a nap and chat. In the Dragon Hill Spa in Seoul, entrance tickets are sold immediately for 12 hours - this is a real bath disneyland, on seven floors of which, in addition to steam rooms and pools, there are restaurants, cafes, a fitness club, a cinema and even a golf course. At the entrance, visitors are given a uniform (shorts and T-shirts), which will be needed when visiting mixed areas, and special electronic bracelets, where information about all purchases made - from drinks to massages, is entered. In separate men's and women's zones, there are wet steam rooms and a variety of baths: with sea water, with ginseng, with aromatic herbs, as well as mud, hydromassage and cold baths. After water procedures, you should go to the famous Korean peeling: with the help of a special viscose mitten, a layer of dead skin cells is scraped off the visitors, and the skin becomes soft like a baby's. The mixed zone has a huge tatami lounge - if you wish, you can even stay overnight here (after all, many jimjilbans work around the clock and are a cheap alternative to hotels). Nearby there are several rooms designed as medieval palace halls: tourists like to take pictures in them. But the main feature of Dragon Hill Spa is the original dry steam rooms: one is heated with pine wood, the other is trimmed with cypress, the third is jade, the fourth floor is covered with heated salt crystals, there is also a steam room with yellow clay and an ice room with a real snowman. Entrance fee: 10,000-12,000 won (about € 8) More details: www.dragonhillspa.co.kr

Orbeliani (Tbilisi, Georgia)

Where: Abanotubani, st. Joseph Grishashvili Tbilisi owes its appearance and its name to sulfur springs. According to legend, king Vakhtang Gorgasali shot a deer in the Kura valley, but he fell to a hot spring, healed and was like that - and Vakhtang ordered to found a city on the same place called Tbilisi (from the word "tbili" - "warm"). Later, a whole area of ​​sulfur baths appeared on the springs - Abanotubani, which still exists: the baths themselves are underground, on the surface only their large domes with turrets at the top are visible. The most famous institution is the Orbeliani bathhouse (named after the former owner), aka Blue, or Motley, similar to a mosque - with a lancet facade, two small minarets and decorated with blue and blue tiles. It is believed (and this legend is diligently supported) that Pushkin visited its third issue during a trip to Arzrum, and on the wall of the bath there is a sign with his quote: "I have never met anything more luxurious than the Tiflis baths." At that time, the noseless bathhouse attendant Hassan worked on Alexander Sergeevich: he broke his limbs, stretched his joints and beat him with a fist, and the poet felt not pain, but an amazing relief. Now you will not find noseless mekise (as the bath attendants are called), but they still do an excellent massage on a marble trestle bed, then, like Pushkin, they rub with a kitty - a rough woolen mitt, removing an unnecessary layer of dead skin, and then lather it with weightless foam - and wash it off already from a completely different, new person. Entrance fee: from 5 GEL (approximately € 2)

Thermal Baths Friedrichsbad (Baden-Baden, Germany)

Where: Römerplatz 1, D-76530 A majestic building in the spirit of the Renaissance palazzo was built in Baden-Baden in 1869-1877 by the architect Karl Dernfeld - on the personal order of the Grand Duke of Baden Friedrich I, who dreamed of reviving the culture of ancient Roman terms on this site, 2000 creatures years ago. The facade of Friedrichsbad is decorated with statues of Asclepius and Hygieia, and the internal structure partly repeats the layout of Roman baths, with a male and female wing of steam rooms and baths and a round pool in the central rotunda with a marble colonnade. There is a gallery with healing drinking water, but the main thing is, of course, the baths themselves, in which, in full accordance with the antique dress code, bathing suits are prohibited. On Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, women and men steam separately and meet only in the thermal pool, on the rest of the days, all Friedrichsbad premises are open to both sexes. The local baths are often called Roman-Irish: the exotic hybrid owes its birth to the Irish doctor Richard Barter, an active propagandist of hydrotherapy, who supplemented Roman dry steam with moist Turkish steam and insisted on combining steam and baths of different temperatures in one chain. The bath ritual that exists now in Friedrichsbad is based on his method and consists of 17 stages. It all starts with dry steam rooms (54 and 68 degrees), followed by soapy massage, then wet steam rooms, in which it is no longer so hot, and finally, thermal hydromassage pools, each of which is slightly colder than the previous one. After the water procedures, the guests enter the relaxation room: the attendants carefully wrap them in sheets and blankets, put them on the bed and ask when to wake them up. Falling asleep, many remember the words of Mark Twain, who, having visited Friedrichsbad, said: "In ten minutes here you forget about the time, and after twenty - about everything in the world." Entrance fee: € 21 (for 3 hours), with soap massage - € 31 (3.5 hours) More information: www.roemisch-irisches-bad.de

Xiao Nan Guo Tang He Yuan (Shanghai, China)

Where: F2, Xiao Nan Guo Restaurant, No.3337, Hongmei Road Built in 2002, a five-story building next to the renowned Shanghai restaurant Xiao Nan Guo, the language cannot be called a bathhouse - this is an amazing hybrid of a spa and entertainment complex with an area of ​​12,000 square meters: here a thousand people can relax at the same time. Guests are greeted by a lobby worthy of a five-star hotel: a marble reception desk, luxurious chandeliers and music played by a mechanical grand piano, the keys of which move by themselves. Women guests are given blue Hawaiian muumuu dresses instead of bath sheets, men - green short pajamas with shorts, and children, respectively, mini versions of one or the other: whole families come here. Helpful people from Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand work here, who do dozens of massages, rejuvenating body scrubs (they treat every square centimeter of skin with hard mittens - except, of course, the most delicate places) and all kinds of face masks, as well as fifty other spas. procedures. Of the actual bath options, there are, for example, a variety of baths (including milk and Japanese ofuro), steam and low-temperature saunas (in the women's section - with a large TV on which local soap operas are played), as well as swimming pools. And after the procedures - or even in between them - you can play mahjong or ping-pong, sing karaoke or have a snack: there are several cafes with decent dim sum, noodles - and more sophisticated offerings. Entrance fee: 58 yuan, massages - from 48 yuan (approximately $ 7.5-9) More details: www.xnggroup.com

Liquidrom (Berlin, Germany)

Where: Möckernstrasse 10, 10963 Opened in 2005 in the German capital, Liquidrom is a true 21st century bathhouse and perhaps the only place on earth where you can listen to a DJ set while soaking in the pool after a steam room. The minimalist interiors are dominated by natural gray-green stone and concrete; the only exception is the wood-trimmed steam rooms, of which there are four: a wet, Finnish sauna, a salt cave and a panoramic sauna with a glazed wall, trimmed with dead Karelian pine. Once an hour in the Finnish sauna, one of the signature procedures is performed free of charge: a light salt, honey or aroma massage. For lovers of serious massage - for example, Balinese herbal bags or Thai hot stones - there is a spa nearby. After the steam room and treatments, guests head to the outdoor wood-trimmed terrace to take a nap in the sun loungers or lie in a small warm bath, also lined with wood in the Japanese manner. But the main attraction of "Liquidroma" is inside, under a concrete dome - it is a large round pool with sea water. There is always twilight, colored lights and music, and the speakers are installed under the water, so when you dive, it seems as if you are wearing headphones with loud music playing. In the evenings, DJs perform here, and on Fridays, candles are lit around the pool perimeter and live concerts in a variety of genres - from string classics to jazz to electronica - are organized. Visit cost: 2 hours - € 19.5; 4 hours - € 24.5 More information: www.liquidrom-berlin.de

Rzhevskie baths (Moscow, Russia)

Where: Banny pr., 3, bld. 1 Rzhevskie baths have been operating smoothly in the capital for over 120 years - in 1888 they were opened in Korzunovsky lane (now Banny proezd) by the merchant of the second guild Ivan Malyshev. Later, from Malyshevsky they turned into Krestovsky, and the current name was assigned to the bathhouse during the war - it washed the military units sent to the front from the nearby Rzhevsky (now Rizhsky) railway station. Morals here have always been democratic - the main contingent, even before the revolution, consisted of people of ordinary rank, small merchants and students. The interiors, respectively, are not outstanding, although recently there was a major overhaul, after which VIP rooms and a sauna appeared. But this is not why people go to Rzhevskie baths - lovers and connoisseurs of a real Russian bath come to Banny Proezd from all over the city for the sake of a traditional steam room - here it is a real ritual. Steam is prepared every half hour: water is poured into the stove-heater in batches, the walls of the steam room are sprayed with chamomile and wormwood infusions, and only then the people are sent inside. According to the old Moscow tradition, they lie in the steam room right on the floor (the steam is so hot that many come in on all fours), the bather (there are several of them here, each has his own day and his own audience, who comes on that day) becomes in the center, asks for silence and begins to perform sacred acts: "scooping up" steam from above with a broom or a towel, he "pours" it in turn on all the people lying on the floor. After plunging into the cold tub in the soap compartment after such a steam, you feel absolute bliss - in the most precise meaning of the word. Visit cost: 800 rubles (on weekends - 850 rubles) More details: //rzhevskie-bani.ru

Onsen Funaoka (Kyoto, Japan)

Where: 82-1 Murasakino Minamifunaoka-cho, Kita-ku Onsen in Japanese is a hot spring; the same word is used for baths using warm mineral water. Funaoka is a historical bathhouse: it opened in Kyoto back in 1923, and the original interiors have been perfectly preserved to this day. True, unlike the Sanduns or Istanbul hammams, the bath area here, as in most traditional Japanese sento baths, is modestly decorated, but the dressing room is a real museum. The walls here are decorated with painted tiles and carved Japanese cedar bas-reliefs representing battle scenes from the Taisho period (1912-1926), and the wood-paneled ceiling is decorated with a colored high relief depicting Tengu: this mythological monster with wings and a huge nose not only frightens travelers in the mountains with thunderous laughter but also adores cleanliness. From here you can go along the wooden bridge to the bath area, where the usual taps, basins and showers are located, as well as several ofuro - baths with hot water (45-50 degrees), where it is customary to soak after thoroughly washing. In Funoka, in addition to ofuro with mineral water and medicinal Chinese herbs, there is also a denkiburo "electric bath": a weak electric current passes between two metal electrode plates mounted in its walls - the Japanese believe that such a procedure strengthens muscles and stimulates blood circulation. There is also a sauna with a TV nearby, and next to it there is a cold bath with a faucet in the form of a lion's mouth. But the most meditative ofuro is in the courtyard: here you can take a hot bath overlooking the carp pond and rock garden. Entrance Fee: ¥ 410 (approximately $ 5.2) Details:

Who first realized that to wash in hot water nice, historians don't know. There is a beautiful legend that raindrops splashed from the ceiling of the cave onto the red-hot stones of the hearth and the people gathered around the fire felt the invigorating and tender warmth of the steam. The story could have ended there, but people have always loved to have fun. By combining heat, steam and water, humanity has received a bath - another step towards civilization.

A trip to the baths of the peoples of the world touches on different eras and corners of the world. Unique baths were built by people almost at the same time the ancient world in Babylon, Egypt, Greece and Syria. Even the ancient tribes loved to soak up the hot steam. Baths were arranged in huts and stone caves by the Scythians, Maya and Aztecs. The healing power of the baths fell in love with the priests and warriors, exhausted by battles and wounds. Historians suggest that the legends about living water are associated with the appearance of baths. Hot springs with mineral and sulfur waters were instantly overgrown with rumors of healing and were declared sacred. And people began to flock to the baths built there.

The value of the bath in different cultures

During excavations, archaeologists have found a lot of evidence that the baths were loved in Asia and Europe, Africa and America. They were built from different materials, sometimes had bizarre shapes, the principle of operation and procedures were different from each other. The main thing: people needed them.

What are the reasons for the eternal popularity of baths that have survived epochs and centuries? Bath is:

• body hygiene product: and steam, and wash;
• available and kind doctor: removed ailments and fatigue, they forgot about colds, problems with joints and skin diseases;
• tradition and ritual. At first it was used by the priests: they noticed that people soar in the bath, attributing this property of bath procedures to mysterious forces. Over time, each nation has created its own national peculiarities of visiting the baths;
• the best rest. Warm, clean, pleasant, calm - that's why we adore the time spent in baths and saunas.

Public baths that emerged in Rome have become the center of attraction for many people. The walls and halls of the Roman baths have witnessed many political decisions. They were attended by both senators and gladiators. Only in the Middle Ages, baths in Europe had to be closed because of the terrible epidemics that swept across the continent in a wave. But this did not become the reason for oblivion of the baths, after a while the baths were truly widely used and an unlimited army of fans and connoisseurs.

Closer to the north, there is more steam. Here it is, the main secret of the steam bath. Residents of northern countries, who are more often than others experiencing cold, harsh winters, have built steam baths into a national tradition. Several months of cold were forced to look for a source of heat near them. This strengthened the bathing traditions of the Finnish sauna, Russian bath, Japanese bath ofuro and the eastern steam room of the hammam.

Eastern bath - hammam. For us, this is a Turkish bath, although they can still be found in the quarters of Eastern and Asian countries. The steam in the hammam from below smoothly spreads over the room, lined with stone or marble, with special tiles. Soft warmth, gentle steam, relaxing massage are the highlights of this bath. Now the heart of the hamam is a modern steam generator.

Finnish bath- sauna. Where could the hottest steam room be born? In the home of eternal snows and Santa Claus, to feel the contrast of the harsh climate and the sultry sauna. Harsh Finns heat the sauna above 100 ° C. To cope with this extreme, the steam must be dry. Previously, this was achieved with hot stones in a wood-burning stove, now they also use electric ones. The use of wood is characteristic of the sauna in the decoration: it helps to withstand high temperatures and there is a lot of it in the forests of Scandinavia.

Japanese bath: ofuro and sento. Sento - Japanese-style public baths that are built on hot springs. In the cities, sento are located next to restaurants, and in the halls with fonts and swimming pools, cinema screens and speakers are installed, from which traditional music flows. Ofuro is a more domesticated option for family use. Sento and ofuro are united by purely Japanese wooden fonts: round with hot water and rectangular with heated sawdust or pebbles. The Japanese, answering questions about their longevity, playfully send foreigners to visit a Japanese bathhouse and understand everything for themselves.

Russian sauna. There are no Finns without a sauna, there is no Russian person without a bath with a broom and a hot park. Sung in songs and included in hundreds of Russian proverbs and sayings, the bathhouse has been a companion of the Russian people all their life. Foreigners were surprised at the love of Russians to visit the bathhouse. And few Europeans could withstand more than a couple of visits to the steam room, breathing the aromas of fresh herbs and a hot steamy spirit.

In the world of modern baths

The journey has just begun. Baths of Indians and Indians, African with hot sand, Egyptian and Georgian sulfur baths are waiting in the wings. The company "Elite Sauna Stroy", knowing the secrets of building all national baths, offers to make it together. And, having given your heart to one of them, you will want to build exactly the bath that you like.

Unfortunately, no training program can work effectively and for a long time.

Even the set of exercises that suits you very quickly becomes familiar to the body and progress stops. You have to jump from program to program, often changing the best for the worst.

What is most annoying is that the problem of a sharp drop in efficiency over the course of even a short period of time does not depend on the length of training. They come across her after a couple of months of classes in the gym, and she haunts us all the time.

What can you do to make your training program maximize results, work as long as possible and work as efficiently as possible?

We go here, I will teach.

Everyone understands basic principle, according to which our body stops responding to stress. I got used to it, I quickly adapted - fuck you now, not progress!

Therefore, logic dictates that we should not let our body get used to the program. It is possible and necessary to do this without changing the program itself.

About once every two weeks, instead of a regular workout, you should arrange for yourself a "bath day". Not in the sense of going to the sauna, but in the sense that after a short session you feel as if you have crawled out of the steam room.

Explosive training, which lasts no more than half an hour, shocks the body so much that it completely forgets what it is used to. After that, already in the next lesson, your current program becomes almost new for the body.

In addition, explosive training itself brings tangible benefits to the cardiovascular system (a mandatory ECG and an annual examination by a cardiologist, I remind you, are necessary for everyone). Bathing day shocks the body so much, knocks it out of its usual rhythm that it has nothing to do but a violent attempt to make your body stronger, more enduring and more beautiful.

In fact, there is no single explosive training program and it makes no sense to give it. I will give just an example so that the principle underlying it is clear. And you yourself, using what you have in the hall, can easily build a program for yourself.

The principle of explosive training is as follows: load the whole body in circles, but do it without stopping.

For example, here's what the main strength part of such a workout might look like:

First set of circular exercises:
1) Squats 15 reps
2) Push-ups from the floor 15 repetitions
3) Jumping up 15 reps

The exercises are done one after the other without stopping, in circles: 1-2-3, 1-2-3 and 1-2-3.

An important point! There is no rest time between exercises and circles!

Having made the first set, you can allow yourself a minute of rest, but no more. Let's move on to the second set. In the same way, three exercises are circular: push-ups on the uneven bars in graviton, pull-ups on it, runs with a load through the block forward.

The exercises of the second set are done in the same way as the first: for fifteen repetitions, round, without rest between exercises and circles.

For the most persistent, a third set is possible, but for 99 percent of you, two sets are enough. Explosive training, I repeat, should last no more than 30-35 minutes. Naturally, no one canceled pre- and post-workout cardio, warm-up and stretching.

The result of a "bath day" is prolonged, its effect will be felt for a couple of weeks.

"Washed, not washed, but saw the water." During archaeological excavations of ancient cities of various civilizations, not everyone will find public reading rooms or amphitheaters, but in any settlement there were baths (from Lat. Balneo - banishing pain, developing sadness). The traditions of body cleansing go back to time immemorial. There is a humorous legend that after the Flood, a person agreed with God that it would be better now he would wash himself. Nowadays, there are more than 500 types of baths from the widespread Finnish sauna to the exotic "fat" bath of tundra reindeer herders. In some peoples, where water or fuel is worth its weight in gold, baths are "accepted" without water, simply by rubbing the body with natural disinfectants, while others use only running water, since standing water in a bath or pool is considered "unclean".

Bath differences

The differences between the "temples of purification" depended on the climate of the area, the availability of water, fuel and building materials, the characteristics and traditions of the people. Baths differ in their thermal effects on the body. It can be heated to the desired temperature:

• dry air,
• water vapor,
• marble or jadeite (green stone, harder than jade),
• sand,
• barrel with heated sawdust, etc.

By heat source:

• heated floor, walls,
• stone loungers,
• hot thermal water,
• stove-heater,
• burying in hot sand,
• direct steam, etc.

By intensity: soft (Turkish, Roman, Korean, etc.) and intense (Russian, Finnish, Japanese). What the baths of all times and peoples converge on is to force the body to throw out all accumulated harmful substances through its 1.5-2 m 2 of skin.

The most common baths and their features

Russian bath is classical, it is a special stove with direct heating of stones, walls made of logs, shelves made of thick boards and a birch or oak broom. Temperature up to 70 ° С, humidity up to 65%. Compulsory cooling after steam room and massage with a broom cold water, snow or dipping in an ice-hole.

Roman baths - 8-10 main compartments, a dressing room-vestibule for undressing, a room for gymnastics classes, halls with different air temperatures from cool to a steam room, the floor was heated with water, the walls with air from the steam room to 40-45 ° C, they walked on the floor in special sandals, Each emperor strove to "surpass" the previous one in the structure of the baths. Under Diocletian, the largest baths for 3500 people were built, in which there was a pool with a side of 1.5 km. In the terms with their "multifunctionality", people were for several days, state affairs were decided, negotiations were held.

Swedish (bastu) - arranged in such a way that the flow of warm air came from under the floor, reaching the ceiling and gradually cooling down the air went down and left through the ventilation holes at a height of 30-50 cm from the floor.

Swedish bath

The Turkish bath - hammam (Arabic hamm - hot) with its structure resembles the sun with rays or the spreading palm of a person, where the wrist is the dressing room, heated to 30-35 ° С, the metacarpus is the main hall (sogolyuk), with three pools (hot, cool , cold) and marble loungers (chebek tashi), from which there are five niches of "fingers" with different temperatures in them and almost 100% humidity. This humidity is achieved by directly supplying steam to the room through an opening located at a height of about 1.5 m from the floor. Hamam is one of the "softest", gentle baths, as the maximum temperature in it is only 70 ° C. The vault of the ceiling is made with a bowl, so that the water condensing on it does not drip down, but flows down the walls into the outlets.

Helpful advice: Those who are going to visit the hamam for the first time should take into account that the mandatory procedures are: warming up the body for up to half an hour on a stone lounger with rubbing the skin with a camel wool mitten and "soapy" massage.

Japanese - the peculiarity is that heat is transferred to the body only through water. Shared bath (sento) is just a pool with hot water 50-55 ° C. Home bath (furako) is a wooden hot tub with a heater and a seating area. The water heats up to 45-50 ° C and is kept in it for about 15 minutes. After furako, the continuation is followed by a sawdust or pebble bath (ofuro), when a person is placed in a bath with lime, cedar sawdust or small pebble stones heated to 50 ° C.

Japanese bath

Helpful advice: if there is an opportunity to take furako, you should know that they are located in the font so that the water does not "press" on the heart, is below the chest. Keep your shoulders and chest in the air.

Indian (swedana) - a lattice with a box is placed on a container with a heated decoction of herbs, a person is in the box on top, the head is outside the box.

Georgian - only the waters of thermal springs are used, most often baths are organized at the point of their exit to the surface (rocks, grottoes).

Thermal Georgian Baths

Kraksen or hay (alpine) - a grate with herbs is placed above the steam generator, steam is supplied only with grass.

Moroccan - the peculiarity is that they are washed directly in the steam room.

Exotic baths

Tibetan - is a pit with a radius and depth of less than a meter, in which firewood is fired, then dry animal bones are added to the firewood and burned into ash, along with a new portion of firewood. Then the spruce branches of juniper or other bone trees are laid on the resulting "ashes" and everything is covered with a skin on top. The person is inside in a sitting position for as long as he can stand. Probably, it is this bath that they mean, sending there a bored person in order.

African (red) bath - due to lack of water, the skin is rubbed with dry henna, which, being a natural antiseptic, disinfects and disinfects it. Skin color takes on a reddish tint. In desert conditions, the principle “What the water does not wash away, will wash away the sand”.

An Indian (temazcal), a round low adobe or stone hut, heated volcanic stones are brought in the middle, the walls are doused with water for steam generation, corn leaves are used instead of washcloths.

Traditional Indian bath "temazcal"

The Chukotka "fat" bathhouse is the most "rare" bathhouse in terms of regularity. In conditions of an acute shortage of fuel (moss and rare shrubs in the tundra), heating the amount of water for washing is an impermissible luxury. In addition, to protect them from the cold, the Chukchi rubbed their bodies with seal oil. Sometimes they made a big fire in the tent, simultaneously warming up by dancing around it. Having warmed up the body in this way, they scraped off the skin with scrapers and applied a new layer of fat. In our times, such a bath has sunk into oblivion.

Modern baths

Infrared is a modern innovative sauna, where with the help of built-in IR emitters, without the participation of water or steam, the body is heated to a depth of 4 cm. The temperature of 39 ° C kills most of the pathogenic microbes. The humidity is natural.

Czech beer baths

Czech - a sauna that has existed for no more than a dozen years, in which a person takes a 37 ° C bath of beer mixed with mineral water (1 to 1) for 15 minutes. On leaving the bathroom, you do not need to rinse immediately.

Man has already carried his love for purity beyond the Earth. The peculiarity of the "bath" in space on the ISS is that in zero gravity it is difficult to control the behavior of even a glass of water. But with small quantities surface tension makes the water “stick” to the body, which is what the astronauts use by applying a small layer of water to the body and rubbing it with a towel, using a special “leave-in” soap that is simply absorbed into the skin.

Conclusion

Whatever the baths of the peoples of the world are, Russian or Turkish, dry or wet, the main thing is that it benefits the body and be pleasant to the soul. In the bath, a person must find harmony, communicating simultaneously with all the elements: water, fire, air and earth. Easy steam for you!