Summer Sauna
A report from Lore
The first truly hot day of summer arrives and many people have the same thought:
“The last thing I want right now is more heat.”
I understand the feeling.
For many years, I used to spend summer afternoons at the Russian baths on 10th Street in Manhattan.
I’d sit in the Russian room pouring bucket after bucket of cold water over my head while wondering if my hair was about to burn off.
The room felt impossibly hot.
The kind of heat that makes you question your own judgment for staying another minute.
But I’d stay.
A little more water over the head.
A little more time on the bench.
Then eventually I’d walk out onto 10th Street expecting to be crushed by the summer heat.
Instead, I’d find myself thinking:
“Wow, it got cooler outside.”
At the time, I didn’t understand what was happening.
How could ninety-degree New York City air feel refreshing?
Years later, I understand.
The body learns through exposure.
Lifting weights teaches muscles to become stronger, heat teaches the body’s cooling systems to become more effective.
When we spend time in the sauna, the body begins practicing the same mechanisms it uses on a hot summer day.
Blood vessels expand.
Sweating becomes more efficient.
The cardiovascular system learns to move heat away from the core and toward the skin where it can be released.
The more regularly we practice, the more familiar the body becomes with the process.
Heat becomes less of an emergency and more of a practice.
Many athletes have known this for years.
Heat acclimation is often used before competitions in warm climates because the body becomes better at regulating itself.
Regular sauna use has been shown to increase plasma volume and improve the body’s ability to cool itself through sweat.
In simple terms:
The body becomes better at being hot.
I’ve experienced this firsthand.
The summers when I maintain a regular sauna practice are often the summers when I complain least about the weather.
I can move from a hot sidewalk into a crowded subway or a warm restaurant without feeling overwhelmed. My system feels more adaptable.
The greatest benefit, however, may arrive at night.
Many people struggle to sleep during the summer because the body wants to cool before falling asleep.
A hot bedroom can interfere with this natural process.
After a sauna, the body begins actively shedding heat.
Blood flow increases to the skin.
The cooling response continues long after you’ve left the sauna.
As core temperature gradually falls, the body receives one of the signals it naturally associates with sleep.
The result is often a deeper sense of relaxation and an easier transition into rest.
This doesn’t mean everyone should sit in a sauna for an hour in the middle of a heat wave.
It means we should remember that comfort is often built through exposure.
The body is remarkably adaptable.
We don’t become resilient by avoiding heat, cold, effort, or challenge.
We become resilient by meeting them regularly and teaching our systems how to respond.
I wasn’t just tolerating heat in that Russian room all those years ago.
I was teaching my body how to handle it.
A strange truth I’ve discovered is that the people who seem most comfortable in the heat are often the people who spend time practicing being hot.
So the next time the temperature climbs and the sauna feels like the last place you want to be, consider the possibility that it might be exactly where your body needs to go.
Not to escape the summer.
But to become better at living in it.
Hot. Cold. Human.
-Adam from Lore
Lore is a bathing club located at 676 Broadway in Noho.