Silver Fir as a bath essence for inhalation of freshness, strength and power.

Talking about premium bath essences and blends you should attract your attention to Silver Firs (Abies), which are a genus of between 45-55 species of evergreen conifers in the family Pinaceae. Firs are found through much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, occurring in mountains over most of the range. You might have heard about Breathe in mountain air Fir, which is a powerful Essential Oil. There are some other Fir extracts used for toning, strengthening, purifying or centering while taking a bath at home. To inhale and feel the wonderful mild essence in banya or sauna is fantastic. It’s worth knowing that Silver Fir has as strong life-giving power as eucalyptus. It has antiseptic, toning, deodorizing and breath stimulating effects. It is also a decongestant for body and mind, centering, purifying. This Silver Fir essence smoothes the irritation in the respiratory tract. They say it stops inflammation as in the upper part of the tract as even in the bronchus lungs. It is said in some fir oil prescriptions the essence helps with cold, cough, arthritis, rheumatism, respiratory problems. Considering stress, anxiety, nervousness, entire weakness as illnesses you would be recommended a bath with fir oil. This will make you relaxed, reduce the muscular tone and quiet you. It can smooth you eyes after long work in front of the computer screen.
Now image how vital the Silver Fir essence can be in banya or sauna while inhaling the smell and also absorbing the steam and aroma with you wet warmed up skin. This essence makes the steam fresh and energetic. Taking a sauna it is enough to drop some fir oil onto the walls or shelves of the cabin. For Russian banya we need a lot of water extract which is rather simply cooked. It is better to use fresh Silver Fir twigs. It is important to douse them in hot water for a long time otherwise the soft needles can burn and it spoils the air so that you won’t enjoy you bath. You may hang about the soggy fir twigs as you may have coped with the absinth ones (see the previous posts). The fresh twigs can be used several times. You should not leave them for long in the steam chamber to prevent them from getting dry so that they do not lose the vital power.

7 things to learn about sauna not to waste money building a bath house and be careful visiting banya or sauna

First learn these 7 things about bath houses and procedure.
I suppose you have learnt something about Russian banya and sauna from my older posts. You won’t be able to find such recipes even in Russia. I always rely on my own experience, which is rather large and gained from numerous visits to different bath houses in all parts of the world. I am sure that before buying a sauna cabin or choosing a bath house in your town you should know what needs a very careful consideration. Otherwise you get a wonderful trifle for your interior design. You can’t improve your health and cheer up with it. Without knowing some fine points a visit to Russian banya or sauna may become a torture. You should not forget that bath procedure is quite extreme for your health. Remember that the temperature of 100 degrees may be good or dangerous. Here are the main aspects of the bath business.
1. Free breath
Apparently we think that correct breathing is extremely important for cosmonauts. Great universities in the whole world study life support systems and supply the spaceships with essential facilities and necessary equipment so that the spacemen feel safe. Why don’t we make at least some research for ordinary people who keep fit and healthy in Russian banya or sauna? Why do only Chinese engineers produce sauna cabins in the whole world? An average Russian banya - goer stays in a bath longer than a cosmonaut in the outer space. I remember a professor who is still a frequent visitor to the Russian banya. He is specialized in space life support systems. Once he asked his students to estimate the work of one steam chamber in "Seleznevskie bany". The conclusion was impressive: 15 people in 15 minutes make the amount of oxygen lower than allowable level. Can you breathe with carbon dioxide? I can’t. So I put the importance of the ventilation system in a sauna cabin or in a steam chamber on the first place. The same rules are applied to the wholeRussian banya or sauna house.
2. Bath heater
High power for sauna heater is more important than a high-powered engine for a truck. A weak heater will not make it possible to air the rooms thoroughly. It simply will not be able to support necessary temperature with the frequent ventilation. It will not be able to heat a large quantity of stones which serve for heat accumulating. But you will have to forget about the comfort in the steam chamber without a huge number of stones. Indeed it was not in vain to use 15 tons of cast iron pigs in the Russian bath! It is not worth forgetting also about the fact that heating of spiral expends oxygen in your lungs. Then you will be more attentive to the ventilation in Russian banya.
3. Specific volume
It’s not less important for a steam chamber or a sauna cabin to work out the specific volume for easy breathing. It is significant to store up great amount of oxygen in the room. The next question concerns the number of people who can sweat together in the heater chamber. If you try to save the heat or the wood and too many bath-fans crowd in the room with a low ceiling, you do not take a real pleasure but a headache. In order to avoid simple problems do not economize on the dimensions of sauna cabin and Russian banya rooms. Buying a sauna cabin or building your own bath you can find something less important to save money.
4. Type of the wood
Aspen is the best wood material for the interior trimming. Since the old ages aspen have been considered as magic wood. Aspen stake were used to kill vampires. The legend says that it could draw out the negative energy from Dracula’s follows. Today we visit bath with aspen trimming to reduce stress and tiredness and feel better. Aspen shelves heat up less than those of any other type of wood. The light pleasant smell of the wood penetrates into the hot air and treats you softly. Bass-wood can also wonderful for trimming the chamber. It does not have the magic qualities of aspen; however, the linden aroma can compete with other herbal smells.
5. Sense of proportion is not less important.
You should not take a bath treatment too many times even if you feel better each time you go out. Four times a day is quite enough to get rid of a couple of kilos and the first symptoms of cold. Otherwise one visit is insufficient. The body should be warmed up well. Only then this can do a lot of good for your health.
6. Extracts and aroma
The healing power of many herbs and blends is very useful in the bath. You’d better start with soft, mild, favorable aroma recipes. I wrote about it in my previos posts:
It’s better to test with absinth and beer. It’s really that drinking beer in bath is not good but using it for making bath steam is a grate secret! Then you can continue with chamomile, which is great. Antiviral properties of chamomile extract are better to be tested in sauna or banya! At last you can try horse-radish or mustard. But if you want to be healthy you must know something about magic properties of the horse radish.
7. Frequency
We have told you how extremely harmful bath procedure can be for your body and health. We consider visiting a bath once a week the most suitable for a healthy man. If you want to go to the bath more often than have a three-day break between the visits. Take care of your health. If the next days you feel flabby, sleepy and superfluously relaxed dismiss a visit – take a short break.

Peppermint – not only for mouthwashing, it’s the best thing for “health washing” if you use it in sauna and banya!

Don’t think that all well-known herbs can be used in sauna or banya. It’s a wrong idea. Who knows – may be if you take some marijuana bushes to the steam chamber you can make a great bath steam! But to have it you must build your sauna or banya house somewhere near Amsterdam. However most of all bath procedures had analogues in current Oriental medicine. As using well-known peppermint extract. This is our next secret. Peppermint is also known as brandy mint or lamb mint. The largest markets for peppermint are manufecturing chewing gum, toothpaste, and mouthwash. It has an extensive pharmaceuticals use for loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, respiratory infections, the common cold, cough, and fever. It is used in confectionery, tobacco, alcoholic beverages, cigarettes and a variety of other food products. Above all peppermint extract is used for bath steam making!
The way of preparing mint extract doesn’t differ from cooking others, e.g. camomile. You don’t have to fry camomile leaves as mustard. It’s as easy as brewing mint tea. Put 100 gram (3,5 oz) mint leaves in 3 - 4 gallons of boiling water and leave it to brew for at least two hours. Filter this “tea” thoroughly. If there are any small particles left in the extract there can be a smell of burning in the steam. Now it’s ready. Conformably for sauna you need ten times less extract for good and healthy steam. Additionally, put some wet mint twigs on the shelves in sauna cabine for aroma. Remember not to leave dry parts of mint because they can spoil the smell next time. Moreover peppermint is an exellent relaxant antidepressant, as strong as absinth.

Groovy news from Kazakhstan! Mustard – Borat’s (old Oriental) famous secret for sauna and banya

Visiting banya and sauna for many years I used special recipes of bath aromas. I never thought about therapeutic qualities of those herbs. Furthermore all of famous bath secrets have a long history in the oriental medicine. It’s fantastic how many remedies those natural “doctors” have! Only when I started writing about banya I took medical encyclopedias. And I learnt so many interesting things about herbs which we are used in sauna and banya. I’ve begun to respect my bath tutors. But now I have a problem: they don’t want to talk to me about their secrets. “Master Boris” wants to make his special bath steam. He likes to stick to hard and fast rules in banya. They say: not to talk while we have the steam! But after he takes his famous “29 grams” he wants to talk about fishing. I tried to ask him by phone. It’s so hard to understand “how to fry mustard” when you talk through the Atlantic Ocean! So hear the next secret from teacher Boris is coming: Mustard!
Mustard is well-known all over the world. Mustard seeds came to us from India and occupied a worthy place in our kitchen. They contain no poisonous parts, but the powdered seeds can be irritating if misused. All the same mustard has a long history of medicinal use. There are so many remedies: it has also been used to relieve arthritis, rheumatism, toothache etc. Such a well-known medicinal use is the mustard plaster. There are several active ingredients in the seeds which make mustard effective externally. A feeling of warmth when apply it onto the skin is a famous quality. All you know about a mustard footbath which also warm up the blood. But only in sauna or banya all of our body can feel its healing power. And it’s a big secret from “Master Boris”!
For preparing bath steam with mustard you need to buy or to make a mustard powder. Now it’s easy to buy mustard beans in the US. There are many little Indian stores in the whole world (because there are more than billion Indian people). But it’s important: mustard powder is good for kitchen. We need to “cook” it for banya!
Before going to banya you need to put half a pound of the powder on a red-hot pan and fry it for 5-7 minutes mixing constantly till it get dark golden. Watch it over carefully so that it doesn’t turn into chocolate- colored stuff. If it does it is bullshit! When it is ready you pour three – four gallons of water into the fried powder. Then you have to wait for at least two hours to infuse the mixture. After that you filter it. Now you can bring the extract to the bath but pour it out on the heater stones very slowly as if you are cooking your favorite dish. Don’t miss the right smell of horse-radish and enjoy the right steam. Its remedies are various including the most necessary of curing colds. A mustard bath is also useful for getting fit and losing weight. It easily relaxes your muscles and calms you down. To enrich the list of the curative and healing power of mustard and make sure or check the facts you’ve read just open an encyclopedia. The remedies of mustard are enormous and bath makes them much stronger.

Some secrets with beer and absinth to lose weight and get a good mood

As we learned before bath procedure helps us recover from diseases, such as cold and the flu, which we get after becoming too cold. Banya and sauna are also good for losing weight. Some drugs prevent us only from eating too much. They are called appetite suppressants. However if you are overweight Phentermine*, for example, will not help you. You need training or you can leave your extra pounds of weight sweating in banya. It is much quicker. In the gym you have to cycle on a training apparatus or suffer from pain on an abdominal crunch. While in banya you have fun sitting or lying and doing nothing. Try to add absinth. Firstly this medicinal herb is the main ingredient of emerald green alcoholic liqueur made with an herbal extract of wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), which gives it a bitter taste. Secondly it is an excellent natural anti depressant. The aroma of the herb cheers one up and helps endure the heat in the steam chamber. Using the curative power of absinth you can sweat in the chamber longer and try coarse and hotter baths. There is not any special recipe suing absinth. Just put some twigs of the dry plant on the walls in the steam chamber and enjoy yourself losing your weight and bad mood with the sweat. Of course it is harmful for people who have heart disease. And absolutely healthy people should be very careful. It is not good to take a bath when you are full especially after a really hearty meal with a lot of fat. You should be also extremely careful with the alcohol in the bath. It is not true that Russian vodka completes the enjoyment in Russian banya. I think beer is also not needed there. I am giving you some advice about visiting Russian banya Even if all of your new bath friends are drinking “for “banya”– don’t do it! If you drink alcohol before or during these hard therapeutic procedures – you can’t have a good health; you can have a good shear heart attack! Drink after – for good relaxation!
It’s interesting to know that drinking beer in bath is not good but using it for making bath steam is a grate secret! Add some light beer into hot water in proportion 1:20. Pour the mixture onto the heater stones. You get a mild aroma of barley and malt. This helps you take pleasure of hard bath steam longer.

Using a natural Australian recipe in sauna or banya can prevent a cold or influenza.

Why koalas don’t ever have a cold and the flu? They live in Australia. They take a hot sunbath and eat eucalyptus leaves every day. Everyone knows about the healing power of eucalyptus oil. But no one ever thought about living as koalas do. It’s easy! Let’s remember about banya and sauna! We need some heat for our body and some hot eucalyptus steam prevent us from coming down with a cold again. We won’t appeal you to chew eucalyptus leaves in a steam chamber! There are a few ideas how to prepare eucalyptus aroma and to test in practice the healing power of the herb. For Russian banya it’s good to use hand-made extract. We put twigs or leaves into boiling water, wait for half an hour pour the extract over the heater stones. To intensify the effect it’s better to hang about the twigs or leaves. Inhaling the aroma you feel as if in Australia. If we prefer sauna we spill very little extract over the heater stones or drop some eucalyptus oil on the walls and shelves. You can take extra vitamin C during the cold season or kill yourself by hard medicine drugs. Or fly to Australia. But I hope my advice is better and healthier.

What to Do for Colds and Flu? Using of herbal extract remedies and use them right - in sauna or Russian banya!

Drugs don’t prevent flu. It only can reduce the length and severity of its symptoms. In a cold winter day there is nothing but a hot bowl of chamomile tea to warm your body. But it’s not only for drinking. Antiviral properties of chamomile extract are better to be tested in sauna or banya! It is easy to prepare – just add to chamomile boiling water and let it brew for some time. After that you should filter the extract and as a result you've cooked one of the best anti-cold drugs. Anti-bacterial qualities of chamomile are well-known from Roman ages. And it's a really great aroma for best relaxing: mild and delicate. It could be used in the same way as the horse radish extract in Traditional or Infrared sauna and Russian banya (Look at Post: "Horse radish extract is banya’s and sauna best secret for depression and flu killing").