Korean Jjimjilbang

Jjimjilbang usually operate 24 hours a day. In front of the entrance, there are the doors titled “men” or “women” and shoes are to be stored using a given key. Once inside, the shoe locker key is to be exchanged with another locker key to store clothes and belongings. Afterwards bathers walk into the gender-segregated bathhouse area and take a shower. Then, it is supposed to be dressed in jjimjilbang clothes (usually a T-shirt and shorts) received with the locker key.

In a bathing area, there are different kind of kiln saunas with a varying themes including a jade kiln, a salt kiln, a mineral kiln: the dome-shaped inside walls of klin rooms are plastered with jade powder, salt and mineral respectively. and a series of kiln with different temperatures ranging from 60 to 100 degrees Celsius. The temperature sign outside the kiln is given before the entrance.

Hygiene
Jjimjilbangs are always kept in a very sanitary condition for the overall health of patrons, and most are cleaned continuously. No harsh chemicals are used in the waters or saunas.

All wet areas prohibit the use of clothing for safety reasons. With the extreme heat of the baths and steam rooms, it is believed that toxic chemicals can leach out of apparel and into the body. It is also believed that if you wear a swimsuit or cover up you may be trying to hide a disease.

Gangnam

Boseokbang (Jewelry Room)
Decorated with precious stones, the Boseokbang is a favorite among women. The special stones have a cleansing effect for the skin and absorb the body’s bad energy.

Sogeumbang (Salt Room)
Heated to a temperature of over 69 degrees Celsius, the room is very hot but helps people discharge bad substances or viruses from the body through sweat.

Hannyakbang (Oriental Herb Room)
Equipped with antique furniture and Oriental herb pouches, the room is particularly popular among foreign visitors who like to take pictures there.

Eoreumbang (Ice Room)
This is the coldest room in Seocho Spa. One can cool down one’s body temperature through cold air, eliminate wrinkles, and firm the skin.

Myeongdong 

Jagal Jjimjilbang (Pebble Room)
You can lie down or sit on a mat covering heated pebbles. This helps discharge body wastes, reduce muscle pain, and enhance blood circulation.

Ok Hanjeungmak (Jade Sweating Room)
Made of jade, a precious stone with a transparent blue color, the Ok Hanjeungmak is particularly popular among women. It is good for warming the bodies of those with cold hands and feet.

Hwangto Bulgama (Yellow Earth Room)
Far infrared rays discharged from yellow earth that is heated to a temperature of over 60 degrees Celsius is said to be beneficial for relieving fatigue. So if you are stressed out or feel tired, this is the room to go to.

Sanso Togulbang (Oxygen Cave)
The room has walls made of yellow earth bricks and floor covered with jade and is lit with an infrared ray lamp. You can actually sleep in this room, which is separated for men and women. You will feel much more invigorated after sleeping here.

Chamsut Naengbang (Charcoal Cold Room)
Unlike the heat of other rooms, the coolness of the charcoal room is particularly good for stabilizing the mind, relieving stress, and fighting fatigue.

Infrared Sauna

An infrared sauna uses infrared heaters to emit infrared light experienced as radiant heat which is absorbed by the surface of the skin. Traditional saunas heat the body primary by conduction and convection from the heated air and by radiation of the heated surfaces in the sauna room.

Infrared sauna makes the same rays that come from the sun and filters out the UV radiation, so it only gives you the infrared radiation. That radiation that's infrared goes a little bit into your skin so, without heating you up and the external environment too much, it heats the body up.

High temperature helps lower blood pressure and increase blood circulation. "It gets your heart to beat faster, and it burns calories," Dr. Oz says. "It raises your metabolism a little bit, and also when you sweat, you sweat out toxins through the skin."
Quoted from Dr. Oz

Arthritis
A study of patients with rheumatoid arthritis showed a reduction in pain, stiffness and fatigue during infrared sauna therapy, but since results from the study "did not reach statistical significance"  there is no clear or certain relationship between reducing symptoms and using infrared sauna therapy.

Toxins
"Toxins" and "toxicity" are general terms used by alternative health professionals and some doctors to cover a wide range of substances from petrochemicals to heavy metals, which are excreted in very small quantities while sweating, less than 1%.  Proponents of FIR sweating claim a toxin content of up to 15% vs. conventional sweating. Saunas may be useful to those who cannot sweat from exercise due to their health problems.

Heat tolerance
Only if the sauna uses far-infrared technology, the sauna might be more tolerated by patients who don't tolerate the high temperatures of the standard humid hot air saunas. This is because far-infrared rays do not heat the air inside the sauna, but instead they heat the body.

Benefits

Detoxification
Sweating is the body’s safe and natural way to heal & stay healthy. Far infrared sauna benefits the body by heating it directly causing a rise in core temperature resulting in a deep, detoxifying sweat at the cellular level, where toxins reside.

Relaxation
Unlike traditional saunas which operate at extremely harsh temperatures, infrared is a gentle, soothing and therapeutic heat that promotes relaxation and improved sleep. Infrared sauna benefits include therapy that helps you relax while receiving an invigorating deep tissue sweat, leaving you fully refreshed after each session.

Lower Blood Pressure
Infrared saunas induce a deep sweat to make the heart pump faster, which in turn increases blood flow, lowers blood pressure and helps circulation. Scientific evidence shows the infrared sauna benefits user using an infrared sauna a couple times a week lowers blood pressure.

Anti-Aging & Skin Purification
The near infrared wavelength (sometimes referred to as Red Light Therapy) is the most effective wavelength for healing the epidermis and dermis layers of the skin. Near infrared treatments stimulate collagen production to reduce wrinkles and improve overall skin tone.

Cell Health
Near infrared therapy stimulates the circulatory system and more fully oxygenate the body’s cells. Better blood circulation means more toxins flow from the cellular level to the skin’s surface to improve cell health, aid in muscle recovery and strengthen the immune system.

Weight Loss
Studies have shown that benefits of an infrared sauna session can burn upwards of 600 calories while you relax! As the body works to cool itself, there is a substantial increase in heart rate, cardiac output and metabolic rate, causing the body to burn more calories.

Pain Relief
Infrared heat penetrates tissue, joints, and muscles to relieve anything from minor aches and pains to chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia. Pain management professionals incorporate infrared heat therapy into treatment plans to decrease pain and muscle spasms and to speed up recovery time.

Improved Circulation
Heating the muscles with infrared rays produces an increase in blood flow similar to that seen during exercise. Regular infrared sauna use—especially in the mid infrared range—can significantly stimulate blood flow up to twice the normal rate.

Wound Healing
Scientific research has concluded that near infrared therapy greatly enhances the skin’s healing process by promoting faster cell regeneration and human tissue growth. Human cell growth increases to repair wounds and prevent infection.

Skin Cleansing 
Sweating helps rinse and cleanse your skin’s epidermal layer and sweat ducts. Cleansing of your pores gives your skin a soft, beautiful appearance.

Better sleep
May help you relax, which may help you fall asleep around bedtime which restores the body and soul.

Steam Sauna

Steam rooms create very good respiratory conditions with the humidity level at 100%. People with coughs and lung problems sometimes use a steam room to soothe their respiratory systems. Steam rooms are also more hydrating for your skin than saunas. This is great for people with dry skin, who might suffer in a dry sauna.
Some people find steam rooms stifling though and think that the humid air is difficult to breathe. Steam rooms have a mystic quality, with the air shrouded in steam, while saunas are clean and clear enough so that you could read a book if you wanted. If you have greasy skin you might find that a dry sauna is better, because your pores may get blocked by moisture if you stay in the steam room too long.

Steam Sauna increase circulation to the surface of the skin and make you sweat, which can be a pleasant sensation and has proven benefits for cardiovascular health. It can also promote a healthy and deep sleep.
Some other benefits include: - clearing of throat, sinus and lung congestion, relief of dry throat and nasal passages and relief from the discomfort of sinusitis.

Salt Sauna

Salt Sauna: Vitamins of the Air

The salt sauna is particularly healing for respiratory and skin conditions.
Salt is a disinfectant that kills almost every virus, fungus or bacterium. If you inhale salty air, the respiratory system is purified of the contagious bodies that may cause illness or generate other diseases. Salty air also helps in improving the physical, chemical and hydrodynamic conditions of the body, resulting in the improvement of peripheral blood circulation, the improvement of the body's resistance and defense mechanism (strengthening the immune system), the termination of certain rheumatic diseases, and the relaxation of the muscles.
Salt therapy works because natural salt has a considerable level of negative charge of its particles. The inner surfaces of human airways have a slight positive charge. Thus, negatively charged particles of the salt are allowed to move into the lumen of the respiratory tract. The heat in the salt sauna releases the negative ions captured within the pure salt blocks, carrying the ions deep into the lungs. In the lungs, tiny chambers (alveolus) fortify oxygen with the negative ions which are then absorbed by the bloodstream to deliver the cleansing and purifying effect to every organ of the body.

Salt rooms and salt saunas are primarily intended for use by patients with respiratory problems (bronchitis, tonsillitis, polypus, bronchial asthma, etc.). However, apparently healthy people are also always exposed to urban diseases like infection by microbes, viruses, air pollution or tobacco poisoning. Some medicines have side effects, but nature never "tricked" anyone. Salt rooms and salt saunas are an effective treatment for diseases like chronic bronchitis, emphysema, asthmatic bronchitis (allergic or infectious), post-rachitic breathing problems or problems with the thoracic cavity, pleurisy, and traces of tuberculosis operation.

Specific effects of salt therapy are:
• Mucolytic (assists in the elimination of excess mucus)
• Antibacteriologic
• Anti-inflammatory
• Immunomodulation (regulates the immune system)

Salt room treatment is recommended for asthmatic diseases, asthmatic bronchitis, chronic bronchitis, allergic breathing, emphysema, hard breathing and bacterial infections.

Treatment: one course lasts 8 - 21 days, depending on the disease.
Treatment takes place in aerosol form.

One treatment lasts 30 minutes to 3-4 hours.

The lung's purification starts 10-14 days after the beginning of the treatment.

Electric stove sauna

The most common modern sauna types are those with electric stoves. The stones are heated up and kept on temperature using electric heating elements. There is thermostat and a timer (eight hour maximum continuous heating time) on the stove. This type of heating is used in urban saunas.

Wood stove sauna

The wood stove sauna is the most common type of sauna outside of the city areas, where the electric sauna is more common. The metal stove with stones on top (kiuas) is heated with birch wood fire, and this heats the sauna room to the required temperature. If birch wood is not available any other wood will do, but well dried birch wood is preferred because of its good quality and smell, and long lasting burn. The important thing is to have a good löyly, that is when the stones are hot enough to evaporate the water thrown on them into steam that rises to the bathers. The bather in every type of sauna sits on a high bench near the ceiling where the hot steam reaches them quickly.

Continuous fire sauna

A continuous fire stove, instead of stored heat, is a relatively recent invention. There is a firebox, a smokestack and stones placed in a compartment directly above the firebox. It takes one hour, to heat up the sauna, which is less time-consuming than the heat storage-sauna. A fire-heated sauna requires manual labor in the form of maintaining the fire during bathing; the fire can also be seen as a hazard.
Fire-heated saunas are common in cottages, where the extra work of maintaining the fire is not a problem.

Heat storage-sauna

The smoke-sauna stove is also used with a sealed stone compartment and chimney (a heat storage-stove) which eliminates the smoke odor and eye irritation of the smoke sauna. A heat storage stove does not give up much heat in the sauna before bathing since the stone compartment has an insulated lid. When the sauna bath starts and the shutter opens, warmth flows into relatively cold (60 °C [140 °F]) sauna. This heat is soft and clean because, thanks to combustion, the stove stones glow red, even white-hot, and are freed of dust at the same time. When bathing the heat-storage, the sauna will become as hot as a continuous fire type-sauna (80–110 °C [176-212 °F]) but more humid. The stones are usually durable heat proof and heat-retaining peridotite (a type of stone). The upper part of the stove is often insulated with rock wool and firebricks. Heat-storing stoves are also found with electric heating, with similar service but no need to maintain a fire.

Smoke sauna

Smoke sauna (Finnish savusauna, Estonian suitsusaun, Võro savvusann) is one of the earliest forms of the sauna. It is simply a room containing a pile of rocks, but without a chimney. A fire is lit directly under the rocks and after a while the fire is extinguished. The heat retained in the rocks, and the earlier fire, becomes the main source for heating the sauna. Following this process, the ashes and embers are removed from the hearth, the benches and floor are cleaned, and the room is allowed to air out and freshen for a period of time. The smoke deposits a layer of soot on every surface, so if the benches and back-rests can be removed while the fire is alight the amount of cleaning necessary is reduced. Depending on size of the stove and the airing time, the temperature may be low, about 60 °C, while the humidity is relatively high. The tradition almost died out, but was revived by enthusiasts in the 1980s.These are still used in present-day Finland by some enthusiasts, but usually only on special occasions such as Christmas, New Year's, Easter, and juhannus (Midsummer)