I had a friend in college who was an anthropology major. He spent some time in Alaska with some native people up there. One thing that he brought back with him to the US was the tradition of the sweat during cold months. The people that he lived with did a sweat lodge every day during the winter, and this helped them to beat the winter blues, I guess. Every night after dinner, everybody would go sweat, and then go to bed. Sounds nice to me!
My own native people - the Scandinavians - are also fans of the sauna practice. There is even a tradition of hitting yourself with "vihta", which are apparently some birch twigs, to get your circulation going while you sweat. That tradition aside, these are people of cold lands, and I think they must have been on to something.
Thinking of these traditions, I went to the gym tonight just for a sweat. However, the gym changed the rules in the steam room so you aren't supposed to put water directly on the sensors, which many people do to create more steam. Needless to say, the steam in the steam room was pretty pathetic when I first went in there. However, a clever Korean woman (another culture who also loves to sweat) brought in a bag of water and poured it on the sensor, so everyone was sweating in no time. Hooray! Every little bit helps now that winter has actually come to Chicago.
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