Sunderland Echo reporter Neil Fatkin tries out a pop-up beach sauna and plunge pool that's available in Sunderland and South Shields.
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00:00If someone hasn't been before and doesn't have a set plan, we would recommend you start in the sauna,
00:05you heat up for about 10 to 12 minutes and the benefits of that are it opens your blood vessels,
00:10gets your blood vessels dilated, gets the blood flow going and it starts you sweating,
00:15so opens your pores and gets you sweating. On its own that's beneficial in itself,
00:20there's loads of research now that's been proven that saunas are good for the cardiovascular system,
00:25good for the heart. When I arrived at H3O Saunas it was a nice sunny day. The advice is that you
00:29go into the plunge pool second and the sauna first, but I decided I want to do it the other
00:34way around, get the cold bit done first and then the nice heat of the sauna. After making use of
00:39the mobile changing rooms, I emerged and got my way to the plunge pool. Dipping your feet,
00:45it was a bit of a shock to the system, there'd been three blocks of ice put in the water earlier,
00:49but I was reassured that this was going to be really good for my mind, also my muscles and
00:54my joints. I slowly lowered myself in and I must admit after a couple of minutes,
01:00I body did acclimatise and I managed to submerge right up to my neck.
01:05After five or so minutes, I made my way from the plunge pool and pulled back the zip on the sauna
01:10and climbed in. Even though it was a tent, the sauna was as hot as any sauna I've experienced
01:17anywhere in the country. So if you're right next to the heater there and we've got it burning to
01:23the maximum, it can be right up towards sort of 80 degrees near the heater there, so you know it's
01:29as hot as you know your traditional saunas. So these are what, these are the Himalayan bath salts
01:34you say? Himalayan salts. What are they doing? It's an exfoliating body scrub, so you can use
01:42it all over your body and exfoliate all the dead skin off you. And when people come along and use
01:47this, they basically can use all these treatments. Yeah, they use that and then your skin feels really nice after you come out of the sauna.
01:53And these heat stones, I won't heat one up, just the one, but if you take it up, what do you do? You place it on an area where you've got an injury or what do you do?
02:00So you kind of, you get all the lymph nodes going so you kind of, there's loads of different ways
02:07of massaging your face and your arms and stuff and it just gets everything, gets everything flowing.
02:13I sat back and enjoyed the heat as it opened up my pores and released any toxins. After 10 or so
02:20minutes, I felt very relaxed and made my way out. I'd recommend Atrio Beach Saunas to anyone.
02:26If you're down at the seafront at South Shields or Roka, call in and give it a go.
02:30Or if you like to, you can also book online in advance.