- I'm gonna get ready.

- Are you gonna go in?

(birds chirp) (door rattles open) - Because it's a mobile unit, we don't need electricity.

Everything is self contained here, so we literally can bring it anywhere.

The closer you sit to this, I mean, you'll start to feel a little more intense heat.

So that's why you rotate yourself like a rotisserie, and then you're pretty well set.

(soft lo-fi music) - So what is Rugged Wellness?

- It's a wellness company overall, and we bring that to individuals through cold plunge and a really hot sauna.

(static hisses) (recording beeps) (soft elevator music) - Is it sauna or sow-na?

- We're mostly German, so I don't know if we've got a lot to stand on here.

- Yeah 'cause I think a lot of the Finnish people say that it is sow-na, but for me it doesn't feel authentic, so I say sauna.

- Yes.

- You say sow-na, I say sauna.

- I started with sauna, and I'm trying to assimilate.

I have gotten busted before from a few Finnish folks upon delivery, and they called me out right away, and they knew I was not Finnish.

(static hisses) (wind howls) End of January is my birthday, and I was looking for something a little special, a little unique to do, and I was poking around the web, and I found mobile sauna rentals.

I couldn't find any that were available.

They were all rented out, and I looked at my wife and a business partner and thought, "Something's going on here, like we should maybe do this."

That idea was planted, and it just slowly grew.

- We saw it as an opportunity to bring people together.

It's what life is about, having experiences, and it's super cool to do that with other people, and you just meet really cool people.

It's interesting.

- Don't know when.

Don't know when.

- Not on her head.

- I don't know.

- You want it on your head?

- Oh!

You do?

(water splashes) (everyone laughs) - I don't care where you.

(soft piano music) - We met when we were very young, and we were out on the lake.

I saw some girls floating on a tube, and I thought, "Wow, it would be amazing to meet those gals."

So I was skiing at the time, and I skied over to 'em, dropped the handle, introduced myself, and here we are.

- We like learning new things and going on adventures and just trying something because, frankly, we get a little bit bored.

We're always looking for something new.

So all of the things that we have to do to set up for a sauna, I should be referring to my ops guy.

- So I am the ops guy.

- Once we unload, we put chucks or put stoppers behind the wheels, and then we level it.

So we use scissor leveling jacks, and then that's really it.

You light the fire, and you're good to go.

(lighter clicks) (soft upbeat music) (wood clatters) - So I usually go Lincoln Log style.

I'll let the oxygen just get through the stove and system a bit quicker and start building heat faster.

All right, that's enough.

- Yeah, so for the cold plunge, today, we'll just fill it with a hose and a lot of ice.

In the winter, we utilize our surroundings and scoop snow inside as well or, a lot of times, you don't even need the cold plunge.

You can just stand outside 'cause it's negative (laughs) 20 degrees outside, and it just feels good.

Okay, I put our towels out, and we have our wet ones there.

- My wife does a lot of the booking, website, social media communication, and a bunch more that I'm missing, and she'll probably tell y'all about that.

(Laura laughs) (people chatter indistinctly) - [Client] If there's some room, I'll squeeze.

I might chill in the tub.

- Oh, that's a thing?

(people speak indistinctly) - All right.

- Come on in.

- Party sauna.

- Join us.

- It's 170.

- Oh, nice!

Here, here, here, get that video of that in there, so.

- I do know a bit of history about sauna.

The sauna component is really rooted in Finland, and in Minnesota, there's a few towns that are very Finnish.

They're full of Finns and they're into this stuff.

So Cokato is one of them, huge epicenter in our state.

Sebeka is another area.

This is something that we were really quite unaware of, but there are sauna hats, and these are wool, and we didn't really know why you'd wear a hat in a sauna.

I mean, it's hot, uncomfortable, sweaty.

What is going on?

So I got these from my sister and these beautiful bucket hats, and once you put 'em on, you instantly know why you're wearing 'em.

It reflects the heat off, and so like your ears feel better, and once you're in a sauna, too, if you touch the top of your head and the hair, like your hair is hot.

So this protects your hair follicles and your ears, instantaneously, as soon as you put the thing on.

Yeah, so sauna hats.

(people chatter indistinctly and laugh) - [Client] Oh, Ben, it has your sweat on it.

- There's no sweat on there.

- (laughs) Yes, there is.

- None.

- Yeah, so cold plunge and sauna roasting, they've had some pretty evident effects on us.

- Okay, are you gonna cold dip?

I'm gonna do it, too.

It's hot.

- So Rugged Wellness started after I tripped across the video on Vice TV where there was a character named Wim Hof, (energetic bass-heavy electronic music) and he started sharing his little health secrets.

So I signed up for a 10-week online Wim Hof breath work course, and cold showers was the next stage.

- [Laura] Ooh, it's kind of cold out here.

And so we started getting into the cold water dips, the ice cold dips.

Are you ready?

I see the adrenaline's already going.

- It's about doing tough things to live a healthy life and being comfortable with discomfort.

Sure.

- Okay.

No.

(Laura laughs) (ice clatters) You're losing the ice.

Being able to go in the hot and controlling your body to say, "I can do this, I can relax my body," and then going into the cold is the same thing.

It's a total mental game, mental challenge.

- In that aspect, I think sauna has helped us with maybe mental grit.

(static hisses) (recording beeps) (soft elevator music) Another word that gets thrown around quite a bit is sisu.

- Sisu, oh, yeah, yeah.

- So it's like a way of being.

- Your sisu is your inner strength, your inner toughness, your inner beast, if you will.

(static hisses) (people speak indistinctly) - We can see the ice cubes going up and down when you breathe.

(water splashes) (ice clatters) (Laura chuckles) Okay.

If you go up to your neck, it's harder.

That's three minutes in a frozen lake is probably the max.

Physically, you can feel your blood vessels getting stronger, your heart getting stronger.

Okay.

(inhales deeply) I put it for four minutes.

I'll have to do just a little more than he did.

(exhales sharply) (water splashes) When you go in from the drastic hot to cold, you break through a barrier that now, once you've done that, they will work better.

So your circulation will be improved, and you kind of get high from it a little bit, too.

- [Liz] Coming in!

- Ice chunks are for real, Liz.

(soft pleasant music) Do you wanna?

Yeah, in through your nose.

- Woo, this is cold though.

This is chilly.

- The event that we have tonight is a collaboration between Rugged Wellness Minnesota Shanti Yoga Center in Saint Cloud, and Milk & Honey Cider in Saint Joseph.

We have one of these events each month, just a great way to get together with people that also enjoy doing things that are good for their bodies.

- [Luke] Just remember it's tiny.

(woman grunts) (ice clatters) (woman exhales deeply) - Breathe.

- You gotta breathe, Ben.

- I can't breathe.

- [Client] (laughs) You're definitely not breathing.

- [Luke] It's brought together community.

So people will come in there, and they're not using technology.

You're in close quarters, and it really does bring about awesome conversation with friends, neighbors, relatives.

- Thank you so much.

- That's a cold one.

- Do you feel good?

- I do feel good.

- I could just feel my heart pounding.

- Okay, now I'm to the point where I've stabilized my body.

- Tell me.

- I mean, this definitely is cold.

(people chatter and laugh indistinctly) - It's extreme, Laura.

- I feel like when I was young, people would say like, folks from California, it'd be the land of fruits and nuts, and I always saw that as kind of a compliment, like curious, creative, willing to do odd things like against the grain, and now living in the Avon Hills area, I feel like this is also the land of fruits and nuts.

We've got mushroom farms, folk schools, - Oh yeah, the Avon schools.

- universities, artists, - Music, theater.

- music, breweries, a lot of action.

A lot of fruity and nutty things going on here.

It's all good.

- We're finding in this area that it brings really interesting people.

The people that choose to live here care about the environment.

They care about other people.

I've heard many people say, "I feel like I come here and the trees are hugging me," (laughs) which sounds really funny, but you feel good in this place.

The energy in this place is good.

(static hisses) (recording beeps) (soft elevator music) And then loyly, which is- - Loyly, loyly.

- Loyly, loyly.

- Loyly.

- Loyly is the sound, essentially, when the water hits the rocks.

(water splashes) (steam hisses) When it's really quiet and you're uncomfortable, the loyly is something that your brain just really focuses on, and it like has meditative attributes.

Yeah, there you go.

- Yes.

How do you spell it?

- L-O-Y-O-Y?

Loyly?

I don't know.

Don't quote me on that.

(both laugh) (static hisses) (bright rhythmic electronic music) - [Narrator] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota, on the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Council's arts calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota, on the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7 KRAM, online at 967kram.com.

(bright soft rhythmic music)