"Now, even in the one spot where you could allow yourself some idleness, you can rest assured you are getting shit done. You're not just sweating - you're enhancing performance, you're doing recovery, and you're building community, as defined by the low bar of looking at other people as opposed to your phone."
"Some bathhouses, like the Toronto import Othership, are aggressively programmed to be social with its staff leading group stretching, prompting guests to share during ersatz group-therapy sessions, and performing Aufguss, a German sauna ritual that involves ladling scented water or ice over hot sauna stones and circulating the steam by dancing around with a towel."
"At the Altar, a self-defined 'health club' that soft-opens in March, you can follow up your session with an IV drip and an order off a menu of peptides. Local chainlet Bathhouse, which has heated some of its pools with the heat generated by bitcoin mining, calls itself 'an oasis to be fundamentally human.'"
New York City is experiencing a bathhouse boom with modern establishments reframing traditional relaxation as productivity-driven wellness experiences. Unlike established banyas and K-spas, these new venues emphasize performance enhancement, recovery optimization, and community building through structured programming. Facilities like Othership offer group stretching and sauna rituals, while Culture of Bathing positions itself as a sauna festival with content-creation opportunities. Some bathhouses cater to biohackers, offering IV drips and peptides alongside sauna sessions. Contrast therapy—alternating between hot and cold—has gained prominence through endorsements by wellness influencers. These establishments are designed for brief, efficient sessions of 30-75 minutes rather than full-day leisure experiences, reflecting contemporary wellness culture's integration of optimization principles into traditionally idle activities.
Read at Curbed
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