Should You Offer Infrared Saunas at Your Yoga Studio?

As a yoga studio owner, you’re constantly searching for ways to enhance your clients’ experience and stand out in a competitive market. Offering a diverse range of services that align with your clients’ wellness goals can help you build loyalty and grow your business. One increasingly popular offering is infrared saunas, which have become a favorite for those seeking to complement their wellness routines with health benefits like enhanced recovery, detoxification, and relaxation.

Infrared saunas can also provide benefits directly related to yoga practice, making them an attractive addition to any yoga studio looking to offer a holistic wellness experience. But is adding infrared saunas to your studio a worthwhile investment? In this blog, we’ll explore the benefits, challenges, and considerations you should keep in mind when deciding whether infrared saunas are right for your studio.

 

What is an Infrared Sauna?

 

Before diving into the specifics, let’s clarify what an infrared sauna is. Unlike traditional saunas, which heat the air around you, infrared saunas use infrared light to heat your body directly. This leads to a milder, more comfortable experience while still producing a deep sweat, ideal for post-yoga relaxation or recovery. Infrared saunas operate at lower temperatures, typically ranging between 120°F and 140°F, compared to traditional saunas that can reach up to 190°F.

For yogis, infrared saunas can be an excellent complement to their practice. The gentle heat penetrates deeply into muscles, potentially improving flexibility and easing muscle tension – an important aspect of maintaining mobility and preventing injury in yoga. Practitioners can reap these benefits both before and after their yoga sessions. Before class, an infrared sauna session can help warm up muscles, improving flexibility and reducing the risk of strain. Post-class, it can aid in recovery, reducing soreness and stiffness from more physically demanding practices like Vinyasa, Ashtanga, or hot yoga.

By combining yoga and infrared sauna use, your studio can provide a well-rounded wellness experience that emphasizes both physical and mental well-being. Offering an infrared sauna can give clients an opportunity to deepen their yoga practice, reduce stress, and support recovery—all of which align with the holistic approach that yoga advocates.

 

Benefits of Infrared Saunas for Your Yoga Studio

 

Enhanced Recovery

One of the primary reasons people seek out infrared saunas is the potential for muscle recovery. After an intense yoga session, especially more physically demanding practices like hot yoga, infrared saunas can help soothe sore muscles and relax tense bodies. By offering this service, you give your clients a reason to spend more time at your studio, turning a 60-minute class into a holistic wellness experience.

 

Enhanced Relaxation Experience

Creating a holistic relaxation experience in your yoga studio can significantly boost client satisfaction. Adding an infrared sauna transforms your studio into a wellness sanctuary where clients can relax and de-stress after their practice. Designing a serene, spa-like environment with enhancements like calming music, aromatherapy, chromotherapy, red light therapy, and comfortable seating can elevate the overall experience.

 

Detoxification

Infrared saunas promote sweating, which is one of the body’s natural ways to eliminate toxins. While traditional saunas also induce sweat, infrared saunas are thought to penetrate the skin more deeply, potentially allowing for a more effective detox. In a wellness-focused environment like a yoga studio, this aligns perfectly with your clients’ goals of purifying the body and mind.

 

Supporting Healthy Weight Management

Infrared saunas can help support healthy weight management by raising core body temperature, stimulating metabolism, and promoting calorie burn. While this isn’t a substitute for regular exercise, it complements an active lifestyle and yoga practice. Offering saunas provides yoga clients with an additional tool to support their fitness goals, enhancing their overall wellness experience at your studio.

 

Potential to Increase Revenue

Infrared saunas present a way to boost your bottom line. You can offer sauna sessions as a premium add-on to yoga classes or as part of a membership package. Many studios charge between $20-$40 per sauna session, which can quickly add up if you have regular users. If your studio has extra space, installing infrared saunas could be a relatively low-effort way to introduce an additional revenue stream.

 

Attracting a Broader Client Base

Offering distinctive services like infrared saunas can help your yoga studio stand out. Adding an infrared sauna sets you apart from studios that focus solely on traditional yoga classes, offering something unique to enhance the client experience. This differentiation can be especially valuable for attracting clients who seek a more comprehensive approach to wellness, helping your studio appeal to a broader audience and stay competitive.

 

Easy Integration and Low Maintenance

Incorporating an infrared sauna into your yoga studio is a straightforward process, with various sizes and customizable options available to suit your studio’s layout. Infrared saunas take up less space than traditional saunas, making them easy to install in a small room or even a designated corner of your studio. Maintenance is also minimal, mainly involving routine cleaning and periodic checks of the infrared heating elements.

 

Practical Tips for Implementation

 

Survey Your Clients First

Before making a substantial investment, it’s a good idea to gauge interest from your existing clients. You can send out a survey asking whether they would use an infrared sauna, how much they’d be willing to pay, and what additional services they’d like to see at your studio. This will help you make a data-driven decision.

 

Create Bundles or Membership Tiers

Consider integrating sauna sessions into your pricing structure. You could offer bundles, such as a yoga class plus a 30-minute sauna session, or introduce membership tiers that include a set number of sauna sessions per month. This encourages clients to commit to using both services and increases the likelihood of repeat business.

 

Space Requirements

Infrared saunas take up space, and not every yoga studio has extra room to spare. If you operate in a small location, you may prefer offering a smaller sauna for 1-3 people that allows for post-yoga recovery. For yoga studio owners with more space, a large custom sauna built for hot yoga space could offer new class opportunities.

 

Client Education

While infrared saunas are growing in popularity, not everyone is familiar with their benefits. As a studio owner, it can be beneficial to educate your clients on how infrared saunas work and why they’re worth trying. This could involve workshops, demonstrations, or detailed informational materials.

 

Promote the Benefits

Marketing the infrared sauna service is crucial for its success. Highlight the health benefits—like muscle recovery, stress relief, and detoxification—through your website, social media, and email newsletters. You might also want to offer a discount for first-time users to entice your current clients to try it out.

 

Enjoying Infrared Saunas in Yoga Studios

Adding an infrared sauna to your yoga studio can be a beneficial investment that elevates your studio’s wellness offerings, improves client satisfaction, and increases revenue. Additional wellness services such as red light therapy, halotherapy, aromatherapy, chromotherapy, and vibration resonance therapy may also help enhance your client’s overall experience at your yoga studio. However, it’s important to consider the financial and logistical implications before taking the plunge. By surveying your clients, carefully planning your implementation, and promoting the benefits of infrared sauna sessions, you can make a smart decision that enhances your studio’s appeal.