Sweating for health is an ancient tradition going back millennia. Today, for typical health and fitness clubs, sauna is a great membership selling point. This is not surprising since sauna is popular with those who want to relax after a workout or seek deep sweat cleansing as part of their fitness regime.
Club saunas are most often hot air, steam, or infrared sauna rooms. A sauna room may seem to make sense because it can accommodate several people at a time – economies of scale, right? Perhaps, but that’s not the only factor in the mix.
Consider that sauna rooms have some downsides which sometimes cause clubs to curtail, or close them. These include: the energy cost of heating the sauna all day to keep it available on short notice for clients; difficulty of thorough cleaning for saunas constructed of porous wood, and the possibility of embarrassing “extracurricular” activity among members. In addition, and perhaps most importantly, a survey has shown that approximately half the people are uncomfortable with exposing their unclothed bodies to the sight, or bodily fluids, of strangers.
Today, there are new sauna options that make good business sense for a health club. One of the most exciting is the personal sauna – a sauna built for use by a single person.
Most people, when they think of sauna, think of a room with a hot air or steam source that heats the air to temperatures as high as 220 degrees Fahrenheit. Some find breathing very hot air to be intolerable or annoying and will avoid such a sauna. Even if the sauna room is of the infrared variety, and therefore the air is more comfortable (100- to 140- degrees Fahrenheit) to breathe, some will still avoid it because they prefer not to be seen naked or nearly so.
Club operators wanting to offer sauna, but feeling reluctant for the above stated reasons, should instead consider a personal sauna cabinet – a sauna that has more in common with other club equipment like treadmills and muscle training devices than it does with the common sauna room. Picture the convenience and versatility of a sauna that can be rolled from place to place as needed and plugged into any normal outlet.
A word about the type of heating a sauna employs: infrared heating is an option with advantages in comfort, safety, and effectiveness compared with hot air or steam saunas. Since infrared (think: sun) radiation penetrates the skin to heat you inside, it is more effective at releasing toxins stored in fatty tissue as it causes greater sweat volume for a given temperature. So, with infrared, you get both the greater comfort of lower temperatures and the more effective detoxification on which more and more people place importance. Since the infrared sauna runs at a lower temperature, there are possible safety advantages as well. Additionally, a personal sauna can be designed so that your head is outside the sweating area, eliminating the concern of breathing in the toxins you just sweated out! The head-outside feature enables the user to watch TV, listen to music, or take in the scenery at the gym or spa.
Throughout the world, sauna is becoming increasingly popular as the bodycleansing power of intense sweating and the importance of detoxification in today’s highly-polluted environment, become better known. Indeed, sauna is today part of a therapy for rescue workers and firefighters suffering the results of poisoning from the smoke and airborne debris in New York City after the 9/11 disaster (www.nydetox.org). Research shows that air quality inside buildings is usually worse than outside air – while, of course, outside air is typically carrying an array of poisonous substances from fossil fuel burning and other sources. Water and food bear similar burdens of toxins. Many of the pollutants we’re exposed to from tainted air, water and food are of the heavy metal variety (mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium, etc.), which tend to lodge firmly in the fatty tissue of the body. This is a protective mechanism for which we should be thankful, however, once lodged there, the toxins are difficult to remove by normal body processes, but are susceptible to removal through the detoxification mechanism of sweating.
OK, it’s all well and good to “save the world” with sauna, but let’s come back to the bottom line. Clearly, a personal sauna approach – using multiple units depending on demand – can satisfy club owner needs for fast warm-up times, modularity, flexibility and energy conservation. Club members can get a private and enjoyable sauna experience, being able to watch TV and breathe cool room air – if the sauna cabinet has the “head outside” feature. By thinking “outside the box,” the club owner can get more club members “inside the box” where they will get more out of the sauna experience, improving loyalty to the club.
James Schaeffer is the Engineering/Sales Manager of U. S. Health Equipment Co. Inc. He can be contacted at 877.772.8639, or by email at jschaeffer@saunex.com, or visit www.saunex.com.
