'It's for everyone': Infrared sauna studio offering red light therapy opening in West Des Moines
Hannah Rodriguez
Nestled in Bridgewood Square Shopping Center west of Jordan Creek Towne Center is Iowa’s first franchise location for Perspire, an infrared sauna studio opening at the end of August.
The 1,600-square-foot West Des Moines studio includes 10 private sauna rooms equipped with Smart TVs offering Hulu, Netflix and Pandora radio stations.
The sauna studios at Perspire glow with bright, warm-colored lights. Each sauna couples red light therapy with infrared heat lamps, offering a more comprehensive sauna experience, according to the co-owners, Iowa natives Lauren and Michael Caleb.
Perspire, they said, is their response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was definitely influenced by COVID in a way,” Lauren Caleb said. “Just thinking more about your health and wellness and immunity made us start looking for something because it just became even more relevant. I don’t think we would’ve come across this if we didn’t have a COVID environment. This is the direction people are heading towards, being mindful of your health.”
The Mayo Clinic says light therapy can help ease symptoms of seasonal affective disorder. Studies also have shown improvements after light therapy session on scales measuring depression.
Differing from traditional, dry-heat saunas, infrared saunas do not increase the air temperature. Infrared lamps use electromagnetic radiation to stimulate spa-goers' cells, directly heating up their bodies.
Bathing in saunas has been a common wellness practice for thousands of years, with variations based on culture and region. The Calebs tout infrared sauna benefits they say include calming a user's nervous system, leading to better sleep, and reducing inflammation, relieving pain.
"It’s for everyone," Lauren Caleb said. "It can be for the person who isn’t active or can’t be active or it’s for the high-intensity athlete using the sauna to recover on their off days. Literally anyone can come in here and do this."
While the Calebs say they always wanted to start their own business, the coronavirus pandemic was their nudge to jump into franchising.
The California-based company started in 2010, expanding to 16 current locations — including one in Omaha, Nebraska. It expects to open more than a dozen additional saunas soon, according to its website.
Michael Caleb said he discovered the brand after he spent part of the COVID-19 pandemic managing a couple mostly empty Holiday Inns.
“Being in hospitality, we just got killed,” he said. “So I was in an empty hotel figuring out, ‘OK, what’s my next move here? Now or never and now would make the most sense.’ Taking responsibility for one’s own health was really put at the forefront during the pandemic.”
The husband-and-wife duo plan to continue expanding the brand in the Des Moines metro.
Perspire is accepting advance registrations. Visit www.perspiresaunastudio.com for more information.
Hannah Rodriguez covers retail for the Register. Reach her at herodriguez@registermedia.com or on Twitter @byherodriguez.