The Sweat Shack
About our Boutique
The Sweat Shack is a sauna and cold plunge boutique modeled after the Finnish sauna experience. When you walk into the Sweat Shack, all your senses are engaged. You’ll see calming lights, hear soothing music, smell the essential oils. We want you to feel relaxed from the moment you walk in. When you leave your session, we hope you feel energized, like you can conquer the world (okay, maybe just your day ahead), or relaxed enough to sleep soundly.
The Sweat Shack
About our Boutique
The Sweat Shack is a sauna and cold plunge boutique modeled after the Finnish sauna experience. When you walk into the Sweat Shack, all your senses are engaged. You’ll see calming lights, hear soothing music, smell the essential oils. We want you to feel relaxed from the moment you walk in. When you leave your session, we hope you feel energized, like you can conquer the world (okay, maybe just your day ahead), or relaxed enough to sleep soundly.
The Sweat Shack
Mission & Promise
Our mission and promise is to love, serve, and bless others in the areas of their health by providing a safe and comforting space to promote restoration of the spirit, soul, and body.
The Sweat Shack Story
How it all Started
Jenifer and Mark Felan founded The Sweat Shack® in 2015. The benefits of sauna bathing were so beneficial for them, they wanted to create a space for others to experience the same.
For years, Jenifer lived an incredibly busy life juggling a family, home, and career. As a wife and mother of 6 kiddos, she also worked as a private flight attendant for a well-known celebrity. When she wasn’t flying or with her family, she squeezed in time to teach fitness classes. This fast-paced lifestyle left little room for Jenifer to take care of herself, and over time she got sick with multiple auto-immune disorders—one of them being hashimoto’s, which attacks the thyroid.
While trying to help Jenifer, Mark also recognized the challenge in balancing his high-stress career in the film industry and family life. In his work, he found himself exposed to heavy metal toxicity on a daily basis, causing him to feel drained and tired. To top it all off, a snowboarding accident from his past left him with lower back pain he could never find a remedy for.
Leaning into their faith, they were led to Seattle, where they met Dr. Jonathan Wright. He taught them the ancient benefits of natural infrared heat, and recommended an in-home sauna. Within two weeks of regular use, Jenifer and Mark both experienced healing!
After friends and family saw the rapid changes taking place in Jenifer and Mark, they started to come over for their own sauna sessions. Finally, when there were just too many people hanging around their home in ‘birthday suits’, Jenifer and Mark decided it was time to share this amazing treatment with the world. That’s how The Sweat Shack® was born in Old Town Newhall, California.
Flash Forward a few years—as trailblazers in the infrared industry, the couple knew there was a missing link and continued their research in finding the true sauna bathing experience. Inspired by friends in Finland, they fell in love with the culture and brought back the sauna experience to share with YOU!
Finnish Style
Sauna Bathing
Finnish-Style Sauna Bathing uses a combination of chromotherapy (color light therapy), aromatherapy (essential oils), with a blend of water and essential oils being poured over hot rocks to create steam. After sitting in a heat experience, you participate in a cold (Kylmä) plunge—sitting in a pool of water around 42-44° fahrenheit. It’s the art of putting your body and mind through two extremes—extreme heat to extreme cold. But it leaves you feeling energized, relaxed, and centered with your body.
Finnish Style
Sauna Bathing
Sweat Shack Corporate
The Founders
Mark Felan
Mark has had a 27+ year career in the motion picture industry. He started The Sweat Shack to support Jenifer in her dream to help others in their health. He hopes this place is somewhere guests can take a break during their hectic day, and he wants studios to be opened in hometowns across the country.
Jennifer Felan
After being diagnosed with multiple autoimmune diseases, Jenifer started sauna bathing and her symptoms disappeared. That’s why the Sweat Shack was born—to help others, too. She’s been a corporate flight attendant for 20+ years and a fitness instructor, and her desire is to give communities across the nation hope and wellness in their bodies.
Welcome to The Sweat Shack
The Experience
At The Sweat Shack, you’ll enjoy sauna bathing coupled with infrared heat therapy. After your session, you’ll step into a cold plunge, which guests say can help release all the inflammation and tension in the body.
Sauna & Heat Cabin Experience
Release your toxins in a Kuuma Sauna or Urban Heat Cabin. In a Kuuma Sauna, the heat is paired with an aromatherapy essential oil blend that you pour over hot rocks to let out steam. In the Urban Heat Cabin, you get similar benefits, just at a lower temperature with no steam—the urban cabins use heat panels. Whichever experience you choose, you’ll walk away feeling detoxed, refreshed, and energized.
Cold Plunge Experience
Release your tension in a 42-44° bath. Cooling down is an essential part of sauna bathing. Don’t worry if you’ve never done it before—you’ll be coached through your first time, and can ask for coaching during any cold plunge session thereafter.