Lumos Studio Combines Pilates, Infrared Sauna, and Cold Plunge for Fundraiser

Lumos Infrared Sauna + Cold Plunge Studio brought together three recovery modalities under one roof for a restorative Pilates pop-up fundraiser, produced in partnership with Fitness Chemist. The event combined a Pilates session with infrared sauna access and time in the studio's cold plunge, stacking thermal contrast and movement into a single fundraising experience.

The pop-up drew on the identity Lumos has built since Rachel Bantelman-Evans and her husband Jordan Evans opened the studio in January 2019. Their pitch from the start was personal: both played Division I collegiate athletics in New York and leaned on infrared sauna therapy for years to manage the physical and mental toll of competitive sport. Rachel, a Western New York native and two-sport athlete, discovered infrared sauna therapy in 2015 while chasing relief from persistent athletic injuries. By her own account on the studio's website, she was immediately hooked. That experience led her to partner with Jordan to open what they describe as the first infrared sauna studio in the Rochester area.

Lumos has since grown into a family-owned, full-spectrum operation with locations across Central and Western New York. The studio's offerings span infrared sauna therapy, red light therapy, chromotherapy, and cold plunge, the last of which sits at the center of the pop-up's programming alongside Pilates. The site's dedicated cold plunge section, which includes pages titled "Ready Set Plunge" and "Why Cold Plunge," reflects how seriously the studio treats the practice as a standalone discipline rather than an afterthought bolted onto a sauna visit.

Pairing Pilates with both heat and cold exposure in a single session reflects the full-spectrum framing Lumos uses to describe itself. The infrared sauna raises core temperature and promotes recovery through heat stress; the cold plunge delivers the vasoconstriction and nervous system reset that cold water immersion practitioners seek. Threading Pilates through the middle adds the mobility and breath work component that rounds out what the studio is clearly positioning as a complete recovery session.

The fundraiser format, organized through an Eventbrite listing and co-produced with Fitness Chemist, suggests the event was designed as a community touchpoint as much as a wellness session. The specific beneficiary of the fundraiser was not detailed in available materials, nor were ticket pricing or the exact hosting location among Lumos's Central and Western New York sites. The studio's website lists both Amherst memberships and an Armory events program, indicating the kind of venue infrastructure that supports exactly this type of pop-up.