A LEISURE centre has unveiled its brand new sauna facility.

Deeside Leisure Centre's Afon Spa has upgraded its services with the addition of an infrared sauna.

Unlike traditional saunas, infrared saunas do not heat the air around the user.

Instead, they use infrared lamps to warm the body directly. Manufacturers claim that in an infrared sauna, only about 20 per cent of the heat goes to heat the air and the other 80 per cent directly heats the body.

Supporters of infrared saunas say that heat penetrates more deeply than warmed air.

This allows users to experience a more intense sweat at a lower temperature.

Aura Leisure and Libraries has said the benefits of Afon Spa’s new infrared sauna include better sleep, relaxation, detoxification, weight loss, relief from sore muscles, relief from joint pain such as arthritis, clear and tighter skin and improved circulation.

A spokesman for Afon Spa said: "A massive thank you to all our customers for your patience whilst we underwent this exciting project. "We wanted to make it absolutely perfect for our customers for our re-opening.

"We can’t wait for you all to try it out and to see some other little surprises we have. Watch this space.”

The infrared sauna was opened to customers on March 18 and colleagues are looking forward to hearing what visitors to the spa think of the new facility.