No. You’ll feel warmth from the panels — that’s the only sensation. No needles, no discomfort, nothing to recover from.
Recovery, inflammation, and skin — at the layer your training can’t reach
Slower recovery, joints that stay inflamed, skin and hair that give away your age — the machinery driving all of it sits inside your cells. Specifically, in the mitochondria: the structures that convert oxygen and glucose into the energy your body uses to repair itself. When they run under-fueled, everything downstream slows.
Red light therapy reaches that layer. Concentrated wavelengths of red and near-infrared light penetrate skin and tissue, get absorbed inside the mitochondria, and increase cellular energy production. More energy means faster repair, calmer inflammation, and more of what your body uses to keep skin, hair, joints, and connective tissue intact — none of which you feel happening.
At Balanced Flow’s Bucktown Chicago location, red light therapy runs in one of our two private red light therapy rooms — each with four PlatinumLED BIOMAX Pro panels for full-body coverage in a single session. We serve clients across Bucktown, Wicker Park, Logan Square, and Lincoln Park.
Performance Boosting Services
How a session works
Step 1: Consultation
Before your first session, we go through what you're trying to change — recovery, joint discomfort, skin, general performance — along with your history. The protocol we build (session length, frequency, positioning) depends on those.
Step 2: The Session
You'll be in one of our two private red light therapy rooms, each with four PlatinumLED BIOMAX Pro panels. No prep. You'll feel warmth from the panels; that's the only sensation. Nothing invasive, no needles, no downtime, nothing to recover from.
Step 3: Results
You leave and go straight back to your day. Recovery and soreness benefits tend to show up early. Skin and inflammation-related changes accumulate over a series of sessions. Your protocol adjusts based on what's actually happening.
Services
That Match
Your Goals
Let us know your goals, and our team will guide you toward the treatments that fit your need.
Weight Gain or Loss
Low Energy
Cellulite
Increase Muscle
Lack of Definition
Better Sleep
A Little Effort, A Lot of Results
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Enhance Your Fitness
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Maximize Your Physique
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Empower Your Health
What Red Light Therapy Can Help
Muscle recovery and soreness
Joint pain and stiffness
Inflammation
Skin tone, texture, and fine lines
Collagen production
Hair growth and scalp health
Tendon and connective tissue support
Circulation
Post-workout recovery
General wellness and energy
Red Light Therapy
Benefits of Red Light Therapy
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Red light stimulates mitochondrial energy production, which is the rate-limiting step in tissue repair. Faster energy production, faster repair.
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Multiple clinical trials have shown red and near-infrared light reduce inflammatory markers in joints, muscles, and connective tissue.
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Red light stimulates fibroblasts — the cells that produce collagen. That’s the basis for its use in reducing fine lines and improving skin tone.
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Red and near-infrared light have been studied for stimulating dormant hair follicles and improving hair thickness — the same cellular energy mechanism that supports skin and collagen also supports scalp and follicle health.
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Two private red light therapy rooms, each with four PlatinumLED BIOMAX Pro panels, means full-body coverage in one session instead of one region at a time.
Balanced Flow’s Bucktown location is on North Damen Avenue — minutes from anywhere in Wicker Park, Logan Square, or Lincoln Park.
1755 N. Damen Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647
Two private red light therapy rooms, each with four PlatinumLED BIOMAX Pro panels — a full-body setup run by clinical staff. Sessions can be paired with physical therapy or FastFit training (our proprietary EMS + CAROL bike protocol) when your protocol calls for it.
Start with a Consultation
Fifteen minutes at our Bucktown Chicago location. We’ll go through what you’re trying to fix, whether red light is the right tool for it, and what a protocol would look like.
Frequently Asked Questions About Red Light Therapy in Chicago
Frequently Asked Questions
Different technology, different result. Tanning beds use ultraviolet (UV) light, which damages skin and increases cancer risk. Red light therapy uses red and near-infrared wavelengths only — no UV — and works on cellular energy production, not on skin pigmentation.
Most red light therapy in Chicago is delivered from a single panel or a wrap that covers one region at a time. We use four PlatinumLED BIOMAX Pro panels together in a private room, which allows more of your body to be treated in one session and in a setting where the light can actually reach your skin.
Balanced Flow serves clients across Bucktown, Wicker Park, Logan Square, and Lincoln Park. The private red light room is easy to fit into a workday.
It depends on what you’re trying to change. Recovery and soreness benefits tend to show up early. Skin and inflammation changes build over a series. We’ll map out the protocol at your consultation and adjust as we go.
None. You go straight back to your day.
Yes. It pairs well with physical therapy, FastFit training (our proprietary EMS + CAROL bike protocol), and the rest of the recovery and performance services here. That’s how it’s most often used.
Reducing post-workout soreness (DOMS) is one of the most-studied applications of red light therapy. The mechanism is faster tissue repair through increased mitochondrial energy production. Most patients who add it to a training routine notice the effect within the first few sessions.
Joint pain is usually driven by inflammation. Red and near-infrared light have well-documented anti-inflammatory effects, which is why red light therapy is commonly used for knees, shoulders, backs, and hips — particularly the aging-athlete kind of stiffness that isn’t structural damage.
For back pain that’s driven by inflammation or slow tissue recovery, red light therapy can be part of the answer. For back pain driven by a mechanical problem — which most chronic back pain is — red light supports the healing side, but the mechanics also need to be addressed. That’s why we usually run it alongside physical therapy rather than by itself.
Yes — this is one of its most common uses. Faster mitochondrial energy production means faster repair of training-damaged tissue, less residual soreness, and shorter turnaround between hard sessions.
Yes — the mechanism is well established. Red and near-infrared light are absorbed by an enzyme called cytochrome c oxidase inside your mitochondria, which increases cellular energy (ATP) production. Multiple peer-reviewed clinical trials confirm effects on muscle recovery, inflammation, joint pain, and skin. What varies is dose (irradiance × time), which is one reason the equipment matters.
Red light therapy has an excellent safety record. It uses only red and near-infrared wavelengths — no UV, so no burning or cancer risk. It’s non-thermal at treatment doses, non-invasive, and has no downtime. The main precaution is protecting the eyes; we provide eye protection during every session.
Red and near-infrared light (typically 630–850 nm) penetrate the skin and are absorbed by chromophores in your mitochondria — most importantly, cytochrome c oxidase. This increases the mitochondria’s ability to produce ATP, the energy currency your cells use for repair, inflammation control, and collagen production. More cellular energy translates to faster recovery, less inflammation, and better tissue quality.
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