Merriam, KS Spa and Massage

HealthRidge Fitness Center is all about options. From more than 80 weekly group exercise classes to sprawling facilities that include a 1/8-mile indoor track, racquetball courts, and cardio machines with personal TVs, both beginning and advanced exercisers can find an activity that moves at their preferred pace. Guests get pumped up in boot-camp sessions taught by instructors who have been certified in a military-instructor training course led by Army National Guard master fitness trainer and staff sergeant Ken Weichert. To calm the mind, a yoga or Pilates class reduces stress while strengthening core muscles. The center also features a workout area and classes designed specifically for kids.

In warm weather, an outdoor pool decorated with a natural-looking rock formation invites swimmers to splash about a tranquil waterfall. Exercisers can unwind after a workout with a pedicure, a massage, or a facial at the Spa at HealthRidge, which has been named one of America’s Top 100 Spas by SpAwards. The café and lounge area offers nutritious meals and a cozy fireplace that is ideal for soothing achy muscles or burning cheat-day pages torn from food journals.

While getting her Master's Degree in Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, Donna Tatum developed her own attitude and approach to skincare, herbal medicine, and essential oils. From her experience, she's seen that skin and health are often a reflection of one's diet, stress levels, negative emotions, and proximity to a volcano. As a result, she uses a holistic approach when administering her treatments. In addition to traditional and cosmetic acupuncture, she also provides all-natural facials that use local and organic ingredients in addition to antioxidant herbs. During the course of every visit, she also dispenses advice to her clients about natural ways in which they can eat better, care for their bodies, and promote self-healing in their to day-to-day lives.

Nationally certified massage therapist Vana of Comfort Cove Massage designs custom bodywork sessions that account for her clients' individual needs. Vana begins each treatment with an assessment that helps her design a plan to remove muscle discomfort. She then begins one of her three signature treatments: a chair massage, a hot-stone massage, or a therapeutic massage that blends techniques from various modalities. Therapeutic motions induce a sense of calm, whereas an optional heated massage table and massage oils deepen relaxation. During the hot-stone massage, Vana moves hot stones across the back, alternately kneading with the stones in hand and stationing them in place for longer heat concentration. At the conclusion of each service, clients receive a warm-towel treatment for the neck, face, or any other area with lingering stiffness.

Licensed massage therapist Liz earned an occupational-science degree, which she puts to good use while rendering a panoply of massage modalities geared toward fulfilling her professional mission of vanquishing pain. She and her qualified team observe that pain encroaches into bodies from many sources, such as stress from work, overexertion from playing sports, or stiffness from traveling cross-country in an overhead bin. To combat these many causes and iterations of pain, Liz culls from her experience as a professional dancer to choreograph her own interpretations of massage modalities, each tailored specifically to fit the needs of the client.

As a child, aesthetician Erica Engler loved going to her grandmother’s beauty salon. She'd watch the ladies walk in looking one way and eagerly awaited seeing them leave all dolled up and ready to tackle the day. She noticed that with their physical makeover came also a mental transformation of increased confidence and relaxation, inspiring her to become a makeup artist.

Along with her team, Erica strives to make women feel more attractive and less stressed. In addition to her makeup services, she smoothes complexions with facials enhanced by Dermalogica products and hand and arm massages. Armed with Satin Smooth and NuFree wax, she swiftly removes hair from faces, arms, legs, and vestigial tails with waxing services. The massage therapists soothe aches and tension with sundry techniques including Swedish and deep-tissue massage, reflexology, and manual lymphatic drainage. With all of their services, Erica and her team aim to send clients back to their day-to-day activities feeling refreshed and more beautiful than a shimmering butterfly fluttering through a misty rainbow.

Grace Designs & Esthetics’ skincare professionals upgrade the health and look of skin with face and body treatments performed inside a newly renovated space adorned with modern accents. While the spa’s makeup artists expertly camouflage imperfections, aestheticians work to correct their underlying causes with facials that rehabilitate dry, aging, or smart-mouthing skin.