Use These Strategies to Properly Return to the Gym While Recovering Your Best Post-COVID-19

For many of us, our training has been off of peak for months now. What’s going to happen when the gyms reopen?

I have a thought that we may see an increase in sports-related injuries and rhabdomyolysis as people get back to their routines and feel the urge to push as hard as they were used to before COVID-19 and gyms closing. Rhabdomyolysis (rhabdo) is the breakdown of damaged muscle that can occur in athletes who overtrain by doing too much work without adequate recovery. It’s a dangerous condition because it can lead to kidney damage in addition to the effects of overtraining syndrome.

As gym goers return to their fitness centres, we need to remember the importance of adequate recovery and training programs that are designed for making progress over time.

Here are some ways to approach getting your grind on responsibly once back in the gym.

Listen in to this discussion on the FlowCast

Ramp up your volume now.

Knowing that gyms in Ontario are gearing up for re-opening soon, the first thing that I encourage anyone who is camping outside the gym with their Zubaz pants and fanny pack to do is start to increase the volume and intensity of your home workouts now. Do more bodyweight workouts and incorporate the exercises that you don’t like because they hit your weak points. If you’ve been sticking to a program consistently throughout the last several months, try to do whatever you can to increase the intensity by adding weight to the movements. Throw on a backpack loaded with books if you need to.

If you’re stuck on what you can do to ramp up the intensity right now, it’s the perfect time to support a local personal trainer and get a sensible training program for returning the gym designed for you.

Start slow - you’re not going to be at your best immediately

So your local gym has announced that they’ve reopened and day one looks like the onslaught of people who’ve made resolutions at New Years to get in shape.

Everyone is training like it’s the zombie apocalypse and the only suitable soundtrack to fuel such intensity is an 80’s Training Montage a la Eye of The Tiger.

This is where we will see the risk of overtraining and potential injury run at a fever pitch in the oncoming months.

In the training world, we talk about having true one-rep maxes and training maxes. And this is the time to be extra conservative with the percentage of your one-rep max that you use. A typical training max is set at 95% of your true one-rep max so that you can continue to make progress without getting stuck at a plateau and also for reducing the risk of injury, which is especially important for training athletes.

It would be wise to consider working off of 90% of your true max or even 85% when programming your volume and intensity at least for one training macrocycle of 4-6 weeks as you get back into the gym.

After your muscles and nervous system have re-adapted you can start to resume a little more of your normal training, provided that you keep in mind the need for recovery and balancing the stress that isn’t going away anytime soon.

Implement proper recovery now

Many of us use the gym as a way to “de-stress” so we often forget that it is imposing additional stress on our bodies.

Training too hard - non-functional overtraining - is one of the most common sources of stress alongside things like poor diet and breathing patterns as well as relationship and work stress. In normal times we don’t have this additional burden of the anxiety surrounding the global health situation and recessions which only further stoke our stress levels.

Before you get back into the gym and start training hard again, identify the ways that you like to recover and restore your body so that you can plan it into your schedule. This is just as important for peak performers as the training itself and is one of the strategies that separate the world-class from everyone else.

If you are training hard and working hard, there should be recovery time included in your daily schedule with longer sessions in which you treat yourself with doing the things that help you relax and enjoy at least once or twice per week. This could be spending half an hour in the sauna after one of your workouts or going for a float to unwind and decompress.

If you spend a lot of time at a desk, your recharge time may look like getting out to golf or going for a lunchtime walk through the local trails.

The more that you see this as part of your job in staying healthy and well, the better you will be able to perform and fully engage in the other areas of your life.

Join Peak Performance Monthly Coaching

This month’s peak performance training was on functional overtraining and HRV tracking for peak performance. Visit the Flow Academy if you want more advanced training on recovery for training and performing your best.

7 Effective, Natural Ways To Relieve Pain and Feel Your Best

Pain is one of the most pervasive and pernicious conditions that we face. We've all experienced pain in our lives and about 20 percent of the population lives with a chronic pain condition. From our joints to our muscles, to our nerves and beyond, all systems of our body are affected by pain. Fibromyalgia, arthritis, and sciatica have become commonplace words as we face these conditions ourselves or know someone we deeply care about who is suffering daily from them.

Billions of dollars are spent each year treating pain and researchers are equally invested in seeking out effective ways to relieve pain.

Today, let's go through some of the most effective pain treatments that you may not be familiar with and how they may help you to relieve your pain and find more ease in your life safely and naturally.

First, we must preface by saying this is for informational purposes only and always consult your physician before making any changes in your prescription or routine.

How We Normally Treat Pain

Billions of dollars are spent each year on over the counter and prescription pain medications to treat the slew of symptoms that affect us. While many people are dependent on the medications they are taking for pain management, most of us are aware that medications and even operations that we go through for treating our pain are not without their downsides. Over the counter drugs, like NSAIDs are known to cause gastrointestinal issues, prescription drugs like opiates carry addiction and dependency risks with them, and going under the knife always poses a risk as well.

When it comes to joint replacements and spinal fusions, we may be opting for limited mobility and strength while on borrowed time with nuts and bolts that don't stand the test of time in the same way as our organic parts do.

Research and technology are making miraculous changes in the field of medicine though and we will continuously see improvements across the board with safety in regards to medications and pain treatment procedures but it still comes down to the decision of the individual on what route they wish to go. Cost also becomes a limiting factor in many instances with medical interventions.

So whether it's because of the financial costs, or you're someone who prefers natural options wherever possible, let's now look at natural pain relief options that you may not be familiar with and how they may help in your case.

Why Natural Pain Relief?

Natural pain relief need not be ineffective pain relief.

Our bodies have innate systems in place to deal with blunting pain signals and healing injuries to our bodies.

The inflammatory response is an inherent defense system against attacks. When we are physically injured, inflammation signals the defenders to heal or kill and regenerate any cells in our bodies that were affected. This system is again activated by internal threats like pathogens when we get sick or contract a foodborne illness. Pain signals are produced as a way to protect ourselves from further damage during these attacks but also get produced by the inflammatory system as well. As most of us have experienced, short-lived pain is manageable but starts to take its more serious toll on us when it becomes a chronic and ongoing problem. Inflammation isn't supposed to linger in our body and it appears that a dysfunctional state of inflammation is linked to many chronic pain disorders. Pain researchers have shown that many of the common types of pain that we experience have a disorder with inflammation at the root of the issue.

By learning how to treat the root cause and taking proactive steps to keep up the treatments, many people can reduce their need for harmful medications or prevent the need for surgery through a holistic approach to pain relief.

Once again, always check with your doctor, but we'll go through these exciting and promising pain relief treatments and what types of conditions they may benefit you for.

Remedies You Can Use Right Now to Relieve Pain

Rule number one with making any changes is never pushing it and always check with your doctor.

Stretching or Foam Rolling

Stretching and foam rolling can often be beneficial for muscle or tendon pain. We've heard of people saying they've got a knot in their muscle or we've experienced it ourselves and there seems to be some truth to the statement. Often due to repetitive strain or injury, our muscles can form trigger points which are adhesions in the muscles. Other issues can include restrictions in the fascia that holds muscles together or scar tissue in muscles and tendons. These conditions are painful and often chronically so unless they are worked on, either on your own or with the help of a therapist. While you may not think that a simple knot in your muscle or repetitive strain could cause a debilitating issue, our body is so highly interconnected that this can often create a weak link effect where your most noticeable issue is further down the chain from where the problem originated.

Doing light stretching daily and including foam rolling in your routine are simple ways to create some more mobility in your system. Foam rolling involves putting your body weight into a soft foam tube on affected areas and rolling gently back and forth as a form of self-massage. Using props like a tennis ball, or Thera-cane can also help to access small or hard to reach areas. One area that we often neglect but can see dramatic results from is rolling out the soles of our feet. Because we are on our feet for so much of our lives and many people do not have perfect posture or wear improper shoes, researchers have shown that this can almost immediately improve the range of motion in our entire posterior chain. It's a testament to how interconnected our entire body is.

CBD Oil

CBD oil is a very promising natural remedy for many people suffering from inflammatory conditions. CBD is the non-psychoactive component of the Cannabis plant and is also often extracted from hemp. It is a powerful natural anti-inflammatory remedy that works to block pain signals through our endogenous cannabinoid system.

Both pets and people find incredible relief by including topical or ingestible CBD products. With the Cannabis industry becoming prominent, CBD research is starting to show effectiveness for a wide range of pain conditions, including arthritis, fibromyalgia, cancer-related pain, nerve pain, chronic back pain, and joint and muscle pain from sports. It also has been very beneficial for relaxing people and helping with anxiety and insomnia or sleep-related disorders.

Because of the anti-inflammatory effects with CBD, it's best to check with your doctor if you are on any other anti-inflammatory medications before trying CBD.

We sell CBD products at Flow Spa and have seen many customers able to avoid the need for medications or reduce medications by adding CBD to their routine.

Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is one of the most exciting fields of research from the past decade. This buzz-word worthy term includes things like meditation and enlightenment or transcendence but there's nothing mystical about the science of mindfulness; it is simply a way to think of present state awareness or non-judgemental thinking. Not only is mindfulness effective for reducing stress and anxiety, but research has also shown that a regular practice of mindfulness can help us to become more resilient to pain and suffering in our life. People who are trained in mindfulness are better able to block and ignore pain signals in their body, which can lead to higher levels of happiness and perceiving life more positively.

There are many free or inexpensive courses and apps for practicing mindfulness. Some that we recommend include the Waking Up app, Oak, Headspace, and Insight Timer. At Flow Spa, we also have a Muse Meditation headband which is a biofeedback device that guides your brain into a calm state using cues from nature sounds. It's free for anyone to use at the spa.

Learning how to become more mindful is a challenge for many of us, which is why several of the other safe and natural treatments for the pain we're going to suggest may help to ease you into regular mindfulness practice if it doesn't come naturally to you.

Nature Exposure

One of the ways to make mindfulness more accessible to you if you struggle with it is through getting into nature, which has also been called forest bathing. When we breathe in the fresh air of natural surroundings like in the woods or a park, the fragrances that are released from the plants and trees around us have been shown to reduce blood pressure and stress. Stress is a pro-inflammatory condition in our body, so by reducing stress in our body, we are also able to reduce a major source of chronic inflammation.

To get the greatest benefit from nature exposure, leave your phone and other devices behind, breathe deeply, and enjoy your presence in nature. If you need a phone with you for emergencies, you can put it on airplane mode.

Nature exposure can work well to help you into a mindful state because of the calming effect but also due to being a more active form of walking meditation. Try counting your paces or breathing on pace with your steps as you walk through the woods.

Treatments Worth Trying for Deeper Pain Management

Infrared Sauna

Chronic stress is pro-inflammatory and a pervasive problem in our bodies but a complete absence of stress is also not ideal for our well-being. Short, intense bouts of stress like with a hard workout, heat, or cold exposure, make our bodies adaptable and more resilient. Infrared saunas and other sauna use have been shown to help with joint and muscle pain like arthritis, as well as create a beneficial response for coping with and reducing stress. When we get exposed to intense heat like with sauna for a short period, our body responds with the same defense system that is activated during injuries, which helps us to heal and regenerate. Furthermore, the sweating that is caused by the heat helps to rid our bodies of other stressors that build up in our system, like the toxic byproducts of chronic inflammation or heavy metals and other environmental toxins.

Sauna use seems to help a lot of people who struggle with joint paint like arthritis and some circulatory conditions that lead to pain and discomfort. To get the most out of a sauna treatment protocol, it needs to be done ideally 2-3 times per week and at least once per week.

Acupuncture

As we talked about with foam rolling and stretching, adhesions throughout our bodies can lead to pain and dysfunction. Acupuncture can help to stimulate blood flow and relax adhesions to allow our bodies to move better again and reduce inflammation. While this treatment modality may not appeal to everyone, it has a wide range of benefits that may be worthwhile for you to consider looking further into. Treatments will usually start with a more frequent schedule until the pain and tension have diminished at which point less frequent maintenance sessions may be performed to prevent pain or injury from recurring.

Floatation Therapy

Floating or float therapy goes by many names, like sensory deprivation or R.E.S.T for Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy. It's the Dead Sea experience harnessed in a comfortable and private room with a pod or a float tank that's designed like a bathtub big enough for you to lie down flat on your back in without touching any sides. Within the float tank, there are only 10 or 11 inches of water with 1,000 lb. of Epsom Salt dissolved into it, allowing our bodies to float like a cork on the surface. The float rooms are dark and quiet, with optional music and lights, and the experience of laying in the super-saturated saltwater decompresses the entire body and lets the mind relax and quiet to reduce stress and anxiety. Experiences usually range from 60-to-90 minutes in length as the body needs time to decompress and reduce tension once the pressure is taken off your body.

Float therapy is one of the safest and most effective treatments for a wide variety of conditions which is why much research has been going into this amazing and relaxing experience in recent years. Clinical evidence for float therapy includes treating chronic neck and back pain, pain related to depression, reductions in stress, anxiety, and blood pressure, and ongoing research is further validating the benefits for arthritis, fibromyalgia, concussion therapy, and PTSD.

This bucket list experience for many people becomes a regular part of their routine once they realize how much it helps with reducing pain not only right after the treatment but for days and weeks at a time. Many doctors regularly rank float therapy at the top of their list of recommended treatments because of its safety and efficacy with little to no side effects. Typical frequency of treatments ranges from one to four times per month depending on the severity of pain and the need for relief.

At Flow Spa, we specialize in float therapy and have seen countless customers come in again and again for relief from pain. If you're interested in learning more about how float therapy can help you, book your first appointment today or give us a call for more information.

How To Make Your Exercise Routine Easy To Stick To

Throughout this quarantine, I've been talking about the importance of exercise and staying active and getting outside.

For me, this was a big shift as a strongman competitor my training has been way off but I dove right into looking forward to a different style of training with bodyweight movements and higher repetition work which is quite out of the ordinary for me and a good challenge.

In addition to going on walks, my fitness routine hasn't dropped off and, in a lot of ways, it's increased because I can work out as well as get out for a walk each day and I'm doing this at least six days a week.

But when my friend Tony invited me on a bike ride just the other day something clicked in me that I haven’t experienced in quite a while and it reminded me of the most important lesson there is when it comes to exercise and consistency.

That's when I clued in and remembered that not everybody loves to do the gym rats scenario.

Maybe for you, the thought of Burpee's and squats and push-ups at home in your living room is as bad as pulling teeth. I remembered that moment the joy that I used to experience when I first discovered basketball because as an overweight teenager I was not physically active at all.

I had played soccer and baseball growing up as a child but I never really liked those sports. But everything shifted at that moment when I found a type of activity and a sport that I enjoyed.

You see, I set out a goal to start running when the quarantine hit just as a way to burn off some energy and get exercise and guess what? I haven't run a single time in the past two months that we've been stuck at home. And so it's all coming full circle almost 20 years later as I'm finding the joy in biking. My sport of strong man beats me up enough and I don't want to feel the wear and tear of pounding the pavement while running which is why cycling has become so great for me since I never really feel like my evening walks do much to get my heart rate up or feel like exertion. And that’s ok too. Exercise doesn’t always have to be hard to be beneficial.

So today I want to take you through how you can find that activity that you love.

And this isn’t to say there's no value in pushing yourself and the discipline of doing hard things. Training that grit is essential for peak performance but as I've been talking about as well lately right now we're not in a state where a lot of us can get to peak performance but rather we need to think about what is optimal for us in this time and so one way to optimize your situation is to make some lighthearted decisions and get more joy out of your daily routine and the activities that you do.

So the more fun you can have with your exercise right now the more willpower that you can exert over staying focussed on doing the deep work you need and avoiding those distractions in your workplace at home and treating yourself with exercise that you like.

The only step to finding enjoyment and exercise is to try a bunch of things.

Now, at first, you may not get peak joy out of something just because the challenge maybe a little bit greater than what you can handle so I would say stick with things for at least 1 to 2 weeks and see how you feel don't make a big investment into it but just get started and if things don't feel right keep moving on to something else.

I think the most important thing is you've got to try a lot of different activities.

Maybe you're thinking to yourself that you don't like to do anything physical but at least in my mind, I have yet to meet somebody that doesn't find at least one type of physical activity to just get more exercise enjoyable.

Do your research and figure out what types of activities you may enjoy. The unfortunate thing is I feel like some of us will struggle in this realm right now just because there are sports that require multiple participants that are out of the question right now and so in those cases you'll just have to do your best to at least make some lighthearted choices with your exercise to stay active.

5 Steps To Improving Your Mindset During Quarantine

How many times have you heard someone lament over what a challenge it is to get off the couch and get work done in the past several months while being stuck at home? It’s so easy to get lost binge-watching shows and trying to forget the world around us for a bit but we all know deep down that it doesn’t feel good to do this. It leaves us in a shroud of a perpetual hangover. Let’s look at a few steps that you can take to drastically improve your mindset and how you are feeling during the quarantine.

Even if the restrictions have lifted wherever you are, using these tips will still help to enhance your mindset and your experience of life.

So read on and take note of what you need to improve upon. 

5 Ways To Improve Your Mindset During Quarantine

1. USE your bliss station. 👩‍💻

A lot of us are struggling in part because productivity has bottomed out during the quarantine. It's difficult to get work done at home if you're not used to doing so and to add fuel to the fire, we're working online a lot more right now which is also a struggle if you don't have the right systems in place to master digital distractions.

A bliss station is your temple for deep work. It's a secluded place where you can be most productive. It should inspire creativity and focus.

Some people love the local coffee shop or library for this but as that's not an option for most of us still at this time, we have to manufacture our bliss stations at home. Download coffee shop sounds or play a movie with no sound in the background if you like to feel the company of other people around you. Or if your house is feeling too full right now, you can turn inward by repurposing a closet or using noise-cancelling headphones.

Creativity is a habit that we all can tap into if we create the right rituals and routines to produce more of it in our lives.

2. Keep a clean environment for focus. 🧹

If you're feeling frazzled in getting work done or just from feeling cooped up, a clean physical environment is linked to a clean mental space. To break through that ennui, tidy up your house or at least start with your work station to create more inspiration.  

And if you hate cleaning, it only takes about 60 seconds of cleaning before your brain and body shift gears and it starts to lift your mood. So set your timer and start moving and you’ll be amazed at the shift in your mindset.

3. Get outside 🌲

Nature is incredibly refreshing physically, mentally, and emotionally. Fresh air and the chemicals in plants that produce fragrances have a calming effect and reduce stress and blood pressure.

Try to get outside every single day and you'll immensely change the way you are feeling very quickly.

Even going barefoot outside of wherever you are living for a few minutes will help to ground you more.

If you need music or a podcast to get you out the door and into the woods, I suggest at some point turning it off and just tuning in to the sounds of nature around you.

4. Start a mindfulness practice 🧘‍♂️

Now is the perfect time to start a mindfulness practice. Being at home and maybe secluded from other people makes it important to turn inward and tune into your feelings and emotions.

Learning how to meditate is the closest thing that we have to a superpower as humans. You can tie this into your daily walks outside or your gratitude practice if the idea of trying to clear your head of all thoughts is daunting. The real magic comes around 10 minutes per day of practice but consistency is much more important than outright length, so if all you can muster is four deep breaths to start, that's still great!

If you need a place to start with meditation, the Flow Academy free Challenge Week for Staying Healthy, Happy, and Stress-Free at-home includes several great meditations for getting started and getting through these tough times.

5. 3-Step Gratitude 🙏

Practicing gratitude is incredibly powerful for living more positively and generating optimism.

Now more than ever, we should be writing down our experiences and so I strongly encourage you to start a daily journal and just jot down some of your ideas or experiences through this pandemic.

While you don't need to write down the things you are grateful for, it can be a useful way to embody the feelings of gratitude deeper.

I find that doing a 3-step gratitude is the best way to create balance with the practice. A lot of the time if we do the same gratitude every time it will lose some of its emotional charge. Some people like to just think of their life's highlight reel, others treat gratitude as mindfulness and just focus on the present while a third group tends to visualize the future first and foremost and is always chasing a perceived endpoint instead of balancing the appreciation of the journey.

Combining Past, Present, and Future into your gratitude practice is a way to create more balance.

1. Start by pulling on a past peak experience. Let it fill you up with happiness and gratitude. 

2. Use that energy to bring yourself into the present and focus on something small in your immediate environment that you can be grateful for. 

3. Now visualize a future event or goal that you are looking forward to. You can even envision it having already been accomplished or experienced. 

Using these mindset strategies can start to shift you towards more positivity and optimism. If it seems like a lot to ask for in one go, just start with whichever tip appeals to you the most and work on doing that one for a week or two. Once it feels easy to keep that one change in your routine, add in another step.

Remember that building a more resilient mindset doesn’t happen overnight and that this is about the long journey and not quick hacks. Take your time and be patient and wonderful things will start to happen for you.

Ready to take your performance to the next level? Register for the free webinar on How Will Peak Performance Change in “The New Normal?”

Boost Your Immune System With These 4 Top Tips

Last week we launched the Flow Academy, an online learning platform for peak performance and flow.

In this time of being stuck at home, I'm seeing a lot of people spiral out of control and lose their sense of well-being.

That's why the first course I've made available on the Flow Academy website is a free challenge week, which unlocks to you a few simple challenges each day for one week so that you've got some steps you can take action on to reclaim your wellness and feel more happy, healthy, and stress-free at home.

I encourage you to go and sign up for the challenges right now.

Today I want to talk a bit about your immune system, a topic that relates to Day 2 of Challenge week with Stress Management.

Watch the video here:

Nutrition

In the course, I touched mostly on stress as the main topic so today I want to cover a few more key points to help you to take care of your immune system during this difficult time.

While I did touch on nutrition in regards to stress in the challenge week let's talk more about the immune system here.

Eat Water-Rich Foods

Foods with the highest water content are important for the nutrients they provide, as well as the water and hydrating effects on our bodies. Hydration is very important for our immune function. By drinking plenty of water and getting more water through a water-rich diet we help to support our lymphatic system, which transports immune cells throughout our body and carries waste away when fighting off infection and illness.

This hydration factor is critical enough let alone the vitamins you get in abundance when you prioritize the vegetables and fruits in your diet.

Exercise

Regular exercise not only feels good, but it also keeps us resilient to getting sick. Next to old age, the risk factors for obesity are linked to susceptibility to COVID-19 so making sure that you are moving your body and staying active is something that’s in your control during this pandemic.

You can find out more about easy ways to move more instantly on day 1 of the wellness challenge week.

Sleep

One of the easiest ways to get sick more often and crush your immune system is to sleep less than your body needs. While I sometimes fall prey to this as well,  don't get caught in a YouTube binge that compromises your sleep and have a proper sleep hygiene routine to wind down well at the end of the day. If you are going to be watching TV or on blue light devices after the sun goes down, try using some blue light blocking glasses.

Food safety

Another factor to keep in mind right now is food safety, and not just through hand washing prior to eating or preparing your meals. Be cognizant of the foods you are eating to watch out for foodborne illness or gut health issues. Whether you get sick from food poisoning or due to digestive distress from foods that don't agree with you, it's going to compromise your immune system and make you susceptible to other illnesses, which is what we most certainly don't need right now. This is something I’ve always recommended with strongman athletes in the days leading up to a competition to avoid any issues with fuelling and preparing for competition and the same applies to us all right now.

Those are four of the things that are in your control to boost your immune system during this pandemic. You can learn more by watching this week’s video.

Remember to go and sign up for the Flow Academy challenge week to level up your wellness at home even more.

Find Your Flow,

RJ

Increasing Your Wellness With This Easy Stress and Energy Tracker Solution

We are all stressed and feeling anxious right now and one of the most practical things that you can do to get a handle on the situation and help you to focus on the things that you can control is by creating a simple tracker system to monitor the most important aspects of your wellness right now.

One of the most impactful takeaways I got from Tony Robbins at the power of success seminar that I attended was how beneficial tracking your energy levels can be to sustain a higher level of performance - regardless of what that means to you.

Habits trackers are the simplest way to do that and while you can create a digital table or use an app, like a Fitbit or Oura ring to track some of the metrics, writing it down on paper or in a journal seems to be the most effective way of visually portraying this and truly understanding what the trends mean for you.

A simple tracker, like the one that I've included as a bonus download in the wellness challenge week, can allow you to write the number associated with your subjective feelings each day.

In the image below you'll see how I visually represent these details on an X- and Y-axis. Daily I track my energy level with a dot or bullet and my subjective sleep quality with an open circle. I'm also adding in a subjective stress level with a different symbol.

 What I want you to do is create a similar tracker for yourself.

You can print off the tracker from the wellness course, or create your own in a journal or even on a scrap piece of paper.

If you're drawing it out for yourself, create the graph that is more visual than just the boxes from the habit tracker template. 

-Draw or mark out space for ten lines.

-Each day give yourself a score from 1 - 10 for the following:

• Your energy level - how ready are you to perform at your best? 10 would be unstoppable.

• Your sleep - 10 would be the perfect amount of sleep for your needs and waking up feeling refreshed.

• Your stress level - 10 being the absolute worst you’ve ever felt.

 I find that I will personally record sleep in the morning but save energy and stress levels for at least a few hours later once I have had some time to wake up. You can even do these much later after you've had some time to reflect on how well you performed today.

Nobody seeking flow and peak performance, or even just stress-free living in our current circumstances wants to live a life that's always a 6 or 7 out of 10, just as you wouldn’t go around bragging if you scored 60% on a test.

Making the stress tracker something visual like this works so well because it motivates you to want to find solutions.

And if you don't know where to start, sign up for the free healthy, happy, and stress-free challenge week for easy challenges you can implement into your at-home routine.  

Listen to this Flow Under Five episode for more on tracking stress and energy with these trackers.

7 Workouts You Can Do From Home (While Supporting Ptbo Businesses)

We’re facing a very difficult time for a lot of people and I wanted to share with you some resources that can help you to get your mindset right this week and for the duration that we are physically distancing ourselves. 
 

7 Workouts You Can Do From Home

The listed businesses are local to Peterborough and as with all small businesses right now, keeping the support close to home is crucial. We all need to band together to stay strong and make it out the other side of the COVID-19 business closures.

Check out the following businesses on social media for many free workout ideas and to learn more about their workout programs that you can do from home.

1. Telsi Szanyi @telsi.flows - Animal Flow small group coaching through Zoom - Get the feedback you need to learn this fun but challenging bodyweight workout style.

2. House Fitness - @houseftns $10 home workout plan and gym equipment rentals starting this week.

3. Pilates On-Demand - The largest On-Demand pilates workout database in Canada. Get a free 21-day trial when you use the code FlowSpa at checkout.

4. Peterborough Yoga - @peterboroughyoga Livestream Yoga sessions on social media as well as new online members area.

5. Pulse Physiotherapy - @pulsephysioptbo Daily workouts for at home with minimal equipment on their Instagram page.

6. Sweat Happy Wellness - @sweathappypilates Small group pilates workouts through Zoom for guidance and immediate feedback.

7. Dohjo Muay Thai - @dohjomt New online martial arts classes being offered for members.

Lion's Mane Mushroom for Mindfulness?

This article was originally published on RJKAYSER.com in February 2018.

Since Flow Spa now has Four Sigmatic mushroom coffee and elixirs available, it ‘s a good time to re-share this popular blog post.

People search far and wide to get the "Limitless effect" from a bevvy of supplements and drugs until they are stacked on top of each other like your grandfather's daily pill planner. 

Nootropics, substances that can enhance your cognition, have likely been experimented with since the dawn of mankind and is a hypothesis for why humans evolved cognitively past other animals. 20th-century science and beyond has added extra “go” to the nootropic substances of ancient days and kicked up the stimulus that newer drugs provide to the different neural pathways. 

Maybe the answer is not to look towards futuristic nootropics that crank the dial up to 11 on your brain and have you buzzing but to look back to the roots of mankind to the fun guy (pun intended) that has been hypothesized to have helped develop the cognition of humans in the first place: mushrooms. 

I’ve been very interested in the functional food effects of mushrooms for a long time because I freakin’ love cooking with mushrooms for one thing and you can’t get through an episode of the Tim Ferriss podcast without his sponsor ad for Four Sigmatic’s Mushroom Coffee espousing that it’s the closest thing to the Limitless effect. Being lit up like a Christmas tree sounds too good to be true and the mixed reviews for the product had me waiting on the neutral ground.

Once I saw a few more highly positive comments on one of the main ingredients, Lion’s Mane mushroom, from nutrition experts that I trust the word of, I figured I would give it a go and order the product from Four Sigmatic. 

A LITTLE DAB’LL DO YA

I figured that the small 50 mg dose of caffeine in the mushroom coffee packets wouldn’t be a major factor in affecting a change in my state, as I regularly drink coffee in the morning. 

My first test of the mushroom coffee came on a day when I would need to maximize the use of my afternoon to get more writing done leftover from the deep work that I do in the morning. 

As I settled into my afternoon of writing and other work, I turned the kettle on and watched the water boil as I carefully read the instructions on how much water I should add to the instant coffee. It’s been many years since the last time I’ve had instant coffee because it usually tastes like someone mixed the dregs of a french pressed coffee with water and then served it to you; very watered down and weak. I didn’t want to add too much water and ruin this experience.

The instructions call for mixing the packet with 8 oz of water but I like to have a bigger cuppa to sip on so I added just a little bit more water. 

After allowing it to cool so that I didn’t scald my tongue and be forced to wait 24 hours before my taste buds returned, I inhaled the aroma and took my first sip and it was surprisingly good!

It wasn’t very bitter and was earthy and chocolatey and somewhat more soothing than the usual jolt of java. Taste-wise at least, this was something I could get behind. 

I then sat down to work and blasted through four uninterrupted hours of focused work. 

Now, I know that anecdotal evidence is weak but self-experimentation is usually the first step to unlocking greater realizations in what helps each of us to perform optimally. 

It could have been the extra bump in caffeine, which I usually skip for my afternoon work or maybe it was placebo. Even though I was sceptical about the effects of this mushroom coffee based on the reviews, I was hopeful that it would work well and that could very well be enough to get it working. 

I also know that many writers talk about how the ritual of a hot cup of coffee is enough to get the creative juices flowing. 

There are a lot more reasons for why it wouldn’t be the purported nootropic effects of the mushrooms per se but I digress.

However you take it, this was my first step down the toadstool lane. 

CONFOUNDING FACTORS

I’m not one for the isolated bubble of self-experimentation and truth be told, I usually take on a few new daily tasks or “experiments” at a time making it truly impossible to correctly correlate any effects. Some of the following changes coincide with my Lion’s Mane experiment.

Meditation  

My re-engagement with meditation might be the biggest factor that is playing into how I feel and the positive effects that might rightly be attributed to it and less to the Lion’s Mane. 

As I described in my introduction to the Mindful Musings [at the start of 2018], I’ve set out on a goal to meditate for 20 minutes per day for 100 days straight. As of writing this, I’m now over a quarter of the way to that goal. From my past experience with extended stretches of consistent meditation, I know that it works well for helping me to better control stress and anxiety. I’m able to recognize when my thoughts are spiralling out of control and I’m able to return to a calm state with a few focused breaths. 

Meditation truly is the closest thing to magical superpowers that we humans have control over. 

In the past, I lost connection to meditation as I would do it first thing in the morning and discovered it wasn’t working well for me, as I would wake up earlier and earlier to fit meditation into my schedule, but what happened was I would spend most of the session dozing off and struggling to stay awake. It had lost its effectiveness in this way. Now I meditate mid-day before lunch to reset myself and enter the afternoon in a refreshed state. It’s like taking a mid-day nap but even better.  

Maybe it is the meditation, although I haven’t made it back to being as proficient a meditator yet as I have been. For this 100-day challenge, I’ve been using the Muse headband to retrain myself as a meditator and so I know that I’m still not back to where I was in being so calm with my meditation. Typically only about 50% of my time meditating is spent in a calm state, whereas when I was most consistent previously, I would be around 70-80% in a calm state on average. It will be interesting to see what happens as I meditate more, but for now, I’ve still got work to do. 

Writing it Down 

Writing down goals, tasks to do, and a planned schedule primes your brain to focus and act on things that are conducive to achieving your goals. Many top performers in all walks of life talk about this in many different ways as priming, productivity, systems thinking, and affirmations. Whatever you want to call it, writing it down equals getting it done. I’ve found a system of planning that works really well for me and it involves a lot of writing and reviewing schedules and goals. Perhaps the writing itself is priming me for greater creativity and focus on work and reviewing it keeping me on track as well. 

LION’S MANE MUSHROOM SCIENCE

Lion’s Mane mushroom is the most common name for the fungus Hericium erinaceus. It gets its name from the look of it, which resembles the mane of a lion.  Some people have also suggested it looks like a human brain and suggest there is some sort of connection there other than merely coincident. While that may be a stretch, it is still very bizarre looking and fascinating. 

The primary interest in Lion’s Mane for nootropic effects is due to the support for its ability to produce Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) and thereby create a neurogenesis effect. This means that Lion’s Mane can support the development of nerve cells and synaptic connections between nerve cells in the brain. 

The support for these incredible effects includes demonstrations of enhancing memory and recall, as well as focus and attention. It will be great progress in science and nutrition if we can start to see more adults with cognitive decline or students facing attention difficulties in school use natural nootropics like Lion’s Mane instead of harmful drugs. 

Studied dosages range from 500 - 3000 mg per day. Most bulk Lion’s Mane mushroom extract products recommend a teaspoon amount per day which equates to 2000 mg. 

Lion’s Mane isn’t even a one-trick pony though. While most people are drawing their attention towards the potential brain-boosting effects of the ‘shroom, it also has the potential to treat digestive ailments. Lion’s Mane extract contains ß-glucans, a type of prebiotic fibre that can nourish beneficial bacteria to promote gut health; furthermore, extracts have been shown to have anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory effects that can also help to treat sensitive stomachs and fight off pathogens. 

BACK TO THE JOURNEY

It’s been 8 days now and I feel like my creativity has been jacked to a whole new level. A large part of it seems to be an enhancement in memory. While meditating, working, and dreaming I’ve been having tons of vivid memories about things I haven’t thought of in years, if at all since I originally experienced those moments. 

On the subject of dreams for a minute; I’ve been recalling my dreams with incredible detail every night since starting the daily Lion’s Mane routine. I’ve always thought the idea of writing down dreams to enhance your ability to recall them, and maybe someday experience lucidity whilst dreaming was cool yet I always failed to catch my dreams drifting away like smoke as I awaken and try to write them down. 

Like having a word stuck on the tip of your tongue, you can almost visualize what happened in the dream you just had, but putting the words to paper is futile. 

In the past 8 nights, I have recalled and written down the details of no less than 17 dreams that I remember vividly in that time. This has been the coolest effect that I see as somehow different from what I get out of meditation and priming through writing. I also seem to be waking up before my alarm and fired up and ready to get started for the day, which is also nice. 

The other thing I have noticed that may be more the effect of meditation is a deeper level of introspection and focus on physical things which has allowed me to have some really great flow while training several times in the past week. I can see how this could have a potential benefit on enhancing technique during training. 

Being able to maintain a higher level of present-state awareness and creativity is an incredible feeling, whether you use mindfulness or some sort of brain-boosting supplement to help you achieve it. Self-experimentation can be thrilling but should be approached rationally to avoid any dramatic shifts in cognition that may be unsettling. I will be sure to continue to provide updates as my meditation journey continues and as the dream train keeps rolling on with the help of Lion’s Mane mushroom. 

Have you tried Lion's Mane or any other nootropic before? Leave a comment below and let me know what works best for you. 

Four Sigmatic products are now available at Flow Spa. If you’re interested in trying a sample, let us know.

Setting Lofty Goals While Making Sustainable Changes

Whether you're part of big business, a small, locally-owned business, or an individual setting and striving for your resolutions, the threshold of passing from one year to the next sparks a lot of latent energy for most people.

Businesses often use the start of the new year to look forward to setting lofty goals, although the year often cycles around the financial calendar and need not be based on January 1. It's in the sustainable little changes that we see our greatest goals accomplished.

Colleen Hunt gets into this on the FlowCast this week. With her business partner at Naturally Nested, she has lofty goals for her young business but is focussed on what she can do at the macro scale to keep moving forward.

She first had a vision for what the future held for herself and her business last year when she dreamed up the idea to hold an exhibition where people could go to meet the business owners providing different wellness opportunities in the city, supporting not only her own business but the whole health and wellness community in Peterborough. Step by step, Colleen gathered the sponsors and support of other businesses to make it happen at the start of March of this year for the inaugural Peterborough Wellness Expo.

The bigger goals and the steps to get there will be unclear to you in the beginning. It takes practice and experience to figure out how you're going to accomplish what you've dreamed up. But the more that you can look at what sustainable changes you can make right now, the better you'll be at doing things that stick long-term.

As Colleen says, picture it like this: if you look at making the smallest, sustainable change once per week, you can build up many new habits over the course of the year but it will feel vastly different than the overwhelm of trying to do it all at once.

52 new changes or habits essentially makes you a new person in a year.

It's the same when looking to be 1% better. Strive to be just one percent better each day or each week and you'll 100% different before you know it.

We all envision this perfect future life and the simplest way of achieving the perfect future life is to start with a perfect day, and then a perfect week, a perfect month, and so on.

To get to the perfect day you just have to start by making your day 1% better.

So get in the routine of reflecting on your day before you go to sleep and ask yourself how you can be 1% better tomorrow?

How To Achieve Your New Years' Resolutions with Floating

It's no surprise that most New Year's resolutions fail. The gym-goers and crash dieters who make resolutions in January are usually throwing in the towel within four weeks.

The issue with resolutions as well-intentioned as they may be is that they lack a plan. We often set goals and resolutions to break old habits and create new ones. But when we're stressed or busy, we often revert to our old habits instead of rising to the challenge.

Adding float therapy to your plan for a new you in 2023 can help you achieve your resolutions.

Here are 6 ways floating can help you to accomplish your New Years’ Resolutions.

Exercise and Recovery

Hitting the gym more is a popular resolution for many people but the problem that most of us face is dropping off from our goal too soon to see any real results.

Floating is one of the best sports recovery methods ever. The effects of floating effortlessly improve circulation and helps to remove the lactic acid that builds up from working out. The decompression on your back and muscles is also great if you're feeling sore or pushed yourself a little too hard with your workout.

The 1,000 lb. of Epsom salt in the float tank solution is also an athlete's dream, Magnesium is an important mineral for muscle function and Epsom salt soaks have been used by athletes for centuries to aid in recovery.

You may find yourself getting sore a lot at the start of your new adventures at the gym. Try to find the right balance so that you're not hurting too much to keep going to the gym on your planned schedule.

Weight Loss Support

This benefit of floating will be important to you if your New Years’ goal is to lose weight.

Getting control of your hormones through healthy choices is going to make a big difference in your weight loss. Cortisol is affected by our stress levels and when we're stressed all the time, cortisol remains elevated. This can lead to higher blood sugar levels and more fat being stored instead of burned.

Floating helps to drastically lower cortisol levels, supporting a healthier hormone balance in our bodies and improving our ability to burn fat, instead of storing it.

De-Stress

Maybe your resolution is to simply stress less this year and floating definitely helps with that. Floating is one of the most powerful treatments for reducing the stress hormone cortisol but the de-stressing effects don't stop there.

The physical relief of pain and the alleviation of anxiety also help to make a big difference in our stress levels, leaving you in a blissful state of relaxation.

Before you burnout, this New Year, consider floating away your stress. We find that most customers see the best de-stressing results when floating with one of our memberships every two weeks or monthly.

Addiction Support

Reducing your stress levels is also one of the most effective ways to prevent relapse when quitting smoking, drugs, or alcohol.

Researchers have effectively used float therapy as an anti-smoking intervention and the same efforts can be applied to supporting the recovery from other vices. The reduction in stress and anxiety can make a big difference in reducing cravings.

More Sleep

Most of our New Years’ Resolutions include resolving to do more.

More exercise.

More weight loss.

Making more money.

More, more, more.

And when we strive to do more, our bodies need the support and rejuvenation of more sleep. Floating relaxes the brain to the slower theta brainwave state that we also experience in REM sleep. This is one of the reasons why everyone likes floating for feeling refreshed and reinvigorated like you just came out of a great nap. Some people do indeed sleep during their float while others get this deep relaxation that allows them to then sleep better at night.

Meditation

Practicing mindfulness has become a recent resolution for a lot of people and floating is the best training wheel support for your meditation goals that you can find.

When you are floating, your brain and body can't help but get into the same state as experienced meditators do. The theta brainwave state used to be only accessible to monks and unconsciously while we are in REM sleep but float therapy has opened up this realm of relaxation to everyone.

Because the float tanks have audio in them, a float session can also be coupled with a guided meditation to teach you how to meditate while in a relaxed state.

Maybe you resolved to float more this year, but for all your other goals, the many benefits of floating can help you better achieve them.

Book a float session today to help you with your New Years’ Resolutions.

Challenge Yourself Regularly

Humans are driven forward by a condition of never being satisfied.

It's how we evolved and learned how to thrive and progressively grow as a species.

Challenging ourselves regularly is the only way to remain satisfied long-term.

Stagnation breeds complacency.

I saw a shirt recently with a bold statement printed on it: "Give me progress or give me death."

My friends Josh and Dan epitomize this need to always push forward with progress.

They've created an awesome trail run community event in Peterborough that's taking place next Saturday, November 30.

Listen to this week's episode of The FlowCast to learn more about the event and sign up for "The Runs" at: https://theruns.itsyourrace.com/register/?fbclid=IwAR3M3u9feq6u6-EfymyOSq73yp8mapQjC36jN_5QZbiTwpHRA2zdkhCqmOQ

The Human Will Is Incredible

Sometimes social media gets us stuck in a loop of feeling that our lives are not as exciting or interesting as the lives of the people we are connected to but if you look closer, you will find inspiration in those posts, tweets, and TikToks.

I saw an example of a friend who had made an incredible change from a bleak situation into a hopeful future recently and it got me thinking…

There's a lot of darkness in the world today and if you wanted to it wouldn't be very hard to dwell in a cloud of misery.

What we sometimes forget though is that the human will is incredible and has endured the most horrific events throughout history. Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl is the classic example of how even when there's nothing else left, the human spirit and will never be stolen away from you.

Positivity and optimism lie at the root of all the historical examples of incredible human will. Limiting beliefs are bound to cast you downwards in a spiral of despair.

If you're going through a hard time or stuck in some way, draw inspiration from the world around you and keep moving forward. Making the shift with limiting beliefs is not easy but just like putting in the reps in the gym to build bigger biceps, putting in the repetitions with positive messages will build that new belief system in your brain.

Don’t compare yourself to others and see it as a reason for feeling down on yourself, get inspired and build on the positivity around you to live even brighter.

Creating Balance With Your Weekends

You’ve Got To Make Time To Recharge

The concept of burning the candle from both ends embodies the trendy term called work-life balance, or lack thereof as seems to be more and more the case. If you are in a hard and stressful job but also spending your weekends staying up late and partying or neglecting sleep for Netflix binges, the wick that is your lifeforce is getting burnt out from both ends.

Thanksgiving long weekend just passed us and usually, long weekends give us respite from the ‘always on’ mentality that we live with today, as businesses also closed for a day of rest and give us all the chance to pause. However, long weekends are also filled with family gatherings and times of celebration which can mean late nights, good food, and plenty of drinking. All of this is great when it means reconnecting with friends and family spread near and far to create lasting memories but recognizing its impact on your nervous system and stress levels is valuable for avoiding a state of full-on burnout and keeping your training or business progressing if you are involved in any sports or entrepreneurial endeavours.

My Thanksgiving weekend this year was the aforementioned kind as I was attending my best friend John’s wedding in Toronto and I knew that I would have to find balance in other parts of my life and throughout the weekend in order to not crash after the wedding.

This is what a few busy days and late nights can do to your recovery. The following data from my Oura ring display from Saturday morning and Sunday morning on Thanksgiving weekend tells you all you need to know.

Knowing how various factors impact my sleep quality helps me to make choices to regain balance or simply know that I may wake up feeling less than optimal after a busy weekend like this and that I should go light with training to avoid pushing myself into a deeper hole or risking injury.

The value in knowing that a few nights short of optimal sleep combined with busy and active days crushes your recovery and readiness for training extends to general exercise as well as sport-specific training. If you like to work out just to stay healthy, following a busy weekend like the one I had, you may want to consider doing light weight training only or avoiding it altogether and just doing some low-intensity cardio, yoga, and stretching until your body is more fully recovered.

In addition to considerations with how your workouts are designed to create balance, do what you can to mitigate stress at work, and find other parasympathetic activities to include while you are returning to normal. For me this included getting some extra rest with an hour-long float session once I returned home, getting outside for a quiet walk, and getting extra sleep for the following few nights.

Most often the choices that help us regain balance aren’t the most fun or easiest options (but they will make you feel better) which is why you need to make the conscious choice to improve your recovery and reduce chronic stress levels.

Tips For Regaining Balance

• Adjust Your Workout Plan Until You Are Better Recovered - don’t tax the nervous system with high-intensity weights or cardio.

• Eat healthy foods - this is completely subjective to you and your goals but you probably know when you’re making the right choices. Use a food tracker like MyFitnessPal for a bit if it helps you get back on track.

• Forest bathing - getting deep into nature has restorative effects on your mind, body, and soul.

• Get extra sleep - turn off your devices and go to bed early to catch up on some Zzz’s.

• Go for a float - find a float centre near you and get into a state of deep parasympathetic rejuvenation.

• Reduce caffeine - when your body is reaching its limits you may be reaching for that extra cup of coffee to keep going. Avoiding doing that will limit further contribution to adrenal fatigue and stress.

• Plan in advance - if you know you’re coming into crunch time at work or in training, prepare ahead of time with all of the above tips so that your competition or all-nighter at work doesn’t grind you into the dirt.

There are many ways to return to optimal functioning but it all starts with awareness which we intuitively know when we’re approaching burnout and overtaxing ourselves. We don’t always have the luxury of stepping on the brakes and settling down - there are seasons in our lives when we have to go full-tilt forward. But when you can it’s best to slow down and keep balance in place.

If you’re unsure of what this feels like in yourself or if you want even more details, a device like the Oura ring, Whoop, or other HRV tracking tools can help you to quantitatively measure your recovery to keep track of trends. Intelligent use of your own recovery trends will allow you to push yourself harder for longer without getting sick, injured, or burnt out and is a critical factor in the success of many world-class performers across all fields of business and sports.

When you’re stressed and overworked, proper recovery isn’t just going to come to you; you’ve got to create time to regain balance.

Make Time To Recharge Today

The Powerful Benefits of Infrared Sauna Use

It feels really good to sit in a sauna. Working up a sweat and the nice enveloping heat is comforting, like having a nap on the beach on a warm summer day. But here’s the real science behind why sauna feels so good and what working up a sweat can do for your health, recovery, and sports performance. Let’s break it down into the different categories of benefits so that you can pick and choose only what is most interesting to you.

Infrared saunas versus traditional saunas

At Flow Spa, we have a 2-person far infrared sauna with ceramic heaters primarily due to the smaller footprint able to be offered by an infrared Sauna compared to a traditional sauna.

There are a lot of infrared saunas on the market today that fall under two categories: near-infrared and far-infrared. Many biohackers and lifestyle gurus are claiming near-infrared saunas are superior for a wide range of reasons from detoxifying effects to stimulating the metabolism through activating the mitochondria in a way that normal saunas cannot. All of the claims towards near-infrared saunas, which use red light bulbs and do not heat up much, are unfounded.

Compared to traditional saunas, which use wood stoves or heaters to warm the air to very high temperatures (above 185 F), infrared saunas sometimes more specifically referred to as far-infrared saunas, aka FIRS use light and ceramic heaters to warm sauna users directly, providing a deeply penetrating heat at a lower, more comfortable temperature (closer to 140 degrees F). 

Far-infrared saunas stimulate blood circulation in your skin, which may help to boost your skin's ability to produce collagen for greater skin health and elasticity. 

The great thing about far-infrared saunas, like the one at Flow Spa is that the benefits are supported by the research into saunas on health because all of those findings are attributable to hyperthermia, or the effect of heat on the body.

Can Using A Sauna Help You To Lose Weight?

Detoxification

I’m not a fan of the word “detoxification” because it has become jumbled with all kinds of unvalidated concoctions and fad diets. We do know that sweating, whether induced by the heat of sauna or from hard exercise, is partially caused by fat cells burning up fuel for energy and resultantly anything stored in the fat cells will be carried through the circulatory system or exuded with sweat. Naturopathic doctors often include sauna as part of the treatment protocol for anyone dealing with an excess of heavy metals in their body or a buildup of toxins like pesticides from conventionally grown produce. Because a lot of this bad stuff is released with sweating it’s always important to shower off after sauna use.

Regular sauna sweating can help detoxify the body as it releases heavy metals (lead, mercury, nickel, and cadmium) as well as alcohol, nicotine, sulfuric acid, and other organic and inorganic compounds. The more regular that you can use the sauna during your detox protocol, the better the results you’ll see.

This is one of the most evidence-based methods to detoxify the body of heavy metals and other fat-soluble toxins including persistent organic pollutants.

Sports Performance

There are many incredible benefits to sauna use as it relates to sports performance that almost sound too good to be true. The mechanisms of sauna on enhancing performance are similar to that of exercise itself in that sauna use and heat acclimation increases blood flow to the skin and skeletal muscles. This increase in blood flow to the muscles allows for greater transport of glucose and fatty acids to the muscles to be used for energy, thus reducing the need to rely on glycogen stores for energy. By increasing blood flow to the skin and consequently activating the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), heat acclimation allows sweating to occur sooner and therefore lowering core body temperature. Furthermore, this increase in blood flow also leads to an increase in plasma volume and red blood cell count.

Altogether these effects have been shown to increase run to exhaustion time by 32% when a 30-minute sauna session was done 2 times per week after workouts.

Muscle Hypertrophy

Another sports performance benefit of sauna use is that it can lead to an increase in muscle hypertrophy (muscle growth). Exposure to heat has been shown to mitigate oxidative stress, which will lead to less breakdown of muscle tissue through several actions:

1. The Signalling of Heat Shock Proteins

2. Boost Growth Hormone Levels

3. Improve Insulin Sensitivity

Heat shock proteins repair damaged proteins in the body (i.e. everything we're made of, but especially our muscles) and scavenge free radicals which cause oxidative damage. Part of the mechanism of action is the activation of powerful endogenous antioxidants like glutathione. Adaptation to heat increases the robustness of the heat shock protein release.

Several heat-shock proteins can even help with increasing muscle mass, even without weight training. 

Heat shock proteins repair damaged proteins in the body (i.e. everything we’re made of, but especially our muscles) and scavenge free radicals which cause oxidative damage. Part of the mechanism of action is the activation of powerful endogenous antioxidants like glutathione. Adaptation to heat increases the robustness of the heat shock protein release.

Boosting growth hormone levels further allows muscles to repair and grow. Growth hormone is the proverbial fountain of youth when it comes to hormones that our bodies release. When exposed to hot saunas (80ºC) two times per day, there was a 2-fold increase in growth hormone release in research subjects. Any sauna exposure after training has also been shown to further increase the growth hormone release over exercise alone.

Improved insulin sensitivity is a result of the reduction of insulin resistance that comes from sauna use. Part of this may be due to the metabolic similarities between exercise and saunas. Insulin sensitivity means that your cells are better able to use glucose for energy, instead of storing it as fat, and is an important marker for increasing longevity.

Lifespan and Sauna and Cardiovascular Health

Heat stress was shown to produce a 15% increase in lifespan in fruit flies. This increased lifespan is a part of the hormetic induction also seen in humans. Hormesis is the concept that a little bit of stress makes you resistant and more tolerant of greater stressors - like how a vaccine builds immunity. All of the factors in this article are components of the hormetic response to heat stress in the body.

As blood is drawn closer to the skin's surface, your blood vessels expand to accommodate increased blood flow.

This can help to improve endothelial function and blood flow, lower blood pressure, lower oxidative stress (which can lead to heart issues like atherosclerosis), and reduce cardiac events.

Another important factor that can lead to increased longevity is an improvement in cardiovascular health with sauna use. Blood flow to the heart lowers heart rate and cardiovascular strain.

Sauna use has been a part of the Scandinavian culture for a very long time and research has started to link the previous correlation in lower heart disease rates with sauna use.

Individuals using sauna three times per week have lower rates of cardiovascular disease and a reduction in the incidence of heart attacks. Important factors to consider when seeking to improve lifespan.

Infrared sauna treatments cause reactions in the body, including increased sweating, increased heart rate, and the same type of clarity-of-mind feelings as moderate exercise relaxation responses triggered by the body's parasympathetic nervous system.

Immune System

Because while you're in an infrared sauna it raises your core body temperature, the use of sauna may kill off potential pathogens. Through the penetrating infrared wavelengths from infrared saunas, the subsequent rise in core body temperature can induce an artificial fever giving your immune system a boost.

Brain Health, Mood, and Mental Health

It’s not just everything below the teetering tower of intelligence that is our brain that can benefit from sauna use though. Sauna use increases neurogenesis, learning and memory, and improves focus, while also improving mood. How do you like them apples?

Here’s what happens when you heat things up:

1. Norepinephrine and prolactin release.

2. Increases in BDNF.

3. Dynorphin release.

Norepinephrine is a potent neurotransmitter involved in focus and attention. It gets released in large amounts during fight or flight situations but also provides further benefits for focus and attention when not in life-threatening situations.

Prolactin is involved in myelin growth - the protective sheath around nerve cells. Prolactin helps with nerve cell damage repair and maintaining electrical activity in the brain, which is necessary for robust learning and memory.

BDNF is an incredible compound in the body. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is like miracle grow for brain cells. It increases the growth of new brain cells and preserves existing neurons. It further increases neuroplasticity allowing for enhancements in learning and memory. BDNF has also been shown to decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety. Another bonus of BDNF is that as it circulates through the body it also repairs muscles.

Finally, modulating core temperature may lead to the same feeling as runner’s high. Beta-endorphin - the feel-good hormone released with long-distance running and other exercise is increased due to heat stress. The pathway that leads to this effect is convoluted as it first causes feelings of discomfort.

Hyperthermia increases something called dynorphin - it’s involved in that dysphoric feeling of discomfort that you get from being hot and sweaty in the sauna as well as during exercise. Dynorphin counters endorphin and helps to cool the body from the heat stress. Subsequently, this leads to an increase in endorphins more than exercise alone so even though you feel a little squirmy from the discomfort of the heat at first, you leave it feeling amazing as the endorphin release counteracts that dynorphin.

So not only does sauna increase blood flow, sweating, and cardiovascular fitness, but it also leads to the same feeling of a post-exercise euphoria where you feel relaxed, happy, and experience less pain.

Sleep

A drop in body temperature at night is one of the circadian cues that the body uses to signal that it is time to sleep. In Why We Sleep, Dr. Matthew Walker suggests taking a warm bath in the evening as a way to help with insomnia or to induce a deeper sleep. Infrared sauna use can also be used to trigger a similar drop in body temperature after coming out of the sauna. If you’re having trouble sleeping or looking for ways to improve your sleep quality, try this method of warming up your core temperature first.

Bask In The Heat

Whatever results you’re looking for it’s undeniable that there are many great benefits to sauna use. Now that the weather is getting cooler our sauna at Flow Spa is becoming more popular as a regular service to make use of and treat yourself. For anyone who can tolerate the heat or has been cleared by their physician, it’s a relaxing and enjoyable experience that works great when you don’t have as much time available to get in for a longer float session or for any of the other benefits listed above that are unique to sauna use.

Cryotherapy For Recovery and Pain Relief

I first drafted this blog post as I entered the final week of preparation for the Canadian Strongman national championships a few weeks ago. The context as I had written it was perfect so I didn’t want to change anything up in that regard even though the competition has been over for about a week and a half.

There are countless factors in the world today that contribute to what amounts to a chronic state of inflammation for most of the population. Giving your body the chance to literally chill out is paramount to wellness and keeping inflammation under control.

While I don’t often galavant around with my training for strongman, I’ve come to realize that it’s of interest to our Flow Spa audience, a group that includes many athletes both past and present who are seeking to recover and remain pain-free. 

Research has supported a lot of benefits to cold exposure - often known now as cryotherapy - and at its core, it comes down to three main benefits:

• Eliminating inflammation.

• Reducing pain and boosting feel-good hormones norepinephrine and dopamine.

• Increasing blood flow and circulation.

I recently talked about a couple of the keys ways that I use floating for recovery from heavy training, as it positively impacts the physical beat down of heavy weightlifting along with the nervous system overload.

Something that is not just present and pervasive in heavy training athletes but most of our society is a problem with inflammation. Our gruelling exercise regimes contribute to this issue but so does our less than ideal diet, sleep patterns, long work hours, and constant exposure to the blue light of buzzing devices. 

My absolute favourite method of immediate sports recovery is contrast therapy which utilizes hot and cold tubs or sauna combined with cold exposure to induce a powerful anti-inflammatory effect. 

This method of recovery does take more gumption than going in for a relaxing float and so it’s not suited for everyone but the research on the anti-inflammatory effects of cold exposure certainly makes this therapy compelling. Runners who immersed their legs in cold water immediately after hypertrophy-stimulating workouts inhibited that muscle growth compared to runners who did not use cryotherapy. This research has led experts to agree that the best time to include contrast therapy or cryotherapy is not immediately post-training like the football teams of old.

Instead, it’s best to do it on days off or as far away from training as possible.

So if you were to train in the morning, it would be best to do your contrast therapy recovery at night. This consideration is most important when you are trying to stimulate muscle growth or strength gains with your training. If you are just working out for health, it won’t be as big of a deal for you. Another caveat is that I consider it a positive to include contrast therapy to reduce the turnaround time between events placed closely together, like when an athlete has a weekend full of tournament games to play and needs to be fresh for the finals. 

When it comes to general pain and inflammation these powerful effects still apply, acting like a natural dose of ibuprofen to kick out inflammation and reduce pain. The circulation effects are also very beneficial for those who gradually increase their tolerance and exposure to contrast therapy so as to not shock the system too severely. While soaking in the warm water of the hot tub, blood vessels dilate and then when moving to the cold tub the autonomic response of the nervous system is to constrict the blood vessels to keep the core temperature up.

Moving back and forth from hot to cold therefore acts like and additional pumping mechanism to move the blood through the circulatory system. Increased circulation through any mechanism has been associated with reductions in cardiovascular disease and the incidence of a heart attack. 

The other benefit of cold exposure in keeping the body and core temperature warm is that it activates a special type of fat in our body called brown adipose tissue (BAT) which is metabolically active, unlike typical fat stores, and increases in BAT activation is associated with weight loss. Another cool effect (pun intended) of cold exposure is that has been confirmed in the last couple of decades is that we can overtime increase our stores of BAT which was previously thought to be impossible and this can lead to consistent increases in our metabolism over time. 

Finally, both the shock of heat and cold lead to euphoric sensations and increase our mood. You may have heard the old story of how Van Gogh was subjected to daily ice baths as a way to control his mercurial mood. Our bodies are incredibly adept at staying in a happy norm but when we push ourselves out of our comfort zone, there are interesting reward mechanisms in place in our bodies. Both heat exposure and cold exposure that leads to an initially uncomfortable feeling in our body lead to the release of a hormone called dynorphin. It’s a kind of protective mechanism in our body that tells us we’re in a situation that we need to be vigilant of and get away from. But when we maintain conscious control to keep ourselves in an uncomfortable situation and literally push past that metaphorical comfort zone, there’s a subsequent rise in endorphins to balance out that dynorphin release, along with a boost in dopamine and norepinephrine which lead to euphoria and a clear focus. 

If you ever do take the plunge and try an ice bath, getting out of it you feel incredibly refreshed and focused. I liken it to a cup of coffee without any hint of anxiety or jitters to go along with it. 

Any hot or cold exposure can also help us sleep better as one of the primary sleep-inducing signals to the body is a drop in body temperature which can come from either getting really warm and letting your body cool back off before bed or literally plunging yourself down in temperature with cold exposure prior to sleeping. Either way leads to deeper and more restorative sleep. 

Reach Out If You Want To Learn More About How Contrast Can Help You

Finding Your Path

We’ve already had a lot of great discussions on the FlowCast and one question that is central to our mission of helping to find your flow is how to navigate the challenges of being a student and finding your purpose. Students face extreme pressures from every direction. Their peers, parents, teachers, and the standardization of tests themselves all combine to make a mental soup of confusion for adolescents who are seeking some understanding of the internal and external worlds around them. 

Several of our guests, as well as our co-host Telsi, have talked about how they veered from the path they were ‘supposed to take’ into their true calling

Below are some of the best clips that we’ve had recently in terms of advice that we’d like to share with our young audience looking to find their purpose or some direction on their journey.

Trust Your Gut

Laura was on what seems to be a very common path for students with picking the toughest university in Canada and one of the most competitive environments for students in life sciences. I went through the same route myself and can attest to the pressure and difficulty of undergrad life sciences at UofT. 

Laura found the right opportunity at the right time though as she discovered a jobs fair booth for the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine and that was the moment everything changed for her. 

Nothing Is Permanent

Telsi followed a very similar route through university as Laura and realized that her course selection wasn’t true to herself and her calling. She discovered the Canadian College of Homeopathic Medicine and shifted gears from more traditional life sciences into homeopathic medicine. Recognizing that psychology and mental health played an important role in the lives of the clients that she regularly met with, Telsi did eventually return to university to round out her skill set as a personal trainer with a psychology degree.

Fight for What You’re Passionate About

Many of the most successful athletes and business people go all-in on their passion. While they may still acknowledge the risk involved, these people put everything on the line to achieve a level of mastery that we all can glean inspiration from. 

Mike Doherty felt so passionate about Muay Thai that he left his job so that he could focus all-in on the training he needed to do to become even better. He opened a gym and started coaching other athletes to become champions themselves and furthered his skill. 

Water Finds its Way 

If you’re feeling lost or without a purpose, know that it takes more time and more experiences. You don’t know what you truly love to do until you have lived and experienced many different things. Slow down and have patience. You’ll find your way.

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How Teachers Can Benefit From Float Therapy

Back to school time in the fall is a challenging transition for students and teachers alike. Momentum shifts and that sense of the grind through to Christmas as the weather gets colder imposes upon our psyche. The stress of the new school year is also compounded by the new germs being passed around which often leads to an uptick in colds shortly after the summer break. Having a strategy to incorporate mental and physical wellness into your weekly and monthly routine is essential for maintaining good health year-round but becomes critical at these transitional times. 

Teachers can benefit from floating through:

• Powerful stress reduction.

• A chance to get away to a quiet oasis without having to travel.

• Joint and muscle pain relief.

Float therapy is a wonderful way to reduce pain and stress naturally. Being supported in Epsom salt water that is denser than the Dead Sea allows your body to completely relax to relieve tension. The unique stimuli-reduced environment of a float pod or float cabin also allows your mind to let go of stress and anxiety. 

Stress Reduction

Teaching is a challenging and demanding job with all of the different factors that go into commanding the attention of a classroom full of students, all with their unique personalities. Combined with the tight timelines of grading work, and countless other factors, teaching can be very stressful. Float tanks may be the best technology we have to combat stress. Research has shown a significant reduction in cortisol levels come about from just one hour of floating. Anxiety is also significantly reduced and the “post-float glow” feeling of complete relaxation you get while not having a care in the world is extremely helpful when needing to unwind after a long day or a long week. 

A Quiet Oasis

The float therapy experience is incomparable. Customers leave saying that they’ve never experienced anything quite like it because we are never in an environment with no external stimuli. While some new floaters opt to leave the lights on or music playing, the benefits of the experience are compounded when you immerse yourself in the stimulus reduction through turning off the lights and letting the music fade out. This gives your brain the chance to bask in complete silence and darkness which extraordinarily refreshing in the overstimulated world that we live in. 

Pain Relief

Repeated strain from grading papers and desk work can lead to a lot of tight muscles and pain in the body.

There’s over 1,000 lb. of Epsom salt in each float tank, making it denser than the human body and allowing you to float completely without effort. Research shows this decompression is beneficial for back and neck pain, and ongoing studies are working towards validating the benefits that we’ve seen at Flow Spa with clients suffering from chronic conditions like arthritis and fibromyalgia. 

Needless to say, teachers who came into Flow Spa during the final grading and exams before school was out for the summer found their float experience to be exactly what they needed in terms of a reset between grading tests and papers. 

Developing different strategies to incorporate a reset into your routine will help to ensure that you are prepared through it all. At Flow Spa, we help in providing guidance with meditation and some of the various techniques you can use to consistently reduce stress and anxiety. Restorative exercise is also essential to maintaining balance and overall well-being. And when you need that time to get away from everything and decompress, float tanks offer an unrivalled experience. 

Use This Gratitude Practice To Make Your Outlook Immediately Brighter

As we are approaching the first six months of doors-open business for this burgeoning start-up that is Flow Spa, like any business, getting the momentum rolling forward hasn’t been without its hitches.

Throughout it all, I have had an unwavering sense of gratitude for the business and the support in my life that has allowed me to push forward with this vision.

We often forget the little things that have a profound impact on our sense of well-being. Without a habit being ingrained in your routine, it will fall by the wayside when life gets in the way or you feel you are too busy to take less than five minutes out of your day.

Gratitude is one of those things.

It often sounds so simple and doesn’t take much time to incorporate into your daily routine but seems to be a lost art to many people. That is gratitude journaling or just showing gratitude daily.

Starting your day off with a dose of gratitude makes a world of difference in your outlook and how you feel about the day.

While some people like to kick off the day with their gratitude practice, others prefer to wait until before bed to reflect on the day while looking forward to the next one or the bigger things at hand that you are grateful for.

I suggest trying both methods and finding what works better for you.

People often approach the idea of taking those precious moments to be grateful or to write it down as a waste of time because they are naturally pessimistic or feel like they don’t have a lot to be grateful for in their current situation. A lot of people get confused about practicing gratitude and think that it has to be things that are immediately present and make your world seem like it’s all sunshine and rainbows.

It can be beneficial when working towards a goal to have gratitude for that bigger goal at hand. Recognize that you are working towards something that will better you and you can be grateful for how far you’ve come already or if you’re just getting started, be grateful for the path ahead of you because having a goal and a mission to accomplish brings us a deeper meaning.

To balance this goal-oriented gratitude I have found that the way Tony Robbins practices gratitude has a lot of power to it.

Balanced Gratitude Practise for Optimism

The gratitude practise takes all of three minutes a day and consists of:

1. Something relatively goal-oriented, the type of gratitude that we typically see as we look forward to some expected outcome.

2. Something immediate and relatively mundane. Look around you on a macro setting- it could be the feeling and warmth of the rising (or setting) sun on your skin, it could be the sounds of the birds around you, the smell of summer, the colours of the vibrant flowers in your field of vision. Get specific and take a moment to deeply embrace that feeling.

3. The final type of daily gratitude is to reflect on a past relationship or experience with another person (or place) and relive the lessons that you have learned that you are grateful for because of that person or place.

By breaking up your gratitude practice into three distinct pieces, you won’t always write down or contemplate the same things. This is why writing down your daily gratitude list can help you to catch yourself from running on autopilot and make the practice more potent if you tend to always think of the same answers. Writing it down also forces both hemispheres of your brain to work in concert to actualize the gratitude more deeply. Priming the nervous system in this way is powerful so I do recommend writing your gratitude lists down in a journal, on a notepad, or even in a note on your phone or computer.

Try it out for yourself.

Start with one week and do the practice every day at the same time. Prime your day in the morning or set your mind at ease before bed with a nighttime practice. Get it done and see how you feel after one week. I’m certain that it will help to bring more optimism into your life and you’ll realize that this is a valuable practice to incorporate for life.

Unlocking Creativity and Flow Through Breathing

Can we unlock deeper states of creativity and flow states through breathing?

We often hear the question arise about what do you do in the float tank?

Other than the pithy answer of “well, you just float,” it often helps to provide some open-ended guidance to those new floaters who maybe don’t have a lot of practice with single-point meditation or focused yoga.

Breathing is often the first place I turn to when recommending something to focus on when floating. Your breath and your heartbeat are the only things you can hear if you’ve turned off the music and so you can either embrace it or it may become a foe like the telltale heart of Edgar Allen Poe.

It still sounds a little hokey, but learning to attend to your breath and breathe more consciously is doing miraculous things for people’s health. You can do anything from reducing stress to performing and recover better in sports all just by shifting the way you breathe.

Most of us breathe an average of 12 times per minute and this isn’t far away from what researchers suggest is a sign of a stressed body at 15 breaths per minute. Shifting your body into a relaxed state takes a little conscious awareness and practice to reduce your breathing rate to less than 8 per minute.

I believe that getting into this relaxed state alone is enough to induce deep states of flow in the tank and enhance creativity by allowing your brain to function more optimally.

However, to take it a step further, there are techniques more deliberately designed to tap into the creative centres of your body, as you practice and develop more conscious awareness of oxygenating your body through deep breathing.

This is an example of a Wim Hof Method (WHM) technique used to specifically induce creativity through thyroid activation. This is a more advanced technique with the Wim Hof Method and while you may try and practice it, I will be releasing more information in the coming months about how you can join me in learning more of the fundamental techniques to help you get more out of the practice.

WHM Technique for Creativity:

* Never push anything past your comfort zone. This isn’t about doing anything to extremes. It’s about developing more control and capacity in your body over time.

* Get into a comfortable position, either seated in a chair or preferably lying flat on the floor.

* Begin WHM breathing - fully breathing into your belly, chest, head in a wavelike motion. On the exhale, only let your chest and belly fall without effort to retain most air and oxygen.

* Repeat this wave-like breathing for about 30 breaths until you are fully oxygenated. The signs of an effective round are that you will begin to feel lightheaded, tingling in the fingers and toes, and loose in the body.

* On your final breath, fully inhale, fully exhale, fully inhale again and hold at the top of the breath with your lungs full of air.

* Squeeze your chest and neck and push that oxygenated blood into your upper chest where the thyroid is located. Only partially squeeze the neck to avoid the sensation from going to your head, which is another technique for different intended purposes. It helps to visualize the blood going to your chest and thyroid as well.

* Hold for about 30 seconds before exhaling fully.

* Repeat two more full rounds before ending or doing some regular WHM breathing for relaxation.

This practice will take between 15-20 minutes depending on your pace of breathing.

After completed it helps the first few times to sit for a moment and take inventory of how you feel. If you are doing the practice for the intended tapping into your creativity, you would then ideally sit down to do the creative work you’re wanting to do.

This might not make complete sense at first, but we talk about it in this podcast episode here as well and watching the video version may help to better see how it works. Read or listen through a couple of times while trying it out for yourself.

P.S. I will be running some seminars inspired by the Wim Hof Method and other meditations that I’ve learned from in the coming months and so follow us on social media or subscribe to the email list to get advanced notice on the limited space that will be available in each of those groups.

Do This To Conquer Boredom

It's ok to be bored sometimes.

We are driven. Doers.

Every minute planned; every to-do list spewing out to the margins.

And when we have a moment to come up for air, we choose to hold our breath and take another dopamine hit from the social media slot machine. Who’s doing what that’s more exciting than our reality? Who liked our selfie?

At the end of it all we are so run into the dirt that we can no longer choose for ourselves - take our binge watching of The Office, yet again, as case-in-point. The never-ending slump into ‘blah.’ Over time we lose our spark. Our uniqueness is dissolved into the technological soup of humanity and the vicious cycle keeps turning round and round. Our health suffers. Our lives suffers. Our relationships suffer. We suffer. 

Every moment of every day we have a choice. Many of those choices may seem to be pre-filled - eight hours here for sleep, another eight for work there, but that still leaves eight hours - not to mention the number of opportunities most of us have at work to make the right choice when on break or switching between tasks. 

The choice we have in front of us is that of choosing boredom and then conquering it. We are becoming less human because we give ourselves no chance to just BE anymore. 

We come to find our true selves in boredom. We remember. Everyone is so desperate to be someone on social media but we already are somebody in the real world. 

People are showing signs of withdrawal symptoms when they are unplugged for too long today. Our smartphones and the apps we use daily have been engineered to be addictive. That constant dopamine drip when unplugged will leave us itching for another hit.

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For the sake of your self, your health, and your peace of mind, you must resist regularly. 

Conquering boredom is easier said than done. You’ll feel like you’re missing out on something when you look around and see everyone else plugged into a digital landscape and completely unaware of what’s right in front of them. You’ll seem strange, in fact, to choose yourself over your digital avatar. 

You’ve been convinced that you’ll miss out on something but you won’t; not really. You’ll actually be receiving so much more in return. 

The next time you’re waiting in line at the grocery store or waiting for your friend to arrive for dinner at the restaurant resist the urge to immediately pull out your phone and swipe mindlessly. Because the urge will come immediately - take note of that. And instead take a deep breath - focus intensely on that breath. It feels good to breathe deep. Much better in fact than looking through your Instagram feed like a mindless zombie.

 It may feel boring, true, but overtime your overstimulated nervous system will relearn to settle down. It wasn’t very long ago that our world wasn’t like this. Only 15 years ago we didn’t have the same fidgety issues at such an epidemic scale and a generation ago we were content to sit quietly or allow our imagination to wander without intervening. 

Think about the simple pleasures a dog gets from sitting and waiting. The depth that comes to the world from the sounds, smells, and sights that are ever-present when we let them just come to us. 

So return to your breath or just let your thoughts process for a change. What you call boredom isn’t always as it seems. You’ve just unlearned what to do with your own thoughts as you constantly have the inputs of other consciousnesses bombarding your own. 

Overtime it will become easier to embrace the boredom and to allow the stillness to settle in. 

And in this stillness, in this silence, you will realize that it’s all ok.