Recovering like a Better Human

Recovery.

Often overlooked, but a quintessential component of anyone’s routine, regardless if you are a high level athlete or stay at home mom (a special breed of athlete altogether).

And no. Recovery does not mean, you worked hard on something, so you can eat a tub of ice-cream while watching television all night.

This, will be the first of a series of different recovery techniques that will help you take your personal performance to the next level.

I know what you are thinking, I am starting with sleep. You would be wrong.  Today I talking about sensory deprivation. Or in this case more specifically, Float Tanks.

A What?

A float tank. This treatment goes by a couple of different names you can easily research yourself, such as Floatation Therapy, Floating, Floatation and Sensory Deprivation. Regardless of what you are going to call it, the treatment and application is essentially the same.

This particular review will be based on what is locally available here in the Toronto area and will correspond to my experience at Float Toronto.

You might be wondering – Ok. But why would you need to do this?

I’m going to tell you why I did it. You can judge for yourself if its something you should try in your own self experimentation.

I’ve known about floating for a while now and not because it was featured on an episode of the Simpsons (Is there any topic they haven’t covered?). I had a chance to try it out while taking a trip to Montreal and a spa we visited happened to have the service available.

But again, that was a few years ago and this time, I had some physical issues I picked up in training that I wanted to address while trying to get some time to myself. So here I was on a Sunday morning -the benefit of an early start – meant that I was the first one in that day, which netted me an extra hour to relax in the tank. Not a bad start.

As I walked in, the staff greeted me cheerfully at the door and proceeded to show me the facility and explain the process. You do get your own room, equipped with essentials like ear plugs, towels and your own shower to rinse off all the salt water. You are told that for best results, its better to lay in the tank with the door closed. However, if you are new to this and are uncomfortable with yourself sitting alone in the dark, you can always use one of the supplied towels or neck pads to prop the door open.

Naturally, I wanted the maximum effect so full darkness it was for me.

Now, I eluded to some training injuries being the reason why I went this time around. Those injuries included stiffness and a sprain in my calves from the sprints and run in the woods I did that week and it had me hobbling around enough to keep me from hitting the trail that morning.

So, here I was, alone on a Sunday morning with nothing but my thoughts in a dark tank…floating.

As soon as I went horizontal everything from my hip through my spine adjusted as if a giant chiropractor man handled me and decompressed and adjusted my spine in one smooth motion.

That alone felt amazing.

Over the next hour and forty-five minutes, I had time to let my body absorb as much of the magnesium as this time would allow.

For those of you that don’t know, the large concentration of Epson salt in the tank not only allows you to float with ease, it also provides your body with a large amount of magnesium which aids in muscle relaxation amongst a host of other amazingly beneficial things.

Starting to get a better idea why I did this?

In addition to the spinal decompression I experienced (again, this was MY experience), I did get to meditate in the tank, the benefit of which seems to have been enhanced by no other stimulus from lights, other people, other sounds or electronic devices. Given the nature of our dependence on electronics from Computers to televisions and cell phones, this alone will provide many people with some benefits.

After getting out of the tank, I took my time in the shower to ensure the slickness of the salt water was washed completely off.

Amazing.

I felt like all the aches I picked up that week were all but gone. Nothing a little additional stretching couldn’t take care of. I literally spent the rest of the day feeling like I was walking on water and was not bothered by anything.

So. Is this something for you? If you are even curious about it, you should give it a try. Do your own experiment and see what effect it has on you.

For me, you can rest assured that I will be doing this again as I have chosen to incorporate this practice into part of my routine for the #BetterHumanProject

 

Here is a video link to Float Toronto for those of you locally that wish to know more.

#WhatsYourWhy?

#BetterHumanProject