Calmer and Cooler

lifter pro wrestler and chronic pain thriver. Both for life is a podcast about living

with the challenges of chronic pain. Our goal is to acknowledge, inspire, and relate

“to people living with chronic pain. I believe it is not only possible to survive, but to”

live a full life and thrive with chronic pain. No matter where you are in your journey, our mission is to give you the information and inspiration that will help you become Bolt for Life. Hey guys, today on the Both For Life podcast, we are visiting Aquafloat and Cryos. So one of our goals here at the Both For Life podcast is to expose you guys to as many different helpful things as possible. And we just want to say that we are

not sponsored by Aquafloat and Cryo nor anyone else that's ever on the Both For Life podcast. We just want to do our best to bring you the best information that can help you to live a full life and thrive with chronic pain. So today we're going to explore some different methods of recovery, relaxation, rejuvenation, non-invasive techniques to help you to be your best. We recorded this episode on video, which you can check out on our YouTube channel,

the Both For Life YouTube channel. You can see the whole interview there, all the video.

“See what Robert and I look like. And for those of you that are listening on the podcast,”

I'll be checking in every once in a while to give you a little bit more visual description.

As we first walk in the Aquafloat and Cryo, the lobby is really well lit. There's a

lot of beautiful plants. There's a beautiful big aquarium there. There's a picture of Robert doing a handstand on a paddleboard in the Caribbean. You know, you're standard office. It's actually really, really well taken care of really great vibrant colors and a really comfortable place. We're at Aquafloat and Cryo with my friend Robert. He's going to show us around and talk a

little bit about what they do here. Welcome to the Both For Life podcast. Awesome. Thank you. Pleasure being here. Pleasure being here. Thank you. So what do you guys do here in a nutshell? We are a recovery center. We have several different modalities, which I'm going to show you in the back. Mind deprivation, flow tanks, full body cryo, spot cryo, hyperbaric oxygen

chamber. We like to say that we can warrior or just anybody that suffers from aches and pains

that want to help with the recovery. And as you see and we explain some of these modalities, you kind of see how each one kind of works to help with that. Very cool. And you know, on the Both For Life podcast, we talk a lot about people with chronic pain, illness, and disease, and this sounds like it's right up our alley. Yeah, well, different types of what again, I keep saying the weekend worry, the athletic and the town is full of them, the people that

work out, run, swim, bike ride, lift, whatever, and have the normal aches and pains, right up to

“anybody that's experiencing debilitating pain, chronic pain, that's what that's what this place”

is designed for, non-invasive and holistic, you know, staying away from the pills and the medicine. Right on. So yeah, all the more the better. And I heard a rumor that this is you on this paddleboard, doing a handstand. Is that true? That is me and that's from doing all of this services here. You too can do that as well. So would you show us around a lot? I'd love to show you around. I'd love to show you around. I'll show you some of the pods and some of the modalities

that we're talking about. Great. Let's check it out. This room right here is one of the float pods, the mind deprivation tanks, but come on in. Let me show it to you. So as we walk into the room, there's a shower and one corner. And what takes up most of the room is this big plastic pod that could easily fit a large human, such as myself. And there's kind of a light blue light going on in it. Obviously, you've got the water. You've got all the magnesium in there.

And there's a cover that comes down and you can completely go inside this thing. So what we have here this is a thousand pounds of pharmaceutical grade epsilon salt with high levels of magnesium in what we call bathtub temperature, 95 degree temperature, body temperature, water. Because your pores open up and you absorb all that magnesium. Magnesium, you know, is great for the sore muscles at epsilon salt. High levels of magnesium helps reduce stress levels. So that's the physical part,

but the real deal behind these are the mind deprivation. There's fiber optic lighting and music pumped into the pod for those that want it. But you can turn them off. I float on a regular basis. I turn the lights off. I turn the music off and it's complete mind deprivation. So we own plug. We own charge from all the stimulus, the craziness, the internet, the phone, the work, the job, the kids, the wife, you're able to kind of just get over that done. So you get a physical as well as a mental

relaxation. So this helps with all the aches and pains, helps reduce stress levels. It's an hour float, a private room, take a shower before you get in the pod, float for an hour. I fall asleep. I float regularly within 20 minutes. I'm sound asleep. A 20 minute nap in the pod equates to a four hour sleep on the bed. Then when you're done, you come out, you take another hot shower, soak shampoo, conditioner, tighten up, and then go out and use another service or visit the rest of

those. Very cool. And as you know, people are kind of pain. That's a big thing is the stress of

of us that self-natured sleep issues. It's just a vicious cycle. I mean, restorative sleep is like

“super important to recovery, a good, deep sleep. And this is what allows you to do. And people have”

come in and we talked to all our members that they sleep better that night because they've turned off a lot of the stimuli. They're able to sleep even better that night at home. So super beneficial. Yeah, this I've tried and I really like it. It's highly recommend it. This is awesome. I love it. It's really cool. So Robert, if one of our followers was looking to float, they're not in the area here. What's what should they look for? Like, what's this? Good question. Good question. There's a lot of,

you know, float centers opening up around the United States. Most of them are qualified with good equipment, good machines like this one. You want one that has the thousand pounds of pharmaceutical grade episode solve. That has high levels of magnesium. You want one with a good filtration system. We have a reverse osmosis filtration system where the water is constantly being recirculated

and cleansed. The other thing about the salt tanks, one of the questions we always get,

salt is a natural disinfectant. So with the high levels of magnesium and the pharmaceutical grade episode solve, the bacteria can't grow in the tanks anyway. So you also want to have one that has the fiber optic lighting and the music because a lot of people like the therapy of the music, the spot music while they're in there. But most of the centers out there, most of the centers have the high quality pods with the good salt. But those are some of the things that you want to

look for. That's great. And the part about the bacteria we're recording this during the time of the pandemic and you know, people have a lot of issues with cleansed cleanliness and different things like that. And I know this is a super clean facility. I know you guys have been deemed essential. So you've been able to stay open. What else do you guys do here to make sure that this place is clean? And rightfully so because it is a crazy time that we're all dealing with right now. But we've

maintained a high level of fanatical about cleanliness even before it all hit. So we have our space the use of the room so that we're able to come in and give the kapat a complete disinfectant a complete wipe down, get it all tightened up before the next people come in. It goes through the reverse osmosis filtration system so the water is purified before the next person comes in.

We've never have more than 10 people in a facility at any one time and you stay in maintain the six

foot thing. If somebody wants to, they're more than, you know, comfortable to wear the mask, they don't have to because again, the interesting thing, all of these modalities that we use, they help boost the immune system, which I think is one of the big things that you can do to help combat the whole COVID thing. So we've been ahead of that even before it was mandatory and certainly stay on top of it now, rightfully so. Awesome, super exciting stuff. And appreciate you guys

shutting down the facility today so we can come in and record with you. So what else do we have? So let me show you the hyperbaric oxygen chamber over here. So as we walk down the hall, we enter another small room and then this room is the hyperbaric oxygen chamber now. It kind of looks like some kind of NASA training device. It has somewhat of a plastic PVC piping type of frame. It's a large kind of a tent-looking type thing. It's white. It has black velcro straps on it.

It also has some gauges on it and you might also hear the compressor running, which is pumping this thing for oxygen. It kind of looks like a soft water heater that you might have in your home.

“This is the hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Yeah. And if you want to come in, somebody might be in it.”

But this is 100% pure oxygen being pumped in your body. It's designed for cell regeneration. It helps with inflammation and just gives you just an enormous amount of energy. The air we breathe is about 23% oxygen. This is 100% oxygen being pumped in your body. We have doctors that recommend patients over here. One guy in particular got kicked in the head. He's a horse trainer. Got kicked in the head with the horse. And the doctor recommended the oxygen for the brain

to help accelerate the healing process. So we have clients that come in here on a regular basis three or four times a week doing our session and just feel super invigorated because of the new oxygen being pumped in their body. Is that about the average session an hour? An hour session. Yes. Some people a little less. I'm even more. But an hour session is what we stand to do is what we recommend. I'm super excited about this. My wife is a nurse practitioner. She's

a big and a functional medicine and she's a big fan of this. The oxygen is amazing. I mean,

“think about it. That's what we live in. You know, oxygen we breathe. So if we're breathing 23%”

and we're okay, imagine what your body would respond if you had a hundred percent of pure oxygen being pumped into your body. So definitely love using this and just another one of our modalities. Very nice, man. Very cool. Let me show you more as we work our way down the whole here. So we have three of the float pods. We have the hyperbaric oxygen chamber. So now in the next room we have this clamshell looking device that can fit a human inside of it. This is pretty neat. And it has some

buttons. It's padded on the bottom. Yeah, it almost looks like something from like a 1969 sci-fi movie. But it actually is really modern with touchscreen up at the top of it and some infrared lights inside of it. We have a personal private infrared sauna. Oh, yeah. This is super cool. This is private. We didn't. We all know those big boxy cedar sauna. You get in it. Somebody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we thought it was best to have a nice person. It goes with the

whole meditative relaxation theme. A personal private infrared sauna. But I'll just show you

“infrared heat is the key because it heats the body from within out. It's not the sweat from outside”

in. So it also has red light technology, which again is very important today. It heats up to 190 degrees. So you're sweating out all the toxins in your body. This has a built-in massage table that you can control the intensity of and get a massage while you're in there. It actually

sprays out essential oils while you're in there to kind of help with the whole relaxation thing.

So again, you come out of the pot, totally relaxed. You can slip in here for 20 minutes, half hour and just kind of continue that relaxation. And it's private. It kind of shuts down. You just pull this down and you just relax and enjoy it. I'll be in here for the rest of the area. That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. That's our private infrared sauna. But let me take you to the back where we can talk about some of the other cool stuff, spot

“cryo and the full body cryo machine. Wow. So these are amazing. These, this is really what a lot of”

people are using these days. They're made from the same company. I'll talk first about the spot cryo. It's made from the same company that makes the full body cryo. It's liquid nitrogen. It's cold therapy. It doesn't get as cold as the full body. So if there's a spot on your body, a shoulder, a knee, an ankle, a back, something that's really giving you a problem, we can hit it for up to 10 minutes with liquid nitrogen and help beat the inflammation that's going on in that particular

side. It also helps produce collagen. So people are using it on their face to help tighten the skin. Okay. So we have people that use it for that. We've also used it for pets, veterinarians, recommended the dogs with the hip problems to kind of come in and pet owners, kind of carry their

dog in here. We'll use this and the dog is like running on the way out. Amazing stuff. Yeah.

“So we have pet owners that come in here and use this on a regular basis as well. So that's the”

spot cryo. So now let me show you this is this is what I really love. So as we walk to the back of the building, there's a large refrigerator looking device. It looks like a side by side refrigerator with two handles on it. And as you open the doors, all of the liquid nitrogen, which is in a gas form comes spewing out. And it's actually is adjustable to the height of the person. And what you want to do is it just it to the height that your head will stick out of it. Your head

doesn't go inside. It's mostly white and has rounded edges. And then there's kind of a black visor looking thing that goes over the top of it. This is the magnetic. This is the whole body cryo.

This, this really is this is amazing. This was designed in the 70s by a Japanese doctor

for his patients with arthritis and inflammation. He had a 95% success rate when he started with the cold therapy and combating the inflammation and arthritis in his patient. And that was in the early 70s. So now fast forward 30 years or so or more, this is the newest latest greatest. Every NFL team, every top college, every top sports team, most of your major athletes, celebrities, they all have this in their home. This is the new ice bath.

Whole technology has been around forever. This is three minutes. Less painful, more effective, less intrusive, less messier than the ice bath. So you just open it up. You step right in, futuristic looking. Your head stays out of it. We talk you through it. We'll even do maybe you get you in here or get somebody in here kind of show you this. But it drops to negative 240 degrees. Reason cold. Your body temperature drops 20 to 30 degrees while you're in here.

It's three minutes. Anything longer than that. Hypothermia can set in. So we get you out immediately but the inflammation, the soreness, the muscle soreness, just gone immediately. This, this is our number one seller. This is what people love doing. So yeah, that's a big body cryo. And to be able to get that type of intensity and in that sort of temperature period, cold therapy has been around for thousands of years. And it's just the latest and greatest evolution of a system that works

to now where it's liquid nitrogen. Again, the ice baths were antiquated. I'm all done. They're antiquated. They're painful. They take forever. They're messy. All the NFL teams. All the top colleges have a

on the field, first thing to do is they jump in the cryo. Yeah, I'm years ago when I was powerlifting,

we thought it was like the latest and greatest thing. It was the Russians secret training things. You took a hot shower and a cold shower. But this is that times like a hunter. Again, yeah, exactly. And that's the thing. You get in the infrared sauna with the heat and then you're jumping here with the cryos. Same technology, but just the latest and greatest version of it. Awesome, man. Yeah. Now, I hear that you had the UNCW basketball players do. We actually actually

we had to remove somebody's ceiling tile here because they were that tall. But we had the entire team in here, the strength and conditioning coach. We've had the soccer team in here. We're affiliated with feet, feet, and any of the triathlon that go on in town and without limits and just swimming to yoga center, just all different groups have come in here and use this and use it on a regular basis.

“And I think, you know, from our followers and viewers that are, we can more years with an injury”

or a surgery to people that are crippled with chronic pain. Exactly. Exactly. And when we had it all, we have a woman out front as you would guys are here today earlier, a 78-year-old woman who cryos on a regular basis. We kind of help her up in here. Yeah. But she swears by that. I've had another woman whose doctor recommended surgery for a hand for carpal tunnel syndrome. She does the

cryo and her hands are just amazing. No surgery. And she's like 70-eight years old or whatever.

Anytime you kind of avoid surgery, that's amazing. Yeah. But I'm just happy that people that, you know, are open to the new technology, they try it. And anybody that comes out of here absolutely loves it and swears by it. So this, this is a game changer. This right here for sure. Man. So now when you go in, what's the protocol? So we go in. We change it. There's a changing room with bathrooms in there. You strip down to your drawers or boxers. You obviously have the bathroom

on. You want to put the booties on. You want to protect your extremities, your feet and your hands. Because it literally takes the blood from your extremities and it rushes it to your core. Because you go into what's called fight or flight mode. Your body literally thinks it's freezing. So it takes all the blood from your extremities and it rushes it to your core to protect your vital organs, your liver, your kidney, your spleen. And then when you step out, it returns to your

extremities, oxygenated rich and red blood cell rich. So you mandatory have to wear the booties and the gloves when you get in there. We get in there. Your head stays out. We talk you through it. We make sure you're okay. Especially a first time user. We have regulars that they use it all the time. They're fine with it. But first timeers, we just make sure everything's okay. You're comfortable. You're feeling good. And we kind of walk you through it. And then you come on out. You put the

robe on and come on out. Nice. That's pretty much the procedure and the standard protocols what safety measures. A lot of people are kind of pain or so gun shy about any new treatments. They're already suffering. They're already hurting. What type of protocols and training do you guys do to make sure this is safe for people? Just to assure people that it's something we're trying. Good question. Good question. And we go through an extensive training program from the

manufacturer before we're able to put somebody in and administer the service. But I've also done probably over a thousand a quick number, probably way more than that. Since I've been here,

“we've never had one incident. We will ask people, "You feeling okay? Is your heart okay?”

Anything we should know about?" If there's anything in question, we'll always ask them to

ask their doctor first. But 90% of the people that come in here are healthy. They've got some issues going on. But nothing catastrophic, nothing major. Well, especially a first timeer, we'll put them in there. And I'll just literally stand by the machine, talk to them, look at them. Kind of just make sure they're feeling okay throughout the process. We've never had an incident since we've been here that we had to stop the machine and get somebody out. Nothing but positive

results when they come out. The real trick is just be open to trying new things. You know, that's a thing. And I get it. We're all little, but try, you know, if you'd be open to it because the feedback that we've got has been 99% just super positive with how they feel with anything that's alien. And that's awesome. And I love the fact that most of this stuff is so, it's so non-threatening. You know, it's like it just undervacited great things for your body. Non-invasive, it's super

helpful, super beneficial. Like I said, the big thing, you know, the NFL teams, they spend billions collectively on all their salaries, they have the best nutritional, the best weight trainers. This is a standard piece of equipment in their locker room. It's they're popping up all across United States. People are into non-invasive, holistic remedies. They don't want the medicine, they don't want the pills, they don't, you talk about side effects, they don't want the side

effects of all the pills, the medicine, you know, the commercials on TV, the long list of, you know, this and this and that, none of that with this. It's just liquid nitrogen freezes the body, cold therapy has been around for thousands of years. This is the latest, greatest technology that you can have to help with that inflammation. And so cool now, you're able to bring it

“to everybody to the rest of the family. Yeah, that's why we overdid up because most of us can't”

put this in our house, we can't afford this. Places like this open up so the average Joe can come and use these facilities. You're exactly right. That's why we did it. Speaking of what, let me get you set up right here. This again is the spot cryo. Now, you said you had some shows over right

liquid nitrogen that we use in the full body. It doesn't get as cold as the full body. So we're

able to hit a spot for up to 10 minutes. So let me just slide in here and it's the shoulder here. Yep. So the scars through here. It's liquid nitrogen. So you're going to feel the cold. So the way we administer this is we just move it in a slow circular motion around the area to not keep it in one spot for too long. Because if we keep it in one spot for too long, you will feel it. It's cold. It's cold. Yeah. It feels good though. Yeah. So it's like an ice pack.

It's the new ice pack, but it penetrates deeper into the skin to help with the inflammation and help with the blood flow and blood circulation in that shoulder area. So it feels cold. I definitely feel it. Robert moving it around, definitely helps and I'm feeling all the different

areas. But it's actually pretty relaxing. If you can feel that right away and it immediately

goes it penetrates the skin and eighth of an inch below the skin, allowing the blood flow and

“blood circulation, which from a rehab standpoint, that's key as you know. Right on. And I've got”

a graph in there and some screws and stuff. So the more healing the better. Yeah. Wow. That's cool. Literally. Good. So that's part of the spot cryo liquid nitrogen. I use it all the time. Yeah. My hands are killing me. I play a lot of joy. Sure. Do a lot of yoga, lift and whatever. And my hands are killing me. I just I'll use this all the time. I come here every day, uses it every day. I float in the pot. As soon as I get out of the pot, I jump in the cryo.

I use the oxygen. I use all of this stuff. Yeah. So I swear by it. I live by it. I know that it works. Right. It's one of these things that you don't know. You know, like I'm not really sure. But if you use it all the time, then you go for whatever reason you travel. You don't do no real work. Yeah. Yeah. That's when you know that. Yeah. That's when you go that work. Well, lemonade is a idea that you get back in it. You're like, I feel great again.

“So as we wrap up, Robert is showing me some compression boots and they kind of look like”

big black Christmas stockings hanging on the wall. And they actually come up and they cover your whole leg so that you can experience the benefits you described next. So that's all the stuff in the back all the different modalities that we have. And then with the members would like to come out. They have a nice waiting room. We offer them a cup of tea. But we have the Normatech leg compression. It's a patented technology from Normatech. All the NBA teams have them all the top athletes,

top runners. But the unique thing is like all of the services here, the regular Joe, the average Joe, can get to use the same technology, the same services that they use here. For nice. And these are free from members. But what it is essentially, it's a massage for your leg. It compresses and pulsates up and down the leg breaks up the lactic acid and improves the blood flow and blood circulation through the blood. So even people with issues with their legs and blood flow,

“diabetics people like that. Absolutely. And from the running and just, you know,”

nurses who are on their feet all day or doctor, you know, so it covers a whole cross reference, a whole cross breed of people. But it's a patented technology from Normatech and the people there's a love this. And it's free with the memberships here at Aquafloom. So awesome. We'll

Robert, thank you so much for being on the both-flight podcast and sharing your amazing facility

with us and all these great, non-invasive treatments. If somebody wants to get in touch with you, guys, how can they do this? Just reach out to us at Aquafloom Cryo, web page, call us. We'll be happy to come in, get a free tour, no obligation, but we're happy to kind of show everybody what we have here. Very cool. Well, thanks again, Robert. Thanks for being on the both-flight podcast. So again, we're here to try to help you live the best life you can live to recover,

to live well, to do anything that you can do to live your best life possible. Now, we're not sponsored by Aquafloom Cryo, but we really appreciate Robert taking the time and sharing his experience and his wisdom about these treatments with us. He has an incredible facility here. And you can tell that Robert really lives the life. He really walks the talk. And for that, Robert Brady, you are both for life. We appreciate you listening to both for life. Our goal is to help you or

anyone that you might know to live and thrive with chronic pain. And you can help us out by subscribing or giving us a review on iTunes or anywhere else that you hear both for life. If you guys have any ideas, we'd love to hear from you. You can reach out to us at [email protected]. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Both for life. Well, we're really excited to announce that my wife Beth is going to be a bigger part of the both for life podcast. We've had

great responses to her episodes in the past. And she's really excited to come and share some of her knowledge of functional medicine and nutrition with us. So keep an eye out for that, guys, in the next episode of the Both For Life podcast. Thanks again. This is Garrett Bolt for Both For Life. [BLANK_AUDIO]