201. Sam Maxwell & Kyle Ponton: Does Cold Plunging Really Work? Here’s the Science!

19:44Gary Brecka:Then I'll just go in the cold punch for about 30 seconds. Quick. dunk come up to my neck hang out for about 30 seconds and then get out so it doesn't actually give me that massive spike of you know norepinephrine dopamine yeah um and i find that i sleep really really well yeah on on those nights but let's go into the science a little bit of cold plunging i mean we we know that there are stresses you can apply to the body called hormesis or hermetic stresses these are stresses that we apply to the body the body strengthens in response i i often say we're talking about it before the podcast that you know aging is the aggressive pursuit of comfort and most people seek comfort very aggressively and they avoid any level of discomfort not realizing that some level of discomfort can make you stronger yeah um so talk a little bit about direct evidence-backed benefits that come from cold plunging yeah absolutely i actually interesting enough so my wife who you've met kayla um when i was doing this whole cold punch thing she never uh really got into to cold plunging um i kind of did mine took a solid two years yeah that's that right it was slow right on the right on that timeline yeah that's about right so hey guys let me tell you about one of my favorite new hydration drinks now this is for distance athletes hits cardio exercisers people that sweat a lot or exercise intensely.

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21:41Gary Brecka:Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast. You know, for me, you know, it was more like a hoorah, you know, get in there, hard thing to do, you know, that kind of thing. And so that's why, you know, she'd see me do that. And she's like, I'm not doing that. I don't need any of that stuff. So until, you know, about a year ago, she ended up getting like a health coach. And one of the things that she particularly was challenged with was she had high cortisol. And she tended to maybe just say mismanage stress in that sense, right? And so because of the high cortisol, because of the high stress, when more stress would come on situations, it'd be very high stressful and she'd have a hard time managing that.

22:17And so one of the recommendations that her coach, you know, gave to her was, Hey, have you considered cold plunging? She's like, well,

22:22Gary Brecka:funny enough, you know, I've got access to one. So she started to cold plunge regularly and there was a absolute massive change in her behavior. And I think the reason why, which, which I've actually come to learn a lot more about this, even just being in this space is, yes, it's one of those hard things to do, which is probably one of my favorite benefits from it. People talk about the science and the benefits and the mental and the inflammation and all those things, which are great things. But for me, it's very difficult to do. And I do it every single morning. And so doing that very hard thing in the morning is just, there's nothing else.

22:54It sets me up for my day. And that doesn't get talked about enough because there's really something to be said about doing difficult things, like you said, kind of pursuing the discomfort to where then when stuff comes at you, you just feel like you got it. Yeah. And doing them early, doing the difficult things early, right? I always say, if the morning is hard, your day will be easy. Exactly. And so to go deeper into that though, but one of the things that I found very interesting was, and I didn't really learn about this really until this past year or two is, you know, when you go into a cold plunge, everyone talks about it.

23:24I think even one of your listeners might've asked a question about this. you know, Hey, it's, it's so hard to get past that first 30, 60 seconds. That shock. I want to get out. I want to get out. And we experienced this, you know, we see a lot of first time cold plungers come in and they want to just get jumping and jump out. And when you jump into a cold punch, as you know, you, you know, you go into a fight or flight response state, you go into that sympathetic state where you forget to breathe and you're pretty much, you know, your body is thinking, okay, I need to kick in because I'm going to die.

23:52Right. Your brain knows you're just in a cold plunge, but your body is telling you something is off. And so doing that, and then we know that if you get past that 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds marker, it's different for everybody. And you get onto that kind of parasympathetic state where your heart rate comes down, you start to find calm, you start to find peace, you start to find that balance again. And then all of a sudden, everything's okay. And you can actually stay in that cold plunge at that point for probably as long as you want, really. We don't recommend anything past a couple minutes, but it's a lot easier at that point.

24:24And what I learned was that there's actually a lot of data behind that transition of going from sympathetic to parasympathetic and actually training the nervous system to combat and activate in the normal world. And so for my wife, I've seen that transformation where, you know, those same situations will come up or those challenging things can come up and it can be very stressful, but it's not that same level of stress or that same reactivity that's there because you've trained the mind, you've trained the nervous system that, hey, stress is coming, it's coming. I'm gonna go through it. I know I'm going through it.

24:57Now on the back end of this, I know there's kind of a smooth sailing coming. And I think that's a very powerful thing because there's a lot of people who deal with high stress, high cortisol, that's a very challenging thing.

25:08Gary Brecka:Totally agree with you. There's actually something fascinating, well-documented in the literature. It's called the mammalian dive reflex. And the mammalian dive reflex is germane to all mammals. And when mammals dive, whales, dolphins, when they actually dive in the ocean as the water temperature cools and it's passing over their face, it shifts them from a sympathetic to a parasympathetic state. It actually reduces their heart rate, calms them down. So you can actually capture this benefit by putting your face in the water when you first get in, either dunking or splashing cold water on your face will activate the mammalian dive reflex and actually make the cold plunge easier.

25:44Gary Brecka:And that's well documented in the literature. you can look up the mammalian dive reflex it's a it's a it's a well-known reflex that's germane to all mammals so that's essentially what's what's happening there and if i can if i can we are more or less scientific saying sorry every of everything you just explained is uh we have a saying it's called i don't count if you don't dunk and oh okay that's our less scientific way don't do the mammalian dive reflex yeah exactly shout out to Andrew Huberman because he was the first one that said I was like that sounds a little I started looking it up I was like all right Andrew yeah he's barely wrong so he was right again but um so so talk a little bit about time yeah um temperature because that's the big one yeah um is like should it be 35 degrees and I do 15 minutes it'd be you know 60 degrees and do five minutes um you know i'd love to hear your your thoughts on that yeah i mean we we've heard it from yourself and from the research we've done there's no studies that say the colder the better right so we always recommend people when they're starting you know the machine goes down at 37 degrees fahrenheit right i myself rarely cold punch at 37 degrees that's brutal man unless i'm having a rough day and i want to do something extremely extreme um we do it we generally recommend around 48 to 55 degrees perfect um and we tell everybody start at one to two minutes and get your body used to it.

27:08Don't go in there at 37 degrees and try to do it for five minutes. You know, we have people reach out to us and say, oh, I did it for 10 minutes yesterday at 40 degrees. What should I do next? And we're like, actually, you can get the full benefits just doing 10 to 14 minutes a week.

27:22Gary Brecka:That's very true. Breaking it, you know, breaking it down at two to three minutes a day, even just four to five days a week. So, you know, if people don't want to do a cold punch at first, start off with a cold shower, start doing it for 30 seconds, 60 seconds. get it obviously as cold as it possibly can i think cold showers in my opinion are actually harder than a cold plunge um because part of your body's wondering what's going on the other half it's like yeah it's like being in line of the torture you know your necks you see it coming i hate not having a cold plunge because then i feel obligated to do my cold shower and i'm like this is miserable i would rather just be sitting all the way up to my neck in a cold plunge but that's kind of the quick breakdown that we explain to everybody i mean a lot of our customers always ask for our advice and we always say like if you want to go down to 37 in a few months and you feel like you can handle it wear the footies for your feet you know to keep your feet warm at least yeah um but yeah we always suggest people the same thing 48 to 50 to 55 degrees three minutes minimum six minutes maximum you get all the benefits i mean of all the literature and i've exhaustively gone through the literature and you know if you think about it when you get a peripheral vasoconstriction and you constrict if you actually keep reducing the temperature it doesn't constrict any harder right it doesn't like that it's not once you make a fist as tight as you can make it if you keep putting it in colder water you're not gonna make a tighter fist right so you're not going to increase their peripheral vasoconstriction what i found fascinating which not to completely jump topics but the more i study the human body the more i believe in god because when you look at the intelligence that the the architecture of what happens if you really break this down you get into a cold punch you get this peripheral vasoconstriction but it vasoconstricts in a very specific physiologic pattern.

29:01Gary Brecka:It shuttles blood, shuttles the blood first to the brain. That's the first organ to receive the blood right up through the carotid arteries. Then it shuttles the blood to the heart and then out to the lungs and then everything else. And if you think about the intelligence of that, you know, let's say you're walking on the ice and you're by yourself, you break through the ice. Now you're in 38 degree water. You're alone. You have no resources. What is the body going to do in that situation? I mean, it has no external resources. Listen, there's what I share on this podcast, and then there's what I share with my inner circle.

29:37Gary Brecka:If you've been following me for a while, you know how I hold nothing back here. But my VIP community, that's where the real magic happens. Picture this. You're struggling with energy crashes, brain fog, or just feeling like you're not operating at your peak, and you don't know where to get real answers. But here's what really sets this apart. You're not just getting my insights. When I have incredible guests on the podcast, VIP members get to submit questions for a private podcast segment. So that world-renowned expert we just interviewed, you get exclusive access to their knowledge tailored to your specific situation.

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30:45Gary Brecka:Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast. So first thing, preserve the brain. Second, heart, third, lungs. And if you think about that sequence, I mean, if this goes out, nothing else matters. This stops me, nothing else matters. And then these are not working. But you can tolerate those in that sequence, right? And then after it does that, it starts this entire physiologic cascade to prepare you to best get out of that situation. Release of cold shock proteins. I think one of the most fascinating areas of clinical research now is in cold shock proteins. we're just scratching the surface of these fascinating proteins that are locked up in the liver.

31:27Gary Brecka:There's a few of them, LIN-28A and LIN-28B that are being investigated for improving insulin sensitivity and decreasing insulin resistance, scouring the blood of free radical oxidation. So if you think about that and then, you know, releasing norepinephrine, say it. That's norepinephrine. don't ask how many times i've tried to learn that word he was practicing it before the podcast out of the screen right here like noreporephrine i was on google i was gonna say it to me while pacing in the hallway i was like come on sam i told him i said the porcupine one started with an n you know that one there you go but if you think about it what does that do widens your field of vision makes your hearing more acute makes you more alert focused concentrated increases your short-term processing speed why because you got to survey the environment around you got to critically be able to think and um and to me it's even understanding the physiologic mechanisms it's it's a it's an eerie form of meditation because i'm one of those folks and you with an adhd background probably fall in the same category that has a very difficult time quieting my mind yes like to just sit be still like my wife and i play the silent game i last 30 seconds like sage could go three days right right but i'm like i need to say something you know um and i've tried guided meditation but dude when you're in a cold plunge yes your mind is not you're not nowhere else what did i get everything on my grocery list i wonder if i returned that email you know you're not thinking about your instagram post you're like highly present yes and so good and i think that you know that aspect of getting out and just being so clear you know yeah it's like what an amazing way to start your day yes and and the fact that we can tap into this every day god gives us an endless amount of this resource right and i always tell people look we're trying We're trying to cold shock the body, not cold adapt the body.

33:37Gary Brecka:Very important, yeah. And that's why I say not hanging out in cold water forever is not a great idea. In fact, I was a mortality researcher for years, and when I started in the mortality space, when I was born in 1970, Eskimos had the shortest life expectancy of any race. Really? They lived at the poles, very little sunlight, very little vitamin D3. Wow. very high fat with high carbohydrate diet. And they were called adaptive. So, you know, they were learning, their body was adapting to the cold. So it was adding adipose layers. It was increasing the amount of visceral and body fat. So this is one of those tools that you throw in the arsenal.

34:18Gary Brecka:You know, you use it for its advantages and don't overuse it and don't abuse it. Exactly. And it can just really be an integral part of your day. So time, temperature are big ones. And so what about people that have renowns or people with heart conditions? There was one question in here. There was a very specific question she was asking about. We'll get to that in the VIP community. But do you find, are you finding a wider adoption of cold plunge outside of like the hardcore crossfit or like you know go rocker they have you know high rocks racer i get that community of course yeah they were the first adopters we call them early about i feel like a lot of people in their midlife crisis that are trying to turn their life around yeah honestly just trying to live healthier want to live longer people that are working a normal nine to five corporate job or people that you know are yeah we actually did cold plunge challenge um yeah on the ultimate that's right thousands of people you guys gave away yeah we did and the family that won um we we gave it to them because they've they brought the whole family over and they created this i think they used remember those little plastic uh um pools that you got in as a kid they were like oh yeah it's like a kiddie pool yeah yeah so they filled it full heist and the entire family got it incredible like the kids the uncles the the wow yeah her parents they looked like they were easily in their late seventies.

35:52Wow. And I was like, you guys deserve it.

35:54Gary Brecka:They deserve it. Wow. That's incredible. My nieces do it. That's awesome. And they're seven and 10. So good. So I think it's becoming a really cool way to even build community, you know? Yes. Like here in Miami, I love this Coffee and Chill. Yes. You know, where you walk into these parties and you would think if you didn't know any different that it was like any other south beach rager yeah you know that's dj yeah dj party people like you know but it's like safe everyone's sober everyone's networking yeah yep yep and i love seeing that trend i mean because people are realizing man there's so many ways to feel really good without drugs yes yes and the community side is one of our favorite things about this yes the community side is incredible coffee coffee and chill specifically you know we've we've partnered with them and that's really been a part of that a way that we've been able to really get involved with the community, you know, outside of obviously selling the products.

36:49But, you know, we're now in Miami, Austin, LA, New York, San Diego, all over the place. And, you know, so if you're talking about access and accessibility for any of those markets, definitely go check out a coffee and chill, especially if you don't, you know, have a place to put one of our products or the money or whatever it is, you can go there for 20, 30 bucks and have a great time, meet great people. Yeah. And go get started in cold plunging. Also, fantastic way to just do a first cold punch. because there's nothing like getting into the water. Well, you have the peer pressure, right? Yeah, you got like six, seven, eight people.

37:20You're doing, there's a bunch of hot chicks standing around and you're like, I'm getting in here.

37:24Gary Brecka:Oh, this is great. I love this. Trying to be all stoic looking and everything. No, but it's incredible for that part of it. We love being a part of those communities. And not only, honestly, a lot of those types of communities are growing all over the place. I mean, we sell, you know, a product to those communities, the party plunge and those products go all over the country. I mean, I would probably say any given weekend, And there's got to be at least 10 or 20 of these events happening across the country. Wow. All over the place. It's crazy to hear that. And none of them are involved with alcohol.

37:50It's all just coffee, cold plunges, health and wellness stuff. And they're selling out almost all of them. Yeah. Yeah. Another thing to touch on, though, because I just want to say earlier, you mentioned, you know, access and, you know, we're a big component of just get started, right? If it's a cold shower or you want to have a DIY setup, or if you don't want to have anything at your house, go to a gym. You know, we, as our company, we're in over 200, I think, locations now. We just hit 200. um and so whether it's a cold life plunge you're going to or another you know whatever go find a any gym that's carrying this stuff but gyms and wellness centers and clinics and yoga studios and contrast therapy places i mean these places are popping off like they never have before i guarantee you for all the listeners if you go to google right now and type in cold plunge near me there's probably one pretty close pretty close to you yeah you know and you can usually go to a free trial

38:35Gary Brecka:yeah free trial or or it's low cost you know to go out there and try and i tell people look if If you've got a bathtub, just take Tupperware containers. Put them in your freezer. Freeze them. Take the big blocks ice. Throw them in your tub. Sometimes those will last two, three days even. Yeah, they will. It's a good way to just get yourself into it before you bite the bullet and decide to commit to it. And I think once people commit and it becomes a regular part of their life, then they're – I mean, you see people like Dana White and all. When they travel, they ship the cold plunge. Wahlberg is the same way.

39:04Gary Brecka:Crazy. I guess we can disclose he's now a shareholder in cold life. We can now just close that. Okay. Welcome Mr. Mark Wahlberg to the cold life. Yeah, I remember when he sent me, I sent him out, well, we sent him out one, and then he sent me back to the video. He's like, dude, I love this thing, man. I'll tell you what, man. There is probably at the search far and wide to try to find somebody who would beat the consistency of Mr. Wahlberg. 4 a.m. Club, man. Every day at four o 'clock in the morning before the sun is up, that man is inside of a cold plunge, which is extreme. Before he arrives to a new city, he makes sure he has one waiting for him the next day.

39:45He doesn't miss a day. Yeah.

39:47Gary Brecka:I send him videos sometimes and like mess with him in the mornings because like, if I'm in a different time zone and I know that maybe I beat him up, like, you know, like there's no, I'm not in the gym for you. Sorry, Mark. and uh yeah so the other day i'm in my i'm in my cold i mean i'm in my hyperbaric chamber i'm actually bro and i sent him a video i'm like get out of bed you know what did you do this morning you lazy bum and he texts me back and he's like just got off my knees from thanking god for everything i'm grateful for all right you win you win you got it i'm just in here my hyperbaric chamber thought i was i thought i was cool exactly um so so these you you see now um you know before i think like you were talking about this was a uh trend fad sort of gimmicky if you sure if you will it's kind of like a cool thing it was almost like a tiktok challenge what was the big challenge you went around where everybody was the ice bucket thing yeah that was for als um and i think that really caught on um which was really cool i did the ice bucket challenge um and but it's not a gimmick.

40:50No.

40:50Gary Brecka:Right. And I think that, you know, when you look at things that have been around for sustained periods of time, like I say this all the time about medicine, you know, when you look at acupuncture, for example, it's been around for 5 ,000 years. Why do you think it's lasted 5 ,000 years? Because it works. Right. So, okay, maybe we don't have the peer reviewed randomized clinical trial that we have for X or Y or Z, but these people have been doing the same thing and the same points with the same results for 5 ,000 years. I feel like cold punching, cold exposure is one of those things that is going to still be mainstream 5 ,000 years from now.

41:23Gary Brecka:Yes. Because I find that it works. Yes. And in your experience when people get into this game, what kind of feedback? Are you getting feedback like, this is too much for me, I'm sending this thing back, or this is changing? Tell them what I'm involved. This is probably the easiest way to explain it in a nutshell. We have sold thousands of units. and i will say this very truthfully and candidly on both of sam and i's hands yeah we cannot we can we can count the amount of uh returns that we've had inside of a few of those is simply because it didn't fit and honestly probably 80 percent of those fit on their balcony or something crazy so um very very very uh dedicated uh customers and community i mean once you go into this thing you're not going back you're not going to get started in cold plunging and make this a daily part of your routine or a weekly part of your routine or whatever it may be because it's just it's like you said it works you know and so when you feel good about yourself you feel proud you did something hard and we we hear it all the time people end up buying one for their second home because they they hate not having it at their vacation or their friend or for their for their cousin or for their wife or for somebody like hey i need to get this person cold plunging you know they're going through this depressive state or they're going through this health thing or whatever it is like get it you know they'll call us can you get them as fast as possible you you know, ship it to him tomorrow kind of thing.

42:44Gary Brecka:Isn't that wild that, you know, so, you know, we define depression in this country as an inadequate supply of serotonin. You know, we've always said in the addiction space when I was in the mortality space that the absence of dopamine was the presence of addiction. You know, addicts weren't really seeking a high, they were seeking normalcy, right? They didn't wake up one day and go, I want to get really banged up. They woke up one day and said, I want to feel normal. It's like you with Adderall, right? Your first time taking Adderall, you weren't like, like, man, I just wanna get high. I just want that buzz.

43:16Gary Brecka:I want that amphetamine hammer. You're trying to feel normal. Yeah, I wanna be able to function. Your mind's bouncing around all over the place and you just wanted to feel normal. And I think that's where most people begin their journey to addiction is the search for normalcy. And I think what this gives people is a way to do that with a lot of beneficial consequences instead of having that cliff like kind of right behind you that you're running from a low, not running towards a high, which I commend you a lot because getting off Adderall and amphetamines is one of the most difficult. Again, not because it makes you feel banged up.

43:54Gary Brecka:It's because without it, you don't feel normal. I was a slob. I couldn't get anything done. Yeah, I bet. Yeah, I mean, so how was that struggle for you, and do you ever think about? Oh, no. I think it's been just about four years now that I haven't taken one. Yeah. Never going back. The side effects are not worth it either. The best part about the cold plunge is there's no crash. You know, four to six hours at minimum. I feel phenomenal. I'm focused. I have attention compared to taking medication like Adderall or Vyvanse. I was on both of them. Yeah. And your girlfriend's going, when's the asshole coming?

44:30Gary Brecka:No. You're probably about two hours away right now, right? No, literally. And I'd be doing too much at once or, you know, I'd be dusting my fan instead of doing something productive. I would just see. It had me all over the place. You know, I'd be cleaning my shoes. I didn't need me to be cleaned, but I wasn't doing something actually productive. I needed to get done. Yeah. And it's crazy over the last few years now that I've been off Adderall and I love sharing my story. A lot of people are currently starting to identify that there's more cons than pros to taking that type of medication. Yeah.

44:59And in particular, too, I was a hothead. So it was affecting me in business relationships, my family. And it was it was a struggle. But that was the biggest problem was I would try to get off it. I didn't have another solution to fall on. So I would immediately after two days, if I couldn't get anything from the pharmacy, I'd be contacting people, hey, can I get an Adderall? Just to get by for a day or two until I got my subscription, my refill. And a lot of people are like that. It's hard to admit it because it's an addiction that you don't want to admit that weakness. So when I found the cold therapy, being able to substitute that, I was like, this is phenomenal.

45:37because even if I don't have a cold plunge, I can do a cold shower. And sometimes I was doing like two cold showers a day until I had a cold plunge in my place just to get by. And then when you live somewhere where it's cold, a lot of our customers, they are on the fence. They don't want to spend the money yet. It's like earn it for yourself. Earn that reward of a cold life cold plunge. Where do you live? You're in Minnesota. You got a hot tub? Don't turn the hot tub on. Use that as your cold plunge. You already got it. You already got the body of water. Yeah, sometimes up there the water comes out nice and cold in the winter too.

46:06Gary Brecka:Exactly. exactly so we always suggest that the people too like we're from atlanta the chattahoochee river is like 40 degrees all year round oh is it really yeah all year round so when we when i was in high school you know we'd go there and you know do stuff stupid stuff and maybe get in the water for like 30 seconds to swim across the the river and little did i know what benefits i had in there and back then you might see like one guy that i thought was crazy like laying in the cold water and i'm wondering what he's doing but now any natural body of water you go to especially in the winter time it's so normal now yeah and now there's all these movements from the communities to the polar plunges people are doing our club um in austin texas they have that that area that's like a really cold body of water that people go to all the time yeah i mean it's very fascinating seeing how normalized it's becoming what are some of what are some of the um customer feedback stories testimonials that come in to you guys that you find to be really i mean getting off fat or yeah you got to share one of the most recent ones there's so many good ones um i wish we had more time to share them all but there's there's one that that sticks out to me we have a customer um who is battling uh stage four cancer and um he uh i i had the opportunity to actually talk to him himself there was something up with his delivery or something so somehow it got brought up to me and so i just was talking to the customer how'd you find us what's going on you know what's your story.

47:28Um, and come to find out he's battling stage four cancer. And, um, you know, I'm not going to sit here and say cold plunges cures cancer because he's certainly, uh, still, still going through that. But to me, um, especially for the reason why I do the cold plunge, which is like, it's a hard thing to do. It's the mental benefits. It's that clarity I get coming out of it. But for me, I get that win for the day. That's when I do that cold plunge. I'm checked off. I got my win. I feel very great about myself. Um, for me, you know, in the days where I'm like slacking or or I don't want to do it, or I get up into that cold water.

47:58This was probably a few months ago now. I talked to that customer, and it is still, it is the first thing that comes to mind thinking there is a man that's battling stage four cancer, who struggles to get out of bed every single morning, who has aches and pains, and is throwing up, and is going through the worst of worst, and the fear that it's all about to come over, and that man is getting into a cold plunge every single day. Um, and, um, yeah, it's, it's just, it's, it's insanely inspiring to, to see customers that have that level of commitment. And, and a lot of our customers, veterans with PTSD, um, all kinds of stuff.

48:37It's crazy. We hear from veterans that are in their sixties that are like, this is completely calms me down. Um, hangs with help to my anxiousness and just in general helps me get by on days that used to be challenging. And it's been like one after one after one. And for me, I've connected with multiple people in their 50s or 60s that are my dad's age. And they're all like, you know, your story about Adderall is remarkable. I hate to admit it, but I drink like eight coffees a day. I don't want to take a medication, but I drink a ton of caffeine. I do this, I do this, and I'm a slug. And now that I've invested into a cold life, cold funds are like, I'm performing better than ever.

49:15I feel younger. And the confidence I even have as a man, you know, a lot of people lack, you know, self-confidence. So like it's elevated my own confidence within myself because I used to be weak and I, you know, I needed to find something to overcome that feeling. And as a man, you want to feel, you know, like an alpha man. And a lot of guys can't admit it.

49:35Gary Brecka:You feel alpha when you get out. Not so much when you get in there. It's always cool. You don't feel like an alpha man when you get in there. Yeah, yeah. Especially when we got an audience. Like, you know, we're the cold punch founders. Like we have a game face on. You got to remain calm. You're like, yeah. Just sit here and see. And it's not that bad. You just got to breathe. You got to breathe. You know. You're like. I'm dying. So where do you guys fall in the contrast therapy? You know, there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of folks out there and there's a lot of, you know, gyms and wellness and recovery centers that are now using the contrast therapy.

50:05Gary Brecka:What have you found works? What have you found doesn't work? What do you find in the Sonic Colplands? Contrast has always been an interesting one because I think it's quite personal and different in the sense that Cold plunge, to me at least, has a relatively specific outcome you're trying to achieve, right? For me, it's the mental stuff. It's the hard thing. For some others, it's recovery coming from the gym. For some others, it's inflammation, right? Everyone, I feel like, kind of has their main reason why they're getting into the cold plunge. But for contrast, to me, contrast is almost more therapeutic than a recovery aspect of it.

50:40You're going from... You could probably explain the science behind the constricted blood vessels and then them opening up very quickly, and so you're doing that back and forth, back and forth. For me personally, on my own journey, I actually fell in love with contrast therapy. My wife and I, once a year, our big thing is we would go to Asheville. There's a place there called the Omni Grove Park Inn, and it's like a big old kind of castle thing. Nashville, North Carolina? In Nashville, North Carolina. Yeah, that's a beautiful area of the country too. It's a gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous hotel. And it's in the mountains and it's beautiful.

51:14And they have a spa that's actually in like the basement. And then it looks out of the mountains and it's just beautiful. But they have these areas. And in this area, it's a cold plunge. It's a hot tub. It's a steam room and it's a sauna. And actually right during COVID, when COVID was all happening, we got a chance to go up there. And I didn't know if I had COVID, I was sick, whatever. And we were there and I started feeling like awful. I mean, horrible. And I was taking, you know, anything I could. I was going online, taking all the Z-packs and whatever I could get my hands on, I was taking.

51:44I couldn't feel better. It was just the worst couple of days. Go and do contrast therapy for like two and a half hours. And I came out of there and I literally felt like an absolute new person. Like I felt like better than I did before. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is the best thing ever. Why is nobody talking about this more often kind of thing? And that really lit me up. So for me, I love contrast therapy. I don't think it for me is something that I'd recommend doing daily because it's one of those therapeutic things. To me, I kind of put it in like the massage category in that sense and in my own personal view.

52:15However, if you are doing it daily or you're doing it more often, the one thing I will say is that I do highly recommend you end on cold. You don't want to end on hot. End on cold.

52:24Gary Brecka:Yes, I agree with that. Guys, this has been amazing. I've got a whole list of questions for you from my VIP community. So I have a special community that this is my community I've been building for the last few years called the VIP community. So I always spend private time with them. So we're gonna go into a little private room now. They've got a bunch of questions for you guys. For the rest of you guys, if you're interested in joining the Ultimate Human VIP community, you can go over to theultimatehuman.com forward slash VIP. Sign up, you get private podcasts. You get a one-on-one private coaching with me when we do it in a group setting.

52:56Gary Brecka:We have a course in there called Becoming the Ultimate Human Version of Yourself. You'll meet great guys like Kyle and Sam. Until next time, that's just science.