Why You Can't Relax: How Recharge Rooms Bring Recovery Science to Frontline Workers

Rich Ganley | Recharge Room

Dr. Kevin Rindal | Vimocity

Long hours, high stress in a body that doesn't recover the way it used to. That sounds familiar. This episode is for you.

Through his work with Recharge Rooms, Rich Ganley took research back to recovery tools and made them accessible to the people who need them most. Because when tools like cold exposure, heat and red light therapy are stacked together, the impact isn't just additive, it's exponential.

This is the WorkReady podcast.

Rich, I'm just thinking about the people listening to this episode. They may be in the middle of the workday, maybe driving home from work. What are they gonna get out of this episode?

A few things I hope we get across today. One is that there's some simple rapid recovery and rapid preparedness tactics that we all can use to really bounce back and to really keep our backpacks a little lighter as we go through life.

The other thing is life happens, right? So, how we take adversity or change or challenge and turn that into victory through proactive tactics, keeping sort of a God-like spirit about it and really just having a positive attitude towards any challenge we, we approach with positivity, turns it into a victory.

I love it. Well, I wanna start, uh, here because I think this reframes the entire conversation, and that's when someone spends years in a high stress, high demand job, such as construction, law enforcement, fire, utilities, what is actually happening inside their body and nervous system over time. Well, you know, for decades we're, we're, we built systems to maintain equipment to, you know, predictive service intervals, you know, maintenance, things like that.

And, you know, in public safety specifically, where, where we started the recharge, uh, rooms and, and these types of tactics is, um, constant reoccur. Stress. So what happens to our bodies is stress accumulates and our cortisol levels go outta control. And we, we just have these, these areas we can't sleep as good and we're, we're angrier and, and we're shorter and, you know, it piles up unless we have a good tactic to unpack the backpack a little bit, it, it ends up basically we've always heard.

I, I never really thought I believed it, but I think stress does kill. Absolutely. And a lot of people listening recognize that feeling, but they've never had the language for it. And so I think you, you nailed it. It's, it's like a backpack. It's that burden that just kind of hangs on our shoulders. And so when stress goes unrelieved for months or years, what are the early signs?

Uh, the body starts sending that most people just push through. The, the real answer is people act. All types of different ways. Some people get into, you know, drowning their, their, their problems and, and maybe alcohol and drugs and things like that. Other people, uh, you know, find that they get more aches and pains.

They're not sleeping is good. They get headaches. So there's so many different indicators. Uh, some of the core ways to maybe keep track is, you know, like your. Very, your, your, your, your heart rate variable and, and some of the other things that you can keep track of on your own to really just see how you're feeling.

So, um, tho those are some of the signs. When your gut tells you something's wrong, it probably should listen to your gut. Rich, I have a sports medicine background. I mean everything that the recharge rooms stand for and provide from a modality perspective. I mean, this is stuff that we've been doing in sports medicine for 25 years.

I do sauna, cold plunge, red light therapy on a consistent basis. And so this is stuff that you know has been out there, but it just has never been brought to frontline workers in a way that's accessible to, to everyone. And so. Can you maybe back up a little bit, tell a little bit more about your story, how you even got to this place of, of designing the recharge rooms, and then I wanna walk through what that experience looks like for frontline workers.

You bet, Kevin, I, so backing up, um, I. Grew up on the wrong side of the side of the street. Basically. I've lived on my own since I'm very, very young. Um, you know, didn't have a lot of, um, direction in life when I was young. And, uh, just had all kinds of hacker odd jobs and everything. You can fast order, cook pots and pans, washer, you know, uh, brick layer, you name it.

I, 'cause I, I only went to college for a. So I could never get a good job. I wasn't smart like you were Kevin, become a doctor. So, um, so what happened is I was insecure and I didn't think I was that smart. So that led me to become a lifelong learner. That adversity, like I said, we'd hit on adversity. That adversity motivated me to become.

Smarter and I became a lifelong like reader and learner and absorber. And so I started self-educating and I turned that into a victory as I kept evolving in life. So I've been a very successful. I retired the first time when I was 39 years old, and my kids while in pre-K, first and third, so I became like a volunteer dad, dude.

And I went to school every day, did whatever the principals and teachers told me to do. And then when my kids got older, they're like, dad, if you show up to school again. We're gonna kill you. It's not cool. So I had like, I'm like, what am I gonna do? So I went and, um, got back into the proactive, tactical, uh, sort of space in health and wellness.

And, and I was actually at home praying like three years ago, Kevin. And I was like, okay, God. Somehow I'm like still alive because I'm in my sixties now and I'm alive. That's a miracle. I said, you know, and thank you for, for the success in business. I've been able to really. Turn a lot of adversity to victory and help people.

I feel so blessed and, but really what I feel most blessed about is my three kids all grew up to be great people. Um, they married wonderful spouses and I, I had four grandkids back then. Now I have six. And I'm like, I'm a granddad and everything. I go, you know, God, what can I do? What's next for me to help?

What can I serve? What can I do? Because I like to be a servant, right? And all of a sudden, like three days later, Kevin, I get a call from the town of Gilbert, Arizona and they go to town manager. The city manager wants to meet me. Like I don't even know what a city manager was. So I'm like Google and city manager.

I'm like, oh my gosh, that's like the CEO over the whole thing, you know? So we have lunch and turned out to be a great visionary, city manager, uh, Patrick Banjo. And Patrick says, look, I've got about 2000 employees and I really wanna improve things, but can you think about my. First responders, we need help.

And I didn't know anything about first responders, so I started learning and Googling and I was shocked. My heart opened up. I go, my God, we need to help. What I found out was that the average first responder signs up for this job knowing that statistically they could die 15 years younger. Than a normal civilian.

They could have eight to nine times more cancer, four to five times more cardiovascular events and PTSD and my, my heart opened and I was studying, I, I call it the synergy of togetherness. Teamwork, right. Makes the dream work. Togetherness. Science calls it bio stacking. So I was studying a stack I was putting together for a rapid recovery tax.

Dick for the sports industry, like you mentioned earlier. It's sudden. Then my brain all of a sudden went, wait a minute. Why do wealthy people and elite athletes get these types of tactics and tools? Why not our heroes? And that's how the recharge room got born. And alls I meant to do, Kevin was just give a gift.

So we donated a full recharge room to a fire station, uh, to a police station and to the training center. And we made 'em an app that sort of runs it and tracks it and, you know, keeps track of the surveys we take and, and all of a sudden they started using it. So, so that's kind of how this all got started was through a prayer and through the lens of.

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And one thing that I've been so intrigued about, this isn't just an idea that you threw out there, like you've partnered with academic organizations that are actually studying this. They're getting ready to, to publish some of the data. What, what is some of the, uh, the results from those, uh, early studies that have come out?

One of the things we did is we got IRB. Approval and that just stands for inter, I didn't know what it meant. International Review Board. So every couple of times somebody does the recharge room, it pops up an IRB sort of survey. We collect that data and then we use that data to constantly evolve and prove and teach, right?

So, um, some of the results have been pretty amazing. Um, like in Gilbert for their first pilot study we did where we had a control group and a user group, um, the results were like 78% sleeping better. 86% reporting less chronic aches and pains. Um, 90% saying less emotional stress and anxiety. And these are men and women that don't wanna look weak.

So what they've figured out though, and I'd like this audience to, to help figure out in, in your mind, is. This is a sign of strength when you take advantage of these non-drug ways to enhance your human, your human capital, yourself, right? To make yourself happier, healthier, and safer in, in a hard job. Um, that's where the magic comes from.

And, and if we can give you those tools, right? Easy to access. It makes it ev even better. And it's, it's, and we have cross corroborated. 'cause now it's not just from Gilbert, Arizona. It's from 21 different places in six different states. And the results, I'm really happy I looked before. Our podcast today are a little less, sleep is 74%.

Now with the bigger pool, it's pretty dang good. Yeah. Chronic aches and pains are 87% less and emotional stress and anxiety are in the nineties. And then we added another question at the beginning that is critical on longevity on the job. And so a couple of side notes that, um, about 72% of people, uh, are reporting that it's gonna help them work a longer career.

And, you know, 'cause what happens in these high stress, high physical jobs, gosh, I mean, after six or seven years, you just have all those chronic aches and pains and you know, you remember that scene or you oh my, and your mind and you know, it just all starts piling up. So now you have a way to sort of rapidly reduce that and build your resiliency and, and, and sort of like really help prepare, be more prepared, but with the goal of.

A health span, right? Because we don't want you to put in all this hard work and, and keeping all of us safe with, with the power lines and the, the public safety or whoever you are. And thank you so much for what you do for us. But now what about if you're happy or healthier, you're safe, or you're family life's better because you're not as beat up all the time and when you retire, wow.

You can retire and have not, longevity isn't as important, right. As health span. I mean, I don't wanna be 90 and there's snot coming out the side of my mouth. I wanna be 90 and feeling like I, I don't wanna feel like you do Kevin, to me. Like we're vibrant, we're active, and we're like, wow. Life is beautiful.

Right? Absolutely. And that's such a, uh, important distinction. It's, it's not just the number of years that you have, but it's the quality of those years. And that's really what health span is. Um. We've talked a lot about the physical and the mental. Before we walk through what a recharge session looks like, let's talk about the toxic load as well, because I think that that was a big part of why you chose the different modalities you did.

Can you maybe share for our audience, uh, some of the, the toxic components that impact people's quality of life and health? You bet. So. Society in general, we're more sort of polluted now. Or as a, a big, simple example, if you were a firefighter back in the early 19 hundreds, you were mostly putting out fires consisting of wood.

Now when you're fighting a fire, you're putting out fires consisting of like 800 different flicking co toxic chemicals and. PFAS and PFAS and you know, like, uh, forever chemicals and, you know, just, ugh. It's just, and, and so we've seen studies showing how the human body is continuing to accumulate higher and higher levels of toxins and microplastics and micro chemicals in our system, right?

Glac. So the other thing that's interesting when they fight a fire. They smell like smoke, Kevin, for two or three days, no matter how many showers they take, charcoal soap, you name, they smell like, they smell like smoke. So in the recharge room, a couple years ago, there were two captains and fire service who said, after doing fires all day, they're like, man, let's go do a recharge room.

It just feels good. And so they do the recharge room and they get done. And the one guy's like, Hey. You don't smell like smoke, man. And the other guy's like you. You don't either. I don't think so. Don't say anything. And they both went home and both of their spouses were like. Did you not do the fire today?

And so they don't smell like smoke. So like why don't they smell like smoke in the recharge circuit? And here's why. It's the synergy of togetherness. It's bio stacking. It's one plus one equals 10. And here's what I mean. When you do the recharge, and we'll get into this, it's we, you basically, you're gonna be grounding, doing full body red light, vagus nerve, and sound healing, then a sauna.

Then a coal plunge and they don't smell like smoking. We'll go into why more scientifically as, as we d dive a little bit deeper. So fascinating. And with the PAS and POS too. I think the, the key thing there is that they're starting to find that those microplastics are ho. Hormone disruptors. And so it just, uh, you know, every single process in our body is determined by the whole cascade of events of, of how our hormones work together.

And so, yeah, the synergy of togetherness when you, when you start to impact that, right? Yeah. It, it, it can have a huge impact on your overall health. And so I, I'm sure everyone listening is like, what does an actual recharge session look like? So we got them all. Yeah, can you walk us through like yeah. From start to finish, what that actually looks like, and then we'll dive into each one of the modalities separately.

You, you bet. So it, it could be used separately. Each modality separately, or what we call the recharge circuit is a 33 minute circuit, and there's three basic stations in the circuit station. Number one is for 10 minute session. You're gonna be standing on a grounding mat when surrounded by two six foot tall red light.

Panels and you're gonna be wearing this headset that has Bluetooth, so calm app, sound healing, whatever, you know, sound healing. And it also will get into what it is, but it's gonna stimulate your vagus nerve. So in station number one, you're doing a physical and neurological. Downregulation and reset and recharge in a 10 minute session, right?

Um, then after 10 minutes in the red light, we'll call booth, um, in the recharge booth. That's the four modalities. Then you go into a 20 minute infrared sauna. We'll talk about infrared versus traditional, and then after that you rinse off real quick and then you go in for everyone's favorite three minutes in the cold.

Therapy, cold water therapy, cold plunging. And, and that's the basic circuit. 10 minutes, 20 minutes, three minutes. And that's what these men and women go through as a tactic they use on a daily basis, uh, you know, a few times a week. And, and it's. Made this huge improvement. Um, and, and the nice thing is, let you know, we'll take each modality now, right?

So red light therapy. So when I started studying red light therapy maybe five years ago, there were like 2,500 peer reviewed, published papers on it. Today, there's over 10,000 red light. They said if it was a pill. It'd be like a $5 billion pharmaceutical pill, but the good news is it's all natural. So red, they call it red light therapy.

The the scientific name, not to bore anybody, is photobiomodulation. But it just red light therapy. And the red light you can see with your eyes, that's what they call it, red light therapy. And the in near infrared or the infrared light, you can't see with your eyes. And those are the two healthy wavelengths without UVB or any of the harmful parts of our, our light in our sun coming into your body.

Okay? And what they do is pretty amazing. So the first thing they do is they hit your mitochondria. So what's the mitochondria? I always say to people, the mitochondria is like the engine in your truck. And the fuel or the gas of your truck is called a TP. And as we age, your A TP production kind of poops out a little bit, or if you're under a lot of stress, it kind of poops out.

So red light is scientifically like validated as E when it hits your skin, goes in and hits your mitochondria. It generates an activates a TP production, so it's cellular. Regeneration or cellular health is one thing. The reason N-F-L-N-B-A, all the sports people use it is it reduces inflammation. It helps with circulation.

The other, the right you can't see goes to the bone level. Good for bone ligamental muscular health, right? Harvard's done all kinds of surveys that show taking red light therapy, cranial photo modulation for people with traumatic brain injuries, Parkinson's disease, other neurological diseases, Alzheimer's.

It's helping. 'cause what does it do? It helps circulation and it reduces inflammation, right? So, um. There's more to red light than you see basically, but it's nice 'cause all you gotta do is stand there. The more skin, the better. 'cause in our body, you know, you know way better than you're a doctor. I think we have like 10 trillion mitochondrial cells in our body or whatever.

We have like tons of cells, right? And by exposing your skin, it absorbs into even more and gives you the right. Potent, uh, kind of outcome, right? Um, and the other nice thing about red light, there's not a lot of what we call contra conditions or reasons. You can't do it, right? So one reason you can't do it is if you're taking photosensitivity medicine that would have an adverse effect.

On you. Um, if you have like active cancer, some can, some can't. So you need to check with your oncologist to see what they, in your case would say. Always, always, always check with the doctor. 'cause uh, that's, that's why they're, they're there to give you expert advice, especially if you have got some condition going on.

Um, so, so, you know, that's another one. And, and really. Thyroid, they me mentioned as a contra condition only because it actually helps the thyroid. And, and, and if I don't check with my doctor more often with my blood work, my dose would still be where they think I need it. Even though my thyroid's working better, I don't need that much of a dose.

Right. So red light, we could talk about all day. Nassau put red light on the map. Really like 40 ish years ago there was an astronaut in space and they got cut somehow and they wouldn't, his heel, his wound wouldn't. Heal. So the scientist guy sends up the red light thing to space and they're like, oh my gosh.

It helped them heal 'cause it also stimulates collagen and it helps with circulation, reduces inflammation. So a lot of orthopedic surgeons now are, uh, recommending red light postsurgery. Like I had a full hip replacement six months ago and I used, after my surgical bandage was off full red light on the area.

I hardly can't even see a scar anymore, and my doctor's like, you healed like a 30 5-year-old and you're 60 something. I'm really old when I cough. Dust comes out Kevin. Alright. That was a great explanation on the red light. Thank you for, for sharing that. So you're receiving the red light therapy and you're standing on grounding mat.

So let's talk about what a grounding mat is. Yeah, so gravity, mats really simple. So we work with a, um, Clint Obar is his name. He is in his. Late seventies now. He spent $15 million over the last 20 years doing all kinds of clinical, scientific research. He was an electrical engineer and he, he was always into grounding things.

And then he noticed how grounding is so good for the human body. But unfortunately, we used to ground a lot more. But now we're walking around on plastic, rubber sh SHOs shoes. You know, we're never barefoot touching the earth. So the earth has all the negative ions. So when you connect to the earth, f. It just balances out your entire system, and it's really good for, you know, the studies show, I mean, it's not as validated as Red light therapy, but it certainly can't hurt you, but I believe in grounding wholeheartedly.

That's why we, we put 'em in there. So it basically helps you. Reduce inflammation. It helps with sleep. It helps you know, your, your whole system, your chakra, your cellular organizations all, all align better. And the more aligned we are, you know, the, the more powerful just other things we do become right. So grounding has lots of science behind it.

And it's simple. Again, what I like is simple. I basically stand on a grounding mat and I stand with as little clothes on as possible between two red light panels. So. Now I'm doing two things. Okay? I am grounding and red light. Now, since I'm standing there, I used to get bored. So now we had Dr. Nick. Cool.

Who's a PhD from a SU and neuro, like biomechanics or something like that. And, and he's the inventor of the first ever non-invasive vagus nerve stimulator. And, and his device, um, has become renowned in, in helping us rapidly reduce stress and reset. And so let me explain, uh, the headset. So now I'm, I'm grounding that full body red light and the last two sound.

So I'm wearing a headset. So I have great sound and I could play the calm app, beta, theta, whatever I wanna play. The magic is it also has these two gel tips that go below your ear with their little gel tips. And this is like an electric, like a tens unit basically, where electric stim your vagus nerve. So what's the vagus nerve?

So the vagus nerve is your 10th cranial nerve. Here's how simple this is. And it's a bidirectional nerve, which is, that means it's important. And the vagus nerve in Latin, I think vagus means wonderer. And they call the vagus nerve, the wandering nerve, 'cause it touches all nine of your major organs. And there's only two tones you're typically in.

You're in sympathetic. Let's say you're hanging off a power line in the middle of a storm, or you're fighting a fire, you're arresting a person. You're in sympathetic, that's called fight or flight. And when you're in that high risk environment all the time, you get stuck in sympathetic and it's hard to get out.

And the signs are, I don't sleep as good, I'm grumpy. You know, I'm short-tempered. I'm like, you know, life just doesn't feel as good. I, I don't feel like as pumped about myself. There's lots of symptoms of it, right? But you're in sympathetic. What you wanna be in is parasympathetic, which is rest and digest.

So with the stem. Technique Dr. Who developed within three to five minutes, your pulse rate goes down, your heart rate goes down, your variable heart rate goes up, and you go into a powerful parasympathetic. So now I'm doing four modalities in one time in its quick 10 minute session, that's called the recharge booth, grounding full body red light headset with sound healing and vagus nerve stimulation.

I get done with that. I'm like. Some places just have a 10 minute reset during the day. They can use that on job and, and that's it. And they get done. They're like, I love my life, I love my employer again. Alright. That was good. You know, so, so that's station number one. And, and any other, like on the modalities or any other thoughts or comments about those?

Well, just more of a personal anecdote here. So I remember it was probably 2004, 2005 when I was first going through, um, first in chiropractic practice. And so the chiropractor for, uh, a Tour de France, uh, championship team, uh, was someone that I knew pretty well. And so that was my first exposure to grounding.

And the whole idea there is that you're getting free electrons, you're binding them to free radicals, helps with inflammation. So for probably the last 20 years, we've actually had a set of grounding sheets on our bed plugs into the wall. Is grounded there. And so that's been something that I've done consistently.

And again, and Kevin, this is why you're, you're the doctor 'cause you explained that way better about chronic No, no. Yeah, that was, you did a great job. I have graphic sheets too, by the way. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, it's one of those things that, first the literature was. Pretty, uh, yeah, pretty weak when the, when I was first exposed to that, but I'm like, what do I have to lose?

Yeah. And, uh, now more and more, uh, evidence and, and research has come out to support that. Mm-hmm. So that's definitely been a core, uh, component. We have a red light, uh, therapy tool, use it on a consistent basis. Uh, last year I. Had a ski accident, broke five ribs, partially collapsed in my lung, red light therapy like multiple times every single day.

Uh, sauna, all these different things that we're talking about right now. And I mean, literally within 45 days I was back to running. I was, you know, on track and so. Huge, huge believer in that. And like you said, it is probably one of the most well-researched modalities out there. Uh, and it's so much more accessible than it ever was, even, you know, 10, 15 years ago when it first came out.

And then the vagus nerve stimulator, you know, I, I remember studying the vagus nerve and just the impact that it has on overall organ health. The parasympathetic tone, like you talked about, the sympathetic tone. But never tried it until, uh, you and I met the first time. Rich, you gave me, uh, a vagus nerve stimulator.

It has a hundred percent become one of my daily routines, and it is amazing. I've, I see, uh, changes in my sleep, uh, stress levels, all that. So pretty cool. And again, I think it goes back to one, you know, just doing one component is great, but when you can start to stack, that's where you see the, the compounding effect of these modalities.

So thank you for, for giving us, uh, that, that rundown on station one. Now let's talk about station two, which I believe you said is the sauna, correct? Yeah. Yeah. So station two. Now we're gonna give it to contrast therapy. So station number two is 20 minutes in the infrared sauna. Okay. Now, sauna, I mean, lots of studies on sauna, you know, decades and decades of evidence on sauna.

You know, people have been using it for hundreds of years on Sauna Recently, uh, there was a huge 20 year study that was put out from, um, was it the Netherlands? It's a big, like a, a huge study. Do you remember who it was from? For Sauna, probably some Nordic country. I don't know the one that you're talking about, but yeah, it like a 20 year study though.

And they basically showed that people at Sauna five days a week or more, which is a lot. Um, they had like a 40 to 50% reduction in all cause mortality. Like a 40% improvement in cardiovascular function. So sauna in general, when you put your, your body in and, and stress, so to say, and the, and the heat chakras and you vasal constrict, right?

Uh, uh, or, or dilate. I mean, when, when you open up, um, all of those things have a very positive effect on your, on your body and on your, and, and, and, and there's. Huge evidence on how good a sauna is for, why do we use it for reduction of inflammation, helps with circulation. It's like a, like cardiovascular workout, right?

It makes you sweat, it makes you purge, it makes you detox a little bit, right? It gets the crap outta your, you know, the beginning layers of, of your, your, your, your biology, right? So those, those are all wonderful reasons to sauna. Sauna also has been studied a lot recently on the effect to mental health.

So they showed people with a severe anxiety and stress who sauna and heat their body up. As the human now comes down from heating up their body, it has a positive effect on resiliency and, uh, reduces anxiety and, and, and stress and, and sort of those sorts of things. So why do we use infrared saunas? Well, for our purpose, these men and women have to be.

Fit for duty and ready for duty. So you could be in the shower, in the bathroom, sitting in at the table or in the sauna or, and, and the bell rings. And you have to be on scene typically in four to five minutes. So you have to jump out, put on your stuff, jump in the fire engine, drive to the thing, and be there in four to five minutes, right?

So. Readiness and preparedness. So they make sure with their shower and they lay all their stuff out. And same thing in the recharge rooms. They make sure everything's organized well. The reason infrared sauna, one of our doctors, Dr. Gary B. Smith, who's been in fire service for um, 40 plus years now, he's well respected, does annual physicals on first responders and, and all types of, uh, enhancements.

And he did a study 'cause we wanted to know. Can we use a sauna on duty or does it raise your core body temperature so high that the last thing you wanna do is respond to a fire? 'cause you, then you'd be killing yourself. Right? So here's what happened on duty. Firefighters allowed to work out. And that raises, and I could be off by a few degrees, but that raises your core body temperature 0.06 to like 1.0 degrees, right?

A traditional sauna. The main difference, a traditional sauna is hotter. It heats the air. So when you get in a traditional sauna, the air is hotter than heck. You like, woo. You know? And then that's a regular sauna. And that's, that's good. Really good for you. That's a regular sauna. Heats the air. Your body temperature raises like 1.7 and maybe two point something, right?

An infrared sauna only raise core body temperature by 0.05 to 0.09. So they determine that if you work out on duty, you could infrared on duty because it keeps you in the safe zone from a heat exposure standpoint. Right. So, um, just a little sidebar on that. So when we do sauna. It's really good for you in a lot of different ways.

And these saunas too, we have two other elements. We have speakers in the sauna, so more sound meditation, whatever you wanna do. And they listen to piano, music, whatever. It's your time. How often do we take time to pause in that relaxing, warm environment? It's magical. And then we have chromotherapy lighting, which is basically, um.

Uh, an eastern sort of philosophy that's very well documented that we have what's called our chakras in our body, right? So you crown chakra, you know, your, your, your, your throat chakra, your heart chakra, your chakras in your body, and chromotherapy lighting is different. Colored lighting correlates to specific chakras.

So when you turn on a certain color light, it helps. That chakra sort of get in balance even more. So you're, you're doing chromotherapy, lighting, sound healing and infrared sauna for 20 minutes. So that's the 20 minute second step infrared sauna. Any, any other, what do you think about infrared sauna stuff?

So you've done those, right? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. My, uh, my dad's also a chiropractor. We've had infrared sauna. I think they've had one when I was like. 15 years old. Wait, your grandfather was a chiropractor too, young man, wasn't he? No, no, just, just my dad. My dad. Two dad, two brothers. Oh yeah. Okay. Uncle cousin.

So yeah, it was a bunch of you guys. Yeah. Deep in the family. But, uh, yeah, so we, we've always had the infrared sauna. That's been the approach that we've taken. And, you know, some people will hear things like the chromotherapy and chakras. Yeah. And like, that sounds kind of weird. But I think at the end of the day, the, the thing that we have to keep in mind is that the human body is.

An incredible electrical organism, like every single muscular contraction, impulse, like digestion, every, every process that happens in our body is facilitated by electricity that our body produces on its own. Yeah, like we're like. Electrical unit. And so, um, there are all these different things that we can do to stimulate the biology to, you know, open up pores, increase circulation, get the, you know, get the, the veins, the arteries to, to change how much blood flow is going to certain regions.

And so. The more we learn about the body, I think the more we're just like, wow, that stuff that people have been talking about for 3000 years, that there's actually something to it. So yeah, I appreciate you sharing that piece. Yeah. And, and then the, the final is the cold water therapy and, you know, talk about.

Thousands of years. Samurai warriors used to go over freezing cold waterfalls before they went into battle, right? Cold therapy we see in, in our society, um, sports teams after a sporting event, right? Football player, let's say you typically see 'em in the cold water. Well, why? Well, cold water does a bunch of good things from a recovery standpoint, right?

It helps reduce inflammation. It vasal constricts, so you're flushing things out. It. It, it, it kicks in your endorphin system. So I think the studies show if you cold water therapy, um, any temperature below, like 54 degrees or below, it kicks up your like dopamine, serotonin, feel good chemicals by about 200% for several hours, right?

Uh, really good for recovery. Mental, and you can't get outta the cold water going woo. I feel good. Right? So, so traditionally that's how people have used the cold water therapy. Again, lots of science behind it. I mean, when I started looking at cold water therapy, there were, I think three companies. Now there's like 5,033.

So all of these modalities over the last three years since we started have just boomed and, and, and, and sort of. What they do and, and the notice they're getting out there in society. Uh, but still we have to be, you know, you have to make sure you're getting into legitimate types of devices. But with the cold, it's kind of simple.

The water's a certain temperature, and then when you get in it, that's what it does. But there's another tactic now that we use, is using cold water as. Boosting tactic. So typically cold water you use to recover shoulder, hip, and I'm recovering, I'm gonna use cold after pt or after, you know, I, I don't wanna build and bulk up, you know, I'll use it post or, or to recover.

If I want to use it to boost, I do it before, at it, it boosts three things. It boosts one your power about 17%. They say The second thing it does, it boosts brown fat production. So when we're born, we have a ton of brown fat in our clavicle areas, right? And as we age or under stress, brown fat kind of poops out again, kinda like a TP uh, isn't that funny?

How the body works alike? And it, it kind of goes down and that's ingredient in your cells is critical to fight, like disease and cancer and, and, and, and bad things. So that's why we start aging and we are more susceptible to disease, right? So now. They found out Harvard did this big study. It took active cancer patients, had them cold therapy before working out active cancer patients over like a two or three year period.

And it came back where there was like a 35 to 40% slowdown rate in the cancer growth. Boosting brown fat. And then the, the final boost is testosterone from a hormonal standpoint. Um, it typically boosts testosterone very substantially with no drugs. Um, I'll tell you a super quick story. I know we're, we're kinda getting tight on time.

There was a firefighter, I, I spoke at a conference with from two large California. And Sean, his name is Sean. And Sean was putting, put, he's a captain, putting him down a well for like a training exercise, rescue. And something broke on the harness and he fell and they caught it and it crushed his testicles and his left testicle they had to take out.

And they put him on painkillers. He had to take like, uh, testosterone pellets and gel. And after a couple months, his wife's like. He's gonna kill everybody. He's the meanest guy I met in my life. And so one of our doctors, Dr. Tom Seger from a SU, is considered like the Andrew Huberman of cold water therapy.

Tom's like, look, get off of that for six months. Not gonna kill you. Try cold therapy before you work out. So Sean's telling his story as he's giving his talk. He's showing his gross pictures from a surgery like, ah. But then at the end he goes, after seven months. Now here's my testosterone, no drugs, 800. So it boost tests.

So, so cold water, you can use different ways, but it's recovery, resiliency, readiness. Uh, there's a whole slew of benefits, especially in high stress, high physically demanding sort of jobs. And the nice thing, it takes three minutes in and out, right? So Rich, what is the theory on why those two firefighters didn't smell like smoke when they stacked everything versus when they just did the sauna alone?

So the synergy of togetherness or by stacking them. So as an example, one when we're grounding, as you mentioned, it, it really organizes your body to be more in, in, in, in tune or grounded. The red light, in essence, gets cellular energy going, reduces inflammation and helps with circulation. The vagus nerve stimulator, remember the wandering nerve?

So now all of my organs are set into rest and digest. So what they think is now, when you get into the sauna, your body is more. Organized and more regulated to have a deeper, more meaningful purge during the sauna session, and then followed by the shower and the cold therapy to kind of knock it all down.

And they don't smell like smoke, so they think it's my crazy synergy of togetherness idea. I love it. Well, thanks for walking us through that session and yeah, it's, it's so cool to, to understand each layer and also hear the impact that it's had on so many people. So let's move to the next section of this interview, which is a little bit of miss.

Myth busting in rapid fire questions. So, uh, I'm gonna ask a series of questions here and, and you, uh, you can gimme some short answers. So, uh, myth bust number one, uh, this is just a luxury or a perk, this type of treatment, what would you say to the leaders who see it that way? What happens if you come back from physical therapy 25% quicker?

What happens if we reduce cancer by a certain amount? What if you're safer now and there's less injuries on the job? Right? All of those types of things by helping have the tools to make our men and women ready, prepared, and alert during their shifts. Um. Bang down. So this is not a luxury. This is a way to save taxpayers and shareholders money, and it's a way to improve morale, retention, and recruitment.

So that's what I usually tell a chief and I say, data doesn't lie. And so here you go. So do the math yourself. And if it's not a leader that gets it. I honestly just don't really work with them then, but I luckily I don't run into too many of them anymore. Kevin, back, you know, when I first started, they'd look at me like I had three eyes, like red.

What? We, this is not a, a spa over here at the fire, a police station. Right. But they're understanding these are not, these are tactics. They're critical. Tactics, just like their critical equipment to have in a fire station, just like you'd have as a cop, a gun, a taser, your badge, you know, just like a firefighter has the engine and, and, and the tactics to fight fire and rescue people.

These are critical to keep us fit for duty. Love it. Myth number two, and this is more from the frontline worker themselves. I don't have time for something like this. What does 30 minutes actually by someone? Well, I mean, it buys you a lot of stuff you've heard today, and I would just challenge you if you have the opportunity to do it, try it for like a month.

So you gotta put in twice a week, 30 minutes times four, right? 2, 4, 6, whatever that comes out to four hours outta your life and try it and see how you feel when you're done. Most people keep going because they're like, wow. This is no drug. Easy to do. I can, it helps me in all aspects mentally, emotionally, and physically, and, and my recovery and my readiness and my resiliency training.

So I would just say try it and if you don't have a lot of time. Just do the headset for 10 minutes or just do the full red light booth for 10 minutes, or if you don't have time, just do the cold punch. Start someplace. Or you might be resonating with sauna and you, you, whatever. Start with the one that you're comfortable with.

It's like Kevin said, you said earlier, these are all individually well vetted, scientifically validated modalities, not like some pie in the sky thing. So bottom line is if you just do one, it's gonna be good for you if you do the synergy or the bio stacking. It seems like it's gonna be way better for you even, but either way, you're good.

Love it. Myth number three, recovery is personal. It's not the company's responsibility. So where does the responsibility actually sit? So a company's responsibility is to make sure that we have the healthiest, safest employees, uh, out there. And leaders nowadays are understanding the importance of delivering what people want.

So Gallup is a big agency that does a lot of surveys of corporations and, and the staffing industry. And they recently came out with a survey that showed for the first time ever, this generation of worker is like 60% say what's most important to them on the job is. Balance, wellbeing and do they care about me?

So as an organization, if we provide these types of tools that help for what the ailment is, as an example, in police patrol cars, we use this little fob size, vagus nerve stimulator. 'cause between every call their accumulated stress, their backpack, like we talked about earlier, just gets heavier and heavier.

This way when they do this in between calls, they can shed a little of that and sort of leave it in the past 'cause they have this tactic to use and that's another way. So. Those would be some of the ways I would address that. Love it. Uh, a few rapid fire questions. What is the biggest sign that someone's nervous system is overloaded?

I. Yeah, so difficulty sleeping, um, irritability, I mean, some of the things that we've talked about, uh, you're not yourself, you know, why aren't yourself and, you know, get your blood work checked, get the basics checked. But you know, gosh, stress is really a leading cause of dysfunctionality. And let's face it, you know, our society today.

I mean, heck, what do we going on now? Like potential world wars and all kinds of diseases. And, you know, the, the, the weather events we've never heard about in our life and, you know, financial strains and, you know, it's just, remember, adversity leads to victory, but you have to help yourself. You know, there's an old saying, there's three kinds of people in the world.

There's people that make it happen. There's people that watch it happen and there's, people wonder what the heck happened? So be the type of person you're, you're smart enough to listen to Kevin's, you know, podcast. Be the type of person that makes it happen. And remember the reason they say when the mask comes down in the airplane to put yours on first.

'cause if you don't have any oxygen left for yourself, you can't rescue anyone else. So we know everybody in this audience is out there keeping our communities. Lit up safe and and protected. You gotta take care of yourself too, and that that's what we're here to really encourage you, at least our missions.

I know Kevin has a similar mission, is to inspire and educate so you can make the best choices on your tactics to have a health healthy span, healthy lifespan. Rich for people who are listening to this, again, frontline workers, uh, what are three things that you hope that they come away from this, uh, conversation with?

One, there's, there's ways you can take proactive steps to reduce these things you may be dealing with physically and emotionally. Uh, that, you know, depending on the type of job you're in, that, that career, like first responders, we know what the major killers and symptoms and things you're working on. So we're, we're focused on that.

So that'd be one thing. I would just say the, the second thing is. It's kind of getting easier and easier to do these types of things. Um, more employee wellness programs are being established, you know, um, encourage, you know, your fellow workers and other team members to work with leadership, you know, in, in a team spirited way.

And, and we show them the advantages of these types of tactics and, and why it's important for, for the frontline workers, right? You guys and gals deserve. Um, these types of tactics, you're industrial athletes is the way I look at it, right? I mean, what you do and, and, and, and it, and, and the different fields we work with, it requires an industrial athlete.

You just can't be some normal, you know, like me right now, I'm overweight you, I couldn't do it. You know? So you gotta be in top tip shape and everything. So, and, and I, I'd say the third one is just remember, life happens, right? And adversity leads to victory and. Try something, right? Uh, even if it's simple as vagus nerve stimulation, a good parallel is like vagus nerve stimulation with this tactic.

There's breath work, which is very effective, but it takes, you know, 15, 20 minutes worth of breath work. Uh, yogic, you know, activities, right? Meditation, uh, you could take a Xanax, don't do that, but take a Xanax and, and that, but. This tactic according to Dr. Who's research and other research, it's the fastest way to downregulate.

So my last bit of advice would be, if you're feeling these types of things, you know what those types of things might be. Don't just sit on it, right? Take, be, act, be, make it happen. It's for your own. Benefit and, and it's self-love, which is okay to say, and you're taking care of your friends and your family.

So just, just make it happen basically. So those would be like three things just rattling off. Well, rich, thank you so much for, uh, being a part of this conversation and just for sharing your insight and just some closing thoughts that I'd like to leave the audience with, and that's, recovery is not a reward for working hard.

It's what allows you to keep doing the work. And we've spent decades building systems to. Protect equipment, improve efficiency and reduce risk. It's time we apply these same principles to the people who are doing the work. Rich, what you're building is a shift in how we think about performance, safety, and longevity in the workforce.

And I think it's long overdue. And so thank you so much for bringing this to our audience and just for going out on a limb and starting, you know, an organization that's a hundred percent, uh, geared towards improving people's lifespan. And their health span. If you wanna learn more about the recharge room, uh, definitely, uh, contact Rich to request a demo or explore the science behind it all.

Uh, and a lot of that research can be found on Recharge room.io. Rich, how can people find out more about you and about Positive Impact Alliance and, uh, recharge Rooms? One, one great place is the recharge room.io. Uh, website covers a lot of, uh, our scientific advisory board, some of our partners, some of the things we're involved with.

Uh, anybody in the audience. Um, um, please contact me directly if you have any questions or you, you have any ideas. We're always like, where Sponge for, for, for feedback and helping and so my email is rich. At Recharge room.io instead of.com.io. rich@rechargeroom.io. Rich, thank you so much. And just a few closing, uh, thoughts to our guests.

Number one, if uh, this conversation changed how you think about recovery, make sure to share it with someone on your crew or someone in leadership. Uh, we definitely wanna spread this message. Also follow, uh, the Work Already podcast on any of the different platforms, YouTube, uh, Spotify, apple Podcasts, where we're in all those places.

It just ensures that you're gonna get the latest episodes and, uh, a lot of the guests that we have coming up are gonna further. Expand on some of the science that you talked about, rich, just so we can continue to learn how to optimize, uh, recovery and in the workforce. So until next time, take care of yourself.

Take care of your people, and stay work ready. Thanks so much.