What Do High Level Athletes Know About Floating?

Here’s a sports trivia question for all our athletically-inclined readers: 

What do the Dallas Cowboys, the Golden State Warriors, the Chicago Cubs, The Manchester United Football Club, and Michael Phelps all have in common?

You might see this lineup and think “well, the ‘92 Dallas Cowboys won the Superbowl that year, the Golden State Warriors won the NBA Finals in ‘14, the Cubs made history when they won the 2016 World Series, Manchester United is one of the most hono(u)red Football Clubs in the world, and Michael Phelps has won more gold medals than any other Olympian in history! They’re all winners!”

But that’s not all they have in common: they also all used float tanks.

They weren’t alone, either: the New England Patriots, UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie, the Chicago Bulls, Olympic Gymnast Aly Raisman, the Philadelphia Eagles, Olympic Gold Medalist Carl Lewis, The Detroit Pistons, as well as literally hundreds of other professional athletes have incorporated floating into their training and recovery programs throughout the years.

Floating is one of the best kept secrets in high-performing athletes and there’s some interesting research that helps explain why.

Raising the Performance Ceiling

If someone told you that laying in the dark on a bed of saltwater could give you superhuman strength or speed, would you believe them? It may not be as far-fetched as it sounds.

One study found that high-level athletes who have plateaued – those who don’t see any additional benefits from more training – would see an improvement in performance after floating in conjunction with visualization techniques, even without additional training.

Put another way, athletes were able to increase their peak performance just by floating before competition. A followup study not only confirmed this result but also showed that floating multiple times between games led to significant improvements over a single float! This demonstrates something that most floaters already know: the more you float, the better it is for you.

Improved Precision

Beyond general athletic performance, a few studies looked at more specific benefits of floating in athletes.

Several studies tested how floating affects marksmanship. All 3 studies had a float group and a control group, with participants from all skill levels.

In the rifle marksmanship study 75% had a statistically significant increase in accuracy pre- to post-float with no such increase was found in the control group (relaxation without floating). A similar effect was found in the darts study, with 80% of participants seeing an improvement. It’s worth noting that in both studies, these improvements were seen regardless of skill level.

While the archery study didn’t see any significant increase in accuracy, it did show that the float-group had more consistent scores than the non-float group, something that the other two studies found as well.

Reduced Recovery Time

While the benefits described above could be explained as a side effect of stress reduction, there’s more to the story of the impact on floating in physical performance, certainly not enough to explain why floating has been so popular among high-level athletes.

Building off of earlier research, scientists in recent years have started using biometrics to see what’s happening to athletes who float on a physiological level. A 2013 study looked at the effect floating has on lactic acid build-up.

Lactic acid is associated with that post-workout feeling of tightness in your muscles that causes your body to stiffen and get sore. Professional athletes are always looking for new ways to reduce the amount it builds up during a workout to maximize performance.

What they found was that floating after exercise showed a 62% reduction in lactic acid buildup on average compared to the control group. Participants also reported feeling less pain and were back at peak performance sooner.

A followup study in 2016 was able to replicate this effect with a larger sample size over 9 different sports. Not only were they able to replicate the lactic acid reduction, they also found a significant reduction in muscle soreness and improved mood and reduced fatigue in those that floated.

Looking at the Whole Picture

When you take all of these effects together, you can start to see why floating has been one of the best kept secrets of successful athletes. When you take into consideration the stress reduction benefits as well, you can see how floating might help them be at the top of their mental game in addition to their professional one.

The best part about all of this? Floating is helpful for athletes at every level. You don’t need to be an Olympian to see the benefits of floating in your exercise. It can be a nice way to cool down after a jog or help you recover after playing in a local league game on the weekends.

Football:

Minnesota Vikings

Houston Texans

New England Patriots

Seattle Seahawks

Denver Broncos

Dallas Cowboy

Cincinnati Bengals

Philadelphia Eagles

Buffalo Bills

Baseball:

Chicago Cubs

Minnesota Twins 

St. Louis Cardinals 

Arizona Diamondbacks 

Philadelphia Phillies 

San Francisco Giants 

LA Dodgers

Houston Astros

Basketball:

Chicago Bulls

NY Nicks 

NY Nets 

Washington Wizards

Detroit Pistons

Golden State Warriors

Atlanta hawks

OKC Thunder

Hockey:

Philadelphia Flyers 

Chicago Blackhawks

Misc:

Manchester United 

All Blacks …New Zealand Rugby

Crusaders …New Zealand Rugby

Carleton Football club Australian football 

Taft Rugby

Team GB Rowers

Individual athletes:

Aly Raisman

Michael Phelps

Stephen Curry

Hunter Pence

J.J. watt

Cody Garbrandt

Harrison Barnes

Carl Lewis

Phillips Idowu

Wayne Rooney

Henry Cejudo

Razak Al Hassan

Mohammed Usman

James Vick

Mark and Montana DeLaRosa

Floating, Meditation, and Mindfulness - Adding Tricks To Your Mental Toolbelt

Floating removes you from the outside world and gives your mind the freedom to wander wherever it wants to go. When you float, you don’t have anything you need to do.

There’s nothing you need to work on.

You have a space where you can lie down, removed from the pressure of thinking, discussing, or participating in anything at all. It’s an environment that exists almost completely opposite our current plugged-in, sensory-driven way of life.

In a float tank, you have the opportunity to be more mindful than pretty much any other environment in the world.

What does it mean to be “mindful”?

Make a mental note of how you’re feeling right now. Now, use the next 30 seconds to try this – you can have your eyes open or closed:

Clear your mind. Take a deep breath. Deep exhale.

Another breath. Flex your toes and fingers. Exhale. Breathe normally.

Relax your shoulders and your jaw.

If you chose to close your eyes, open them slowly.

How do you feel? How does that compare to how you felt beforehand? Odds are you feel better after spending 30 seconds focusing on your breath and where you hold tension. Bringing passive awareness to your state of being reconnects your body and mind and can help remove the physiological effects from the outside world, which can often be stressful.

This, more or less, is mindfulness (although it’s definitely more complicated than this).

It can be summed up as paying attention to the present moment in a non-judgmental manner. It’s one of the fundamental ideas behind much of Buddhist meditation. It seems absurdly simple, especially when looking at the many benefits attributed to it.

For the past thirty years or so, researchers have been looking more closely into what mindfulness is and why it works so well for us. There are two main components to mindfulness exercises from a clinical perspective: self-regulation of attention and orientation to experience. It can sound a bit technical, but they are pretty easy to understand concepts when they’re broken down.

Self-Regulation of Attention

Much of mindfulness relies on the passive observation of where your attention is focused and maintaining that attention on the present moment. When you pay attention to your breathing and what your body is doing, you’re keeping your mind focused on only things that exist and are affecting you in the current moment.

Many people assume that in order to do mindfulness “successfully”, you have to prevent yourself from thinking, but that isn’t true. Being mindful simply means you acknowledge whatever thoughts arise before returning your focus to your state of being in the present moment. It can be surprisingly difficult to maintain this over long periods of time, but maintaining a lack of attention to your thoughts allows them to flow freely and places you firmly in the present.

Orientation to Experience

This idea is a little more nebulous, but it builds off of what was already discussed. This is what you’d think of as “being present” in mindfulness practices.

All those experiences that you feel and the thoughts you have occur and you pass them by. You don’t pass judgement on any thoughts or feelings. You don’t assign guilt to what you’re doing or not doing. Everything that occurs to you is equally worthy of your curiosity and consideration.

You orient yourself towards your experiences and become a passive observer to your mental processes rather than an active participant. You’re open to whatever occurs and you’re better positioned to accept it than you would be otherwise.

What does this do for me?

If you look at these two elements of mindfulness, it might seem like a nice way to relax or a good way to organize your thoughts – it can be difficult to imagine just how impactful it is to place yourself in this state of being present. While it certainly isn’t a magic spell that can erase all the negativity you feel.

When you make mindfulness a habit, it starts to change how you live your life in subtle ways. It makes it easier to take control over your own behavior and moods, which in turn helps you focus on how you’re feeling. With proper focus, it can also help you build coping mechanisms for day-to-day stress, reducing the negative impact it can have on your life. This can help reduce the severity of stress-related anxiety disorders and depression, as well as manage chronic pain, improve creativity, and generally improve a person’s quality of life.

How Floating Dissolves Stress

Even without the existential malaise of living through global crisis, our modern way of life tends to exert a lot of pressure on most people. As mental health research evolves, it’s become apparent that what we call “stress” can actually cause a lot of health problems; not just physical problems like heart disease and high blood pressure (although those are certainly significant), but also mental health issues like PTSD, depression, and eating disorders.

Finding ways to recharge is more important than it’s ever been, but there’s a healthy amount of skepticism about alternative wellness practices, with floating being no exception. So how can we be sure floating is as helpful as it claims to be?

Simple. We follow the science!

 There was a recent Tedx Talk by a well known scientist, Dr. Justin Feinstein from the Laureate Institute of Brain Research, who shared some of his research findings about the effects of floating on stress. What’s so incredible about this research is that every single person who participated in it experienced some amount of stress relief, with most people experiencing a significant reduction in their stress levels that lasted for more than a full 24 hours after a single session.

24 hours is a pretty long time for any given treatment to work. Just think: if there was a pill that would make you virtually stress free for a whole day, who wouldn’t want that? While floating isn’t quite as easy as taking a pill, the benefits of it seem even more significant than most available anti-anxiety treatments. Not to mention, you don’t have to worry about things like interactions with other medications or other negative contraindications.

Dr. Feinstein has been studying people with stress-related illnesses like PTSD, depression, and anxiety, and what he’s finding is that people who have the highest levels of stress before floating experience the largest benefit. Basically, everyone who floated returned to a baseline level of relief so no matter how anxious you are, floating is going to bring you down to a similar level of relaxation as everyone else.

This is all really fascinating, but how does it work? Is it really as simple as sitting in the dark and not thinking about anything for an hour or more? It looks like it.

Floating allows our minds and bodies to slow down, gives us the ability to recharge more quickly, and puts our brains in a more dreamlike state. The solitude of a float, where we know we can’t be bothered by the outside world, is a massive destresser that is surprisingly difficult to find elsewhere.

To help illustrate this point, let’s move from science to history. There’s a psychologist named Peter Suedfeld who did a lot of groundbreaking research into “sensory deprivation” back in the 60s and 70s. Dr. Suedfeld’s work didn’t focus on float tanks (at first), but instead involved placing people in completely dark rooms in total isolation for 24 hours or more at a time. He called this process REST (Restricted Environment Stimulation Therapy).

At the time, psychologists were very misinformed about sensory deprivation -- they essentially thought it was torture. Previous research was incomplete, and the methods that researchers used were suspect at best. They would prime subjects to bad outcomes before the experiment even began; focussing on negative side effects in their introduction. The experiments themselves involved exposure to constant harsh lights and loud noises -- which doesn’t exactly sound like sensory deprivation, does it? Dr. Suedfeld thought that it was possible to take a different approach and get a positive effect. And he was right.

Dr. Suedfeld focused on keeping subjects at ease and making the process simple for anyone participating. What his research found was that instead of feeling like it was torture, people actually enjoyed the sensory deprivation experience! The subjects felt it was relaxing and beneficial. One participant even tried to sneak in multiple times under different names to repeat the experience!

Over the years, he found out that there was a positive potential benefit to REST in many areas: addiction treatment, helping people with autism, enhancing creativity, and, of course, reducing stress. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that there are entire groups of people who choose to live in total darkness for months at a time and say they find it peaceful.

 This research was foundational for the future of float tanks, and helped to key in early on to the benefits of floating and reducing stress. In fact, back in the 80s and 90s, scientists started calling it “Floatation REST” and referring to the dark rooms that Dr. Suedfeld used as “Chamber REST”.

Since then, scientific understanding of sensory reduced environments has only grown, and in the age of information, the benefits of isolation run in stark contrast to how we live our day-to-day lives. Luckily, you don’t need to spend a day in the dark to experience the benefits -- we’re learning now that Float REST can provide similar benefits in just a single session (though of course, the longer you can float, the better).

In his talk, Dr. Feinstein notes how we aren’t designed to be constantly plugged in and looking at screens all day, listening to cars driving by, or dealing with the glare of fluorescent lights non-stop. Neither were we supposed to be constantly thinking about what we have to do next, fit a full 8 hour workday on top of raising families, going to school, and being a part of our communities.

Even when we enjoy these things, they can wear us out and add to the stress of our daily lives. Taking a break can give us a reset button, and floating has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to do that.

Whoop Experiment

So, last week I conducted an experiment on myself.  Using my Whoop performance monitor, I wanted to see the effect that floating 5 days in a row would have on my sleep and recovery. In the photos below, you can see my sleep quality and recovery leading up to the floats.  Not very good, is it?

The next 6 slides show recovery and heart rate during the float, as well as heart rate during sleep that evening.

We’ll mostly focus on the correlation between heart rate variability (HRV) and recovery here.  Now, heart rate variability is “simply a measure of the variation in time between each heartbeat. This variation is controlled by a primitive part of the nervous system called the autonomic nervous system (ANS). It works regardless of our desire and regulates, among other things, our heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and digestion. The ANS is subdivided into two large components, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system, also known as the fight-or-flight mechanism and the relaxation response.” (https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/heart-rate-variability-new-way-track-well-2017112212789)

Basically, the higher the HRV, the better recovery. Now during a float, the environment greatly reduces the demand on the ANS. Heart beat naturally slows down as the body has no demands placed on it, blood pressure reduces with the removal of external stress, and breathing gets into a steady rhythm. Looking at the slides above, it becomes apparent that HRV and recovery go hand in hand. Here’s a short breakdown of the data:

Non float day averages: Float day averages:

HRV - 120 HRV - 141.4

Recovery - 55.9% Recovery - 73%

Sleep quality - 70% Sleep quality - 74.2%

Sleep length - 6:29 Sleep length - 6:57

Strain - 12.58 Strain - 15.8

Low/high for non float days: Low/high for float days:
HRV - 77/163 HRV - 123/159

Recovery - 23/89% Recovery - 58/87%

Sleep quality - 60/74% Sleep quality - 66/89%

Sleep length - 5:39/7:02 Sleep length - 5:57/7:25

Strain - 8.6/14.7 Strain - 13/17.6

To break that down a little more, over the 5 days we saw:
HRV increase of 21.4

Recovery increase of 17.1%

Sleep quality increase of 4.2%

Sleep length increase of 28 minutes

Strain increase of 3.22

Now here’s where it gets really interesting. With only 30 minutes total more sleep over the course of the 5 float days (a measly average of 6 minutes per night!), there was a substantial increase in quality and recovery.  And that’s taking into account more strain that the body was able to take through exercise.  There were a few unforeseen variables, like noisy neighbors and my 4-year-old crawling into my bed that disturbed the sleep a little, but that’s life.

We all have stress in our lives, and there are many ways of dealing with it. Whether it be emotional, physical or both, we can’t just ignore it and hope it goes away. One of the greatest aspects of floating is that it’s completely noninvasive, and there are no harmful side effects. Essentially, it’s nothing at all. Just you, by yourself, having an opportunity to remove all the external stressors that make life less enjoyable. Aside from the benefits of reducing stress, regular floats are tremendous for sleep quality, which of course is critical for immune system, mood, and just keeping your body and mind working at its best.

Using Change (& Float Tanks) to Make Change

As we approach the light at the end of the quarantunnel, we have a unique opportunity to think about what we want our lives to be like on the other side. This is a rare moment where the systems and patterns we all have in place have been slowed down or stopped, and will need to be restarted or replaced. What we may not realize is that this disruption is an opportunity to alter our day-to-day behavior.

Humans are creatures of habit, and, unless we are actively looking to identify and understand them, our habits will show up before we even realize it. If we aren’t careful, as “normal” returns, we’re ripe to fall right back into all of our habits -- even the bad habits we’d rather not have.

Floating can help you focus on and understand bad habits, as well as program new ones that better align with your life goals. In fact, Dr. John C. Lilly, the inventor of float tanks, developed an entire system around using float tanks to alter unwanted behaviors, or “programs”, by intentionally focusing on these negative aspects and where they come from in a controlled environment.

Is Normal Really Your Goal?

Over these past few weeks, you’ve probably heard at least a few people wishing that things would go back to normal. You may have even wished it yourself. But what are we really wishing for? Of course we all want to be able to hang out with friends and hug our loved ones again, but the desire for things to go back to normal is much more than that.

We are creatures of habit. Not all of that is bad, obviously. Getting more comfortable with backing out of the driveway, being able to quickly form a masterful brush stroke on canvas, and shooting a three-point shot blindfolded are all results of habits. Our habits stack on top of each other to inform our behaviors and before you know it, our routines start to determine who we are. This is what our normal is, and this is why we’re so distressed when it gets disrupted.

But when there’s a hiccup in your normal rhythms and routines, it becomes much easier to bring things into focus and implement change. And, for better or worse, we’re in the throes of the largest collective “hiccup” in modern history -- so let’s take advantage of it.

Rebuild it Better

Each of us has had our habit stack toppled, and we’re at a point where we get to rebuild. But more importantly, we’re at a point where we have a chance to decide how we want to rebuild. Your old habit stack was haphazardly put together, your new one can be built to your specifications. If you have to rebuild anyway, why not build something better?

Some of the most fascinating work that Dr. John C. Lilly did was related to how float tanks might affect our ability to “metaprogram”(Check out Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer for more on this. It’s fascinating stuff). 

If we think of our brains like computers (or “biocomputers” to borrow Lilly’s phrasing), then everything we put out: our thoughts, feelings, opinions, emotions, etc - they’re all programs written by code. But our code isn’t written by some plucky computer science major trying to develop a webapp, it’s written as a reaction to everything we experience. Lilly believed that if we focussed on how our programs were written, we could pull that code apart and adjust it to improve on the programs (which would be programs writing programs, hence, “metaprogramming”). He found that floating can help immensely with this process (also LSD -- he was an interesting guy).

Being in an environment where you are isolated from the external world encourages our brains to develop a better connection to our internal world -- a mind which is more attentive to itself. When you are more aware of your internal world, you’re in a better position to analyze yourself. You can much more easily identify and understand your programs, your habits  -- including their cues, triggers, and deeper motivations.

Recognizing our programs, and what causes them, is the first step towards changing them for the better. When you are present, and attentive, your habits and routines don’t just take over mindlessly -- you gain awareness of not just your day-to-day, but of your moment-to-moment. This awareness allows you to be cognizant of how the world is affecting your programs. Being at the helm again gives you the opportunity to steer the course of your choosing.

Floating strengthens your ability to be present because it puts you in an environment that leaves your brain with nothing else to think about, no other sensory input to process. Like everything else, you can make it a habit to be present -- your brain will get better at being present -- but you have to practice.

Dr. Lilly isn’t the only one to come to these conclusions. Similar ideas can be found in ancient Buddhist meditation practices, in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy textbooks, and in the teachings of countless other mindfulness practices. Many of which are getting more traction in the scientific community as tools to improve our mental well being.

It may sound simple: “Pay attention and you’ll notice more about what you’re doing.” But actually putting this into practice is more difficult now than ever. We are constantly being pulled in every direction, distracted by the outside world and overburdened by responsibility in our lives. We have a rare opportunity in that many of us are being more mindful right now. We’re less distracted, more present, and more engaged with the world. 

Part of that is frightening, but just like how going for a jog for the first time in months can be exhausting and painful, eventually the habits form and your body and brain learn what they need to do. This is an opportunity to endurance train for the whole human race. As we improve ourselves, we improve the world around us.

It can seem daunting, and maybe even unrealistic, but each of us has the ability to change if we choose to. You don’t have to figure it out all at once. Changing ourselves - and the world - is a marathon, not a sprint.

Floating is Safer than the Grocery Store

There are lots of us who may want to start floating again, but may also reasonably ask if this is the right time to do so. After all, going anywhere right now carries a certain amount of risk along with it. States are facing the difficult situation of how to keep people safe, and how to make sure we can continue to support ourselves long term. Needless to say, the situation has been more than a little stressful!

Normally, in a situation like this, we would leap at the opportunity to get into float tanks. The environment seems tailor-made for crises like this. We can isolate, de-stress, and there’s evidence to suggest that floating and improved mindfulness can strengthen the immune system.

Many people are prioritizing activities and only going out when necessary. Trips to the grocery store are essential and also carry a certain amount of risk. But as we go on with our lives and create a new normal, we need to discuss how to also prioritize the things that help bring balance to our lives like floating.

The good news is that float tanks have a few things about them that generally make them safer than other wellness modalities. Here’s a few things to remember about how much safer floating is than most activities in a COVID world:

• They’re unmanned: At no point do you need to directly interact with practitioners in order to feel the full benefits of floating.

• Cleanliness: Customers shower before and after the float. This makes a world of difference in mitigating risk and exposure. 

• Uncongested space: With just a few clients in the center for each round of floats, it’s easy to maintain safe social distance. Float centers rarely have more than a dozen people in them at a time. 

• Heat and Humidity: Heat and humidity seem to be hostile to the coronavirus, which naturally inhibits growth in float environments. While this result is still being studied, it does seem like good news.

So already, we’re way ahead of grocery stores in some regards. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t additional precautions to take before going for a float.

• Mask up: Just like going to the grocery store, be sure to wear a mask when going to your float center. Bring your own hand sanitizer as well. 

• Call ahead: Make sure you get everything taken care of ahead of time. Pay online or over the phone so you don’t have to interact directly with anyone. If it’s your first time floating, check to make sure you can do a video walkthrough of what to expect. 

• Don’t sit/don’t linger: Most float centers will likely have their lobbies or lounges closed at this time, but even if they’re available, it’s a good idea not to linger. It can be nice to relax in a space designed for it, but find someplace private where you can do that instead of in a shared space like a float center.

• Stay home if you need to: If you have a fever or other symptoms and think you might be contagious, it might be better to wait until you feel better before going to float.

Right now, many of us are wondering what the right thing to do is. It can feel selfish to focus on a “luxury” like floating when we’re battling a global pandemic and many people are faced with economic uncertainty. Many people may also be concerned with contributing to unsafe conditions for workers or the general public.

Don’t forget that float centers are small businesses and a part of your community! If they’ve opened up, it’s because they think it’s important for people to float, now more than ever, and want to make sure it’s safe for their customers.

Floating is extremely helpful for de-stressing and can help you think and act more clearly in the rest of your day-to-day life. It can help you return to a sense of normalcy by finding time to refocus your attention and prioritize what’s important right now. It makes you healthier by reducing your stress, which can strengthen your immune system.

While many of us are eager to rush to the beach or the waterpark during the hot summer months, it seems like that may not be a good idea right now. Floating may seem like a luxury in some regards, but it has been life changing for so many people and it’s so much safer than many other practices in light of current circumstances. Do what you think is best for you, but we should consider supporting the practices that are working hard to bring serenity back to a world that needs it.