HEALTH  BENEFITS  OF  FLOATATION

A.   ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE / SPORTS REHABILITATION

Athletes use floating to enhance their performance and speed their recovery from injuries.  It keeps them on top of their game.  After years of mediocrity, the Philadelphia Eagles acquired a tank, and then went on to win the NFC Championship in 1980.

The Philadelphia Phillies noticed the tank, and many of these players began floating, too.  This team went on to win its first world series in decades in 1980.

Other famous floating athletes include Carl Lewis, who used in-tank visualization techniques to prepare himself for his gold medal long jump at the 1988 Seoul Olympics,  Ironman champion Peter Reid, the Dallas Cowboys, the US 2000 Olympic team, and the Australian 2000 Olympic team.

                                                                                Adapted from an Oasis Floatarium article

“The AIS (Australian Institute of Sports) psychologists use float tanks for three main purposes:  recuperation and rejuvenation, injury rehabilitation and neuro-muscular programming.”

Sports Medicine article, The Australian Doctor

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

·         Floating  takes the pressure off tired and sore joints and muscles.  It increases blood circulation which can accelerate healing.

·         Relaxed muscles are likely to heal faster than tired, tight, and knotted muscles.

·         Floatation can help reduce pain, help backache and muscle injuries and relieves stress and anxiety that often accompanies an injury.

·         The athlete emerges from the floatation tank alert but in a state of deep relaxation.  The effects can last anywhere from a few hours to a few days.

“Women reap the most beneficial rewards.  Sessions in a tranquility tank unknot forehead tension and relax tightened strings of the face. “I look and feel ten years younger”, is not an uncommon comment.  Plastic surgeons have always understood the aging factor of tension.  When muscles behind the skin are in stress, they are reflected on the skin’s surface.  When tensions are removed, the skin becomes as uncomplicated as a baby’s smooth visage.”

New York Pos

Eliminating stress and its effect on your body makes you feel and look more attractive and energetic.  Tension plays a major part in affecting the appearance of your skin.  A sense of well-being will make you radiate energy and maintain confidence.  In addition, floating in Epsom salt makes your skin softer, smoother, and draws toxins such as lactic acid.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

·         Epsom salt may soften the skin and exfoliate

·         Epsom salt provides magnesium which has been shown to ease stress, lower blood pressure, create a happy relaxed feeling, raise energy levels

·         Floating helps raising the body’s level of serotonin, a mood elevating chemical within the brain that creates a feeling of well being and relaxation

·         Offsetting excess levels of adrenaline generated by pressure and stress; magnesium ions in Epsom salt relax and reduce irritability lowering the effects of adrenaline

 Excerpt from EPSOM SALT COUNCIL

C.  CREATIVITY

Professor Thomas Taylor of Texas A & M recently conducted a fascinating test of the effects of floating on the learning and thinking.  Taylor had tested subject groups to see which were visualizers and which were verbalizers, and concluded;  “when the same learning records are analyzed on the basis of persons who are basically visualizers versus those who are primarily conceptualizers (non-visual thinkers), a greater degree of learning occurred in the visual than in the non-visual group.”

Taylor also noted that the float group appeared to visualize better than the non-float group, and produced significantly higher amounts of theta waves, which are known to be associated with strong mental imagery.

The floatation tank environment causes a person’s brainwaves to change from beta (wide awake and alert) to alpha to theta, which is associated with vivid imagery.  This normally occurs in the 2^nd half of an hour long float session so if it is your first time, you shouldn’t expect instant results.

We all experience theta, but most people fall asleep at the onset of it.  You’re probably familiar with the telltale sign of theta-vivid mental imagery even though you’re awake.  The float tank provides a reliable means to achieve and sustain this beneficial state without the years of practice that is normally required by advanced meditators to achieve theta at will.
 
Creativity (Book of Floating excerpt)

The Tank as a Tool for Aesthetic Awareness

Effects of Floatation REST on Creative Problem-solving and Originality

D.   PAIN RELIEF

All 27 respondents had received treatments other than those from this pain program: 81% had used pain medication; 56% had had some form of pain injections; 70% had received physical therapy; 59% had received chiropractic treatment; 22% had undergone surgery.  These patients reported more short-term and long-term pain relief from floatation than from the other therapeutic modalities. (Read more from the Testimonials)

 Excerpt from Floatation REST in Applied Psychophysiology

 What are the benefits?

·     Promotes total calm and peaceful relaxation, eliminates fatigue and jetlag, alleviates stress (mental and physical), improves sleep

·    Decreases the production of Cortisol, ACTH, Lactic Acid and Adrenaline; increases the production of endorphins; quickens rehabilitation and recovery; relieves chronic pain, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular ailments,  arthritis, migraine, tension headache, fibromyalgia

·    Improves circulation and distribution of oxygen nutrients, reduces blood pressure, pulse, heart rate and oxygen consumption.

·         Stress reduction, decrease anxiety

“One of my jobs is to take data and feed it into a computer to construct three-dimensional models of the earth’s surface.  In the blackness of tank, I utilize the computer-like qualities of the brain… the tank has amazing potential for use by artists, by designers, by people like myself who do technical work, by anyone really, who works with his brain.”

Houston City Magazine, Dec 1979

What are the benefits?

·         Stimulates left/right brain synchronization, shifts brain waves from Beta to lower frequency Alpha, Theta and even Delta.  Creates mental clarity and

Alertness

·         Increases problem solving ability, heightens visualization, deepens meditation, expands awareness

·         Intensifies acuteness of all the senses, accelerates learning

·        Increases motivation, diminishes depression, phobias and addiction

F.   PREGNANCY

“I was eight month pregnant when I floated for the first time.  Pregnancy takes a toll on every muscle in your body, especially your torso.  While floating, I expected the baby to be very active, but since there was no pressure from any side, the baby didn’t feel the need to kick or roll around.  It was the best rest I’ve ever had in several months.  I would recommend floating to anyone, pregnant or not, for a time of physical and mental renewal.”

-Heather Warren