I've been doing it and it is getting toasty in this thing folks. I'm just letting you know right now. I feel like my brow is starting to beads a sweat and feel my brow. Also I should say you're barely sweaty.
I am going to put this disclaimer out there. Nick is not a sweaty person. He can jump on a bike for a half an hour or do like an intense workout and the man is barely sweating. That's not going to work. That in probably years of working in Florida outdoors when you were back in the day. So he just doesn't sweat that much.
So this will actually be very entertaining for me because I have no problem sweating. I was like sweating for half an hour after my workout this morning, never mind during my workout. That may be TMI.
You're listening to the Addicted to Fitness podcast brought to you by Elemental Training Tampa. Now, here's your hosts, Nick and Shannon Birch. Thanks for stopping by and checking out this in prom too.
throwback episode of the addictive podcast. We had a audio issue with this week's recording, kind of those new microphones. I haven't quite lost the master of them yet, so the podcast we were supposed to do this week was, unfortunately, the audio was terrible.
I'm going to give you guys a throwback this week. We'll be back, bring new next week, so please stay tuned. If you haven't done so already, please like and review the podcast and you're a preferred podcast app. Get us following Instagram at the ATF podcast and please enjoy this old school episode of the Addicted Fitness Podcast.
Welcome back and thanks for checking out another edition of the Addicted to Fitness podcast. We are back the first episode of 2022. And we're going to dive right into the new year with a product review, a live review,
And pretty excited about this because I love when Nick is a guinea pig for things and I get to comment on it. Or when he's doing work and I just get to sit here and comment. So I'll probably be doing most of the talking today. Hopefully that doesn't scare listeners off. But for those of you who have been listening to our podcast for a while, you know that Nick and I co-host this
Sometimes he'll try something, sometimes I'll try something. We're a team. We work this out together. But we really do like to try new products and give you a very honest first look review. So a lot of them, we like to experience very soon around the podcast. Sometimes like today, we get to actually test it out on the podcast.
So, Nick is going to get very hot today. Not hot and bothered, but hot, as in temperature hot. Because he is going to be reviewing an infrared sauna blanket. That's right, a gift from you.
Yeah, so this was not a gifted item, like from the company. This was actually something that I know he has a love of saunas and I ended up gifting it to him for his birthday. Happy birthday, by the way. Thank you.
And yeah, he's like, all right, we've got our podcast topic. So it was kind of like a two hit, you know? So the specific blanket, we will give you all the details on that in this episode. But first, wanted to thank you for tuning in again. We always appreciate when people
give us feedback on the podcast. You can do that by leaving a rating or review on the podcast, which actually helps us become more discoverable. So the whole idea that takes just a couple minutes to leave a review, but give us a rating, give us a review, tell us what you like, tell us what you want to hear more of.
I know that we've talked about some things that we used to do lots of interviews. We don't do as many interviews anymore, but we do a lot more, I think, product reviews. We still try to bring a good variety to you guys, but let us know what you would like in 2022, and we will do our best to bring it to you. And then you can show your love by continuing to share the podcast. Sharing is caring, right?
So, since this is a little bit of a different format, we're going to jump into some of the basics of this so that Nick can get zipped up and zipped in here. Yep. I mean, you want to give them a verbal description? It looks like Nick is in a sleeping bag, a black thick plastic in fabric.
that he's now sealing himself into. Yep, just stealing all the juices. Anybody seen the movie? Is it Crazy Stupid Love? Is it that? Yes. Yeah, then you know where that comes from.
So it really does. Like there's no better description than it's a giant sleeping bag. But it's definitely heftier than a sleeping bag. And you zip yourself up and zip yourself in. Let me see if I can help you so you can get your other arm in there. Getting right up into the mic. Yep. Sorry for the sound.
And he's had this warming up. This baby's been warming up. So the specifics on the
the sauna blanket that we have, that Nick is now completely in, shoulders on down, he is in this blanket, it's covering his shoulders, his neck and his head are exposed, and that's it. And he's already looking like he might regret this. We have the hired dose sauna blanket.
We've talked about infrared therapy on here before. We'll go into a little bit more specifics on the benefits and what this does. It comes with a lot of literature. It also gives you a lot of warnings. So that was part of our setup today. It was just going through making sure he's not going to
Melt the sheets because he's we're sitting on a bed. He's got my yoga mat down He's got the infrared sauna blanket down. He's got a towel inside it and he's wearing like winter clothes He's wearing like long thick polar fleece pants and a long sleeve sweater shirt kind of thing
Yeah, they recommended cotton clothes a little bit more breathable, I guess. Yeah, yeah, I would hesitate to jump into this thing with a lot of synthetics on for sure. Yeah, I think that's what they definitely don't want this on top of either on top of synthetics or you wearing synthetics.
Yeah, so I have heard people who said, if you've ever sat in a tanning bed, you will know what I'm talking about. But they said to put a towel down, otherwise you end up just sitting or laying in a pool of sweat for a good chunk of the time. It's not comfortable. I can attest personally that that is a horrible feeling. So he also has that towel underneath him.
and he's got a nice little pillow. So, I mean, you can be comfortable while you're in there. How does it feel so far? It is warm. I will say, I got it on level six. I think there's eight levels. I think it's it on there. And I think it's that. Well, it says level nine should only be used if sweating cannot be achieved on lower levels. I feel like you're not sweating. There is definitely something wrong with you.
Oh, and it actually does say, when using higher levels, place a cotton towel between you and the blanket for protection and comfort, as higher levels are extremely hot. Yeah. I'm at a six right now, which is lower, I think, is like the top of the lower level. Yeah. Four, five, and six are kind of what they recommend starting off with, so I was like, oh, it's not too crazy tonight. So did you read the manual entirely? I did. Yeah, I think so.
Yeah. Any key points I missed? I'm not sure yet. But it does say, yeah, it should be placed on any heat resistant surface. It says, do not use this heated product on a water bed, bunk bed, latex or memory foam bed, mechanically adjusted bed or a child's crib bed. Why would you use it in a child's crib bed? That's what I want to know. And do not exceed 50 minutes. Gotcha.
So done and done. Done and done. You're aiming for about a half hour, right? Yeah. Maybe, maybe less. He's, he's already, he's looking a little, a little uncomfortable. Well, it does feel nice. Like I said, it's very warm. Well, and it's funny because we use heating pads, just regular old heating pads. Um, pretty much every day just to ease muscles and help kind of, you know, when you get in a bed and it's,
It's cool with the air conditioning and you just want to get all nice and warm and snugly and cozy. It's just, it helps, it helps a lot. So he's now, he's now like borrowing into it.
All right, so this blanket Yeah, you can go on higher dose and you can learn more about their particular brand They are probably one of the most well-known I would say Definitely not the only ones in town, but the reviews were really high so They give you a manual they give you some quick sheets and
and they give you a rundown on kind of what the benefits are. So just a real quick recap on why is Nick and Nate, like Papus of heat and sweat right now. Why would you want to do something like this? We have talked about it on a couple different
podcast before. There are all different kinds of saunas. I think probably when you say sauna, the first thing that pops into someone's mind is like the sauna at the gym or the one in the movie where you have to pour water over the the coals or something like that. Yeah, exactly. We were actually looking at getting a like standing
sauna, infrared sauna, in our house. Thus why we now have the blanket. They got this. But you've been going to a regular sauna for a while and
It's attached to a lot of different benefits. Essentially, its primary function is detox. So sweating is your body. You didn't know this. Someone hasn't taught you this already.
then definitely back on up and listen to other of our episodes. But sweating is a good thing because you're actually detoxing when you sweat. Cool in your body but also, like you said. Yes. It serves a really vital part. It's your body's natural way to get rid of all just the kind of toxic stuff.
The gunk inside is what one article we found said, which I think is a great description of the gunk inside. But yeah, I think it's also really commonly thought of like
It's like heavy metals, like it removes heavy metals. Well, yeah. It removes. I mean, sweating can you, like I said, removes impurities in your body. So it's one of its waste, your body's waste disposal systems is to basically rid your body of waste, kind of like urine or, you know, the number two. So it's another version of that on top of cooling the body. But as you said, it could definitely
Having a healthy, you know, a good sweat can benefit you by removes some of whatever the impurities that you can exude through your skin. I include.
Yeah, I've been listening to one person's health journey as she's been detoxing from exposure, like prolonged exposure to toxic mold. And she's been using an infrared sauna blanket for the last year. And she said it's been a crucial part of her journey. So it's taken like a year.
But yeah, so that is definitely detox is probably one of the most common weight loss. It's also used for weight loss. But I mean, it's, I can't say that it's going to be like prolonged.
Well I think there's a cute waste loss. Water loss. It gives you for water loss but also basically it helps you kind of probably stokes your metabolism. So it probably will help you burn calories with a little minimum effort. I mean I know when I go to the sun at the gym I'm in there for 20 minutes and towards the end if I'm doing just minimum stretching movements.
My heart rate's up in the 160s. So it's really can get your heart rate up with minimum effort. So 20 minutes getting your heart to 160 might take a spin session to do that.
that is actually what I'm usually at during high intensity in class. So it's like there, I'm just barely doing some stretchy mobility and I'm getting that same. Now, like I said, I can't stay there longer than 20 minutes, but still, it's a version of exercise, getting your heart rate up where you're kind of soaking your metabolism and burning calories. Yeah, so when paired with a healthy diet and really living a healthy lifestyle,
raising your heart rate, increasing that heat that does that can certainly speed up. I think this article references speeds up the circulatory system. Yeah, and I think that's kind of another one of those benefits because you talked about who we've mentioned on podcast several times about recent studies that come out.
Saying that the regular sauna use is associated with reductions in all all calls mortalities so across the board People have used it more and you know they didn't mostly the study was done in Finland where it's kind of like the national past time over there is sauna bathing They had a lot of reductions in people who used it regularly and
What are your heart disease, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, things like that. They have a reduction for the regular son users. And I think this Newsweek article talks something about immune system too.
So that could be associated with that. Yes. So I mean obviously if you're getting rid of toxins in your body, you're improving your circulatory system which is how your body gets a lot of those very important immune boosters.
then you're definitely helping yourself out, you're strengthening your immune system. But really they talk about it improves your immune system by recharging your body cells, speeding up the renewing process to really replace the old cells with new stronger ones. So doing the sonosessions regularly actually does
build that stronger body because your cells are replacing themselves to be stronger. It's that's one of the things they they reference in here why saunas are commonly used in colder places like Northern Europe. So like, you know, toughen people up. Probably lack of sunlight too. Yeah, that too. The same beneficial vitamin D that we get here in Florida.
Yeah, and going back to kind of the weight loss thing, they say to do your movement before you get in here. Interesting. So they said, if you want to kind of crank it up, they said, move your body for 20 minutes before you're saw in a blanket session.
Wow, so they have it as like at the end of your workout. It's almost, yeah, it's almost like a recovery. Interesting. So I've been doing it and it is getting toasty in this thing, folks. I'm just letting you know right now. I feel like my brow is starting to...
beads of sweat and fill my brow. Also, I should say, you're barely sweaty, which I am going to put this disclaimer out there. Nick is not a sweaty person. He can jump on a bike for a half an hour or do an intense workout and the man is barely sweating.
Tell us how to work. That in probably years of working in Florida outdoors when you were back in the day. So he just doesn't sweat that much.
So this will actually be very entertaining for me because I have no problem sweating. I was like sweating for half an hour after my workout this morning, never mind during my workout. That may be TMI, but hey, this is a sweaty episode guys.
They also say that pain relief is one of the benefits. It reduces pain and inflammation. So if people have chronic pain, especially muscle tension, this can actually help.
But with all of these, there is the disclaimer we have to throw out there. This is not a device I would recommend. If you have any kind of pre-existing known health conditions, bad heart, you know, where you should not be getting your heart rate up. Like if you've just come out of the hospital with a heart condition, don't do this. Just don't do that. You know, you're, you are purposefully elevating your heart rate. Yeah, it should have worn my,
my Apple watch to see if my heart rate goes up. Oh, I know. That would've been, I don't know if you can. I wouldn't wear an electronic in that thing. I usually wear it in the sauna. Do you? Yeah. So I track my heart rate in there. I'll have to look into that. But sorry. Yeah, I agree. It's just the same thing you see on the warning of before you go to the sauna at the gym or anything like that. Same warning to apply here. Yeah, if you're pregnant. Yeah, all these things. Under 18. Yeah. All those, all those rules. Yeah, for sure.
Hello will not be using this until she is of legal age. Right. And then, uh, so I think the, the, the pain relief thing, that was kind of what attracted me most to, you know, covering the regular sauna using it as, uh, my kind of my recovery. Yeah. Cause I knew it was, it was great for that. And, um, you know, I usually coupled it with sauna and then I jumped in the pool and stuff to get a little of cold therapy too. So that was my main, it, my main,
One of my main draws to it was to the reduction in inflammation for sure in my body. You know, to help me kind of just go about my day to day as a trainer, you know, demonstrating exercise, but also trying to exercise myself. You know, how I think it definitely helped me get over my shoulder injury. Yeah, I mean, I think, especially when you're in a physically demanding position, I'm just like going to start planning you here. I wonder. Don't ruin the experience.
Wonder if you do put a fan on yourself. You're just sabotaging yourself So one other thing that Pretty much everything we've read that song is our great for is a mood boost it actually does
give you a better mood, puts you in a better mood. So it's similar to sort of the effects of working out. You boost your circulatory system, you get that, your heart pumping more, you elevate your overall mood.
And that kind of happy sensation can lift you up for the better part of the day. So I mean, this is something that you could do in the morning. I would, I don't know if I would say to do this right before you go to bed. Like, which is what you're really testing.
I mean, it's essentially the equivalent of working out at a high intensity in terms of its impact on your heart. Oh, yeah. So it will be an interesting experiment, like we said. This is all just an experiment here, folks.
uh... but you enjoy it hopefully you'll be very you'll be very chipper until you passed out you know today well like i said i had the experience i've had so far doing uh... sauna is very i like you said the mood i definitely feel the mood the positive mood mood effect or the positive positive effect has my mood afterwards you know i think it's it's a little bit of not only do you have the same sensation getting your heart rate up and things like that but
When it is hot and you refuse to leave like a room, like you're kind of forcing yourself to stay in there, you know, your body is like kind of going through this, you know, fight or flight kind of thing. Yes. The action. The battle. Yeah, in your brain.
and the fact that you're staying in there it's you know it's continuing to fight and I think it's it's and then when you kind of go out and you get in the cold air you get in the cold pool it's just like so relieved that it's like oh you survived you weren't trapped in you know a volcano
I was going to say volcano cave. Or something hot. But yeah, so it's a, I think that's a part of it. I know they talk about heat shock proteins, which is very detailed, you know, a thing that I don't have a ton of understanding about, but they are definitely produced when you go into hot climates like Asana. So, and they're definitely beneficial to
I think kind of safeguard your body for a lot of things like you talk, you know, building your immune response, you know, preventing cardiovascular episodes. So I win, win right now. Yeah. I'm just going to see what the, it's going to be interesting what the cleanup of this thing is going to be.
I know they actually, the company, the higher dose company does sell like a, the spray. Yeah. And like, you know, disinfectant, everything. And I was like, ooh, should I get that? And I like thought about it, but I didn't. Yeah, they have some add-ons. Like they were talking about like some sort of bamboo like sleeve or something that goes in here that you get into if you want to go with no clothes on.
You know, which is interesting. I'm going to investigate that. So let's talk about price point for this. So this is not a low cost item. The higher dose one is 500 bucks.
You're looking at an investment. This I felt like because I feel like this year you've gotten so into saunas. You go to the gym pretty much for the sauna, even though you also used to pull. And we talked about getting one because I really would like to get back into using it.
But I felt like it was a solid investment. It was kind of like when we got the Peloton and I was like, that was back in the day when the freaking Peloton was like $2,500. Not that anymore. It was a very purposeful investment. You think of cost per use. So if you are getting this for someone who
you want to encourage them to try sauna? I'm not sure that this is something that I would get for them. This is a little bit pricier. There are different versions of the blanket as well and some of them get even more costly. Really? So the kind of for them, I think 500 is like the starting costs for their
their quality sauna blanket levels, um, wine rather. They also have a bunch of other products. Um, so yeah, this is, this is a solid investment item, but definitely do the math. Like we recommend on any sort of health or fitness item and think about cost per use. My palatin is essentially like,
percentage of a penny per use at this point. It's been that used and so worth the spend. This I kind of feel like is gonna be the same thing. And I know you were surprised because as you weren't expecting this higher ticket item, but that's really how I looked at it. I'm like, if I'm gonna look at something, I'm gonna buy him. I could buy him a nice watch.
Like a nice watch. And I'd be like, the value you get out of that would be a fraction. Yeah. The times I use it for sure. Yeah. So out of this. Yeah. And I mean, it's funny because you literally, I think we both list this on the fitness gifts. We did. Yeah. You knew what you were doing.
I did, I had a plan. What's in? What's our time right now? So you are at, you're probably like 25, 24 minutes. Maybe we go, you know, we're about 25 minutes in, like you said, and I'm really pumped about this thing. So maybe we should make this what's got us pumped.
Yeah, I would say it's safe bed. Yeah, what else is they they have the share on there? Do you want anything else on the higher dose? Man, you want to share? Yeah, I
They do have, there's some unique things about this particular infrared blanket and you might think like, oh, it's just a glorified heating, like a giant heating pad. It's really not. This is one of the things that I really liked about this was that they are higher dose in particular. They've pretty much been doing infrared since infrared was a product you could buy as a consumer. They're pretty well versed in that.
So that's one of the big parts, but they also have crystal therapy. They have amethyst intermaline in here, which helps promote an even and deeper penetration of therapeutic infrared, and it generates negative ions. I'm all about being penetrated.
Okay, I was hoping you were going to say I was all about crystals, but okay. Let's say. Let's get a heat. So amethyst is a natural tranquilizer known to balance mood swings and relieve stress and anxiety. So nice. And then term line increases mental alertness, improve circulation, and strengthens the immune system. Plus, if you're not a crystal believer,
There's a charcoal layer, which binds to pollutants, deepening your detox. There's also a clay layer, which emits negative ions, so kind of like the antioxidants in the air, and balances out the heat. And then there's a magnetic layer, a medical grade magnetic strip, which improves blood circulation and flow. My blood's definitely pumping right now. Yeah.
So there are also ways if you want to knock this up a notch. Maybe not right now. But in the future, they say dry brushing before you get in is a really good way because dry brushing activates your lymphatic system. It has a whole bunch of benefits. You could do that. I have a dry brush. You could also take a hot shot of lemon juice or ginger or cayenne water
That sounds spicy for you. Then there's also the working out beforehand.
Are you just trying to prolong this? Is that what you're doing right now? And then they also have a recommendation in addition to staying hydrated. Shock your system. After the heat, jump into an icy cold shower. That is exactly the plan. And I'll be doing that evidently. What else has got me pumped and you pumped is that we got our vaccine boosters this week. So we got the full defense against Aldecron. And hopefully I would definitely encourage others to do so also.
Yes, and we were lucky because our side effects from this one were the same if not less than what we had last time in the second dose. Nick now officially has the beads of sweat across his forehead and they're rolling into his eye. So I think we're going to call it. Thanks guys for tuning in. Hope you enjoyed this product review. It's this hot product.
It is so hot. So hot, guys. It's just going to be the title. Hot product review. Rating reviews. Much appreciated. Can't really think straight. Share the podcast with a friend. You have anything else for him tonight, please, I know. No. This has been another edition of the Dicks of the Fitness Podcast. We'll check it out. Bye.
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