Behind the Bluff
Uncover best practices to participate in life on your terms. Every week, hosts Jeff Ford and Kendra Till guide listeners with short conversations on trending wellness topics and share interviews with passionate wellness professionals, our private club leaders, and additional subject matter experts offering valuable tips. Each episode conclusion includes Healthy Momentum, five minutes of inspiration to help you reflect and live differently. Subscribe now and discover the keys to living your greatest active lifestyle.
Behind the Bluff
Hot, Cold, Light: Recovery's Big Three | Josh Lieberman
Recovery and performance optimization doesn't require fancy equipment or complicated routines – sometimes it's as simple as strategically applying heat, cold, and light to your body. We explore the science behind three powerful recovery modalities offered at Restore Hyper Wellness with franchise owner Josh Lieberman.
• Infrared saunas heat from inside-out, penetrating deeper than traditional saunas for more efficient detoxification
• Regular sauna use (30-45 minutes, 2-3 times weekly) improves sleep quality, energy levels, and cardiovascular health
• Cryotherapy exposes the body to dry cold (-140°F to -220°F) for just 2-3 minutes, triggering a beneficial fight-or-flight response
• Wait several hours after exercise before using cryotherapy to optimize recovery benefits
• Red light therapy combines near-infrared light (for cellular energy) with red light (for skin health)
• Contrast therapy – alternating between hot and cold treatments – maximizes benefits by targeting multiple body systems
• Managing inflammation and promoting cellular health creates both immediate and long-term wellness benefits
Visit Restore Hyper Wellness locations in Bluffton or Hilton Head Island to learn more about these modalities and create a personalized recovery plan.
Are you ready to live an active lifestyle? Welcome to Behind the Bluff, where we believe every moment of your life is an opportunity to pursue wellness on your terms is an opportunity to pursue wellness on your terms. Today, we're diving into three powerful tools for recovery and performance that you've probably heard about, but maybe you don't fully understand Infrared sauna, cryotherapy and red light therapy. These services are at the heart of Restore Hyper Wellness, and they're designed to help you recover faster, feel better and, ultimately, do more of what you love in life. I'm joined today by local Restore franchise owner, josh Lieberman, and we're going to break down the science, the benefits and how you can use each modality in your own routine. Josh, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thanks, jeff, I appreciate it. Yeah, happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Glad we could bring this together. And before we get into the specific services, can you give us a little bit on the background of Restore?
Speaker 2:I can. So Restore was local to Austin, Texas, and it started in 2015 by two gentlemen, Steve Welch and Jim Donnelly. They were both triathletes and they were using their body and they wanted to find a way to make sure they could recover better, they could perform stronger, and they were getting older, and so they noticed that it was a little bit harder to get those things done, and so they were looking to you know what's the alternative way to make this happen, what's holistically done? And so they found crowd therapy and they found compression therapy, and they found some of these alternative wellness modalities that weren't necessarily mainstream yet, yeah, and this was 2015.
Speaker 1:Is that about the timeline that your founders started to?
Speaker 2:evolve or restore. So they actually opened their first location in 2015. And then that was local, just to Austin, and then in 2018, they started to franchise to different parts of the country.
Speaker 1:Very cool. Now what inspired you? To become a franchise?
Speaker 2:owner. So really it was my dad that got us involved, and so his name is Dan Lieberman and he, on a whim, tried cryotherapy, not necessarily at a place like Restore, just at a place that was down in Florida. He was at a tennis tournament and one of his buddies said let's go do cryotherapy, it's going to help us immensely. We got this big tournament over the weekend and he's like I'll try it. I've weekend. And he's like I'll try it. I've never done it but I'll try it. And he did it once.
Speaker 2:And then the gentleman that was um helping him out at the facility said you should do this each day that you're, each day that you're playing. And he was playing Friday, saturday, sunday. So he went back Friday, saturday and Sunday and he said he hadn't slept better. He played with huge energy and huge, huge, and he seemed to just be able to play better. And so he was like this is this, is it? I like this? And he had um, one of his buddies a different buddy had mentioned that he had been going to a place like Restore. Now, at the time it was um, it wasn't local to Hilton Head at the time or where he was in Florida, um, so his friend was traveling back and forth between Pennsylvania and um Hilton had at the time where he was in Florida. So his friend was traveling back and forth between Pennsylvania and Hilton Head and he lived in both places and so he said oh, I go to a place like Restore in Pennsylvania back where.
Speaker 2:I live and I do cryotherapy, which is why he had suggested, when he was at the tournament, let's go do cryotherapy because it makes him feel good. And so my dad said, sure, let's go try it, and then that's kind of where cryotherapy came into his life and then Restore. Ultimately he said, well, hilton Head Island is a place where a lot of active people live and people are pushing their bodies and they want to feel good for longer, and so he said maybe this is a good spot for a location like Restore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, makes complete sense, and it's great when founders have personal visceral experiences with different techniques in their own training and the ability to play tennis and wake up with energy and just feel better overall and then find the passion to share that with other people. Yeah, yeah, good stuff. Now, josh, tell us a little bit more about yourself. You're obviously very fit. You've been an athlete your entire life. Where does Restore fit into your practices?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. So I went to school for chemistry. I wanted to go be in pharmaceuticals because I wanted to. You know way back when I wanted to make something in a test tube that was going to help somebody long term, right, and I went to school, got a chemistry degree, went to a graduate program for organic chemistry and I loved the science. I loved how I could create something from something else. It was very fun to me.
Speaker 2:And then I graduated, got a degree, went to go work for a startup company for about six to eight months and I just didn't love exactly everything that I was doing in terms of the day-to-day, the repetitiveness of just the research behind it.
Speaker 2:But I was always into wellness, fitness, nutrition and trying to make sure my body was at its best, and so in parallel I would have strong fitness and I'd work out four or five times a week, very focused on my nutrition, and so that was just a passion of mine.
Speaker 2:And then the opportunity where I kind of mentioned prior, where my dad was involved with cryotherapy and it kind of just aligned, where he said you know, is this something that you would want to work with me on, this business venture? You know I'm going to open up one location here in Hilton Head, because that's just something I want to do. But if you want to come and be a part of this, you know I'd be willing to figure out how we can make this more of a business and figure out, you know, what we can open. Maybe there's locations in Chicago that we could open, maybe there's a territory down here that we could be a part of, and so that's kind of where it all really started. I would talk to him every once in a while and say, hey, you know the job that I have right now. It's only okay.
Speaker 2:And you know, I don't really know where it's going to go, but I'm going to stick with it because, you know, I just started and want to give it a chance. And then I gave it six to eight months and I was like yeah if I'm going to start something new and I was 22 at the time then was the time to do. I always switch gears and go back to what I was doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so much alignment with just your personal passion for fitness and nutrition.
Speaker 2:It seemed like that obvious next step for you if you weren't into your current role behind the scenes with the science coat on, absolutely, absolutely and I had never tried any of these things before, so I told him hey, in order for me to know if I wanna do this, I gotta go try it. All Nice. And so the nearest Restore location was Austin, texas, and I was in California. And so I said, well, can I go? Can I go try it? And so I went, I visited and I met the team. I met the two gentlemen that opened it, I met Steve, I met Jim, I met, you know, they're basically their first iteration of their team Wow, when their company was 20 people and now it's over hundreds of people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Restore. If I did my research correctly, it's like over 200 locations in the United States and continuing to grow, continuing to grow 220 strong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, very cool. Well, let's go ahead and switch gears into our main topic and start with heat. Infrared sauna uses gentle heat to raise your body temperature and create a different kind of sweat than traditional saunas. We have a traditional sauna here on Palmetto Bluff. That's the extent of saunas we have. We know that the community will evolve as we go, because this is where I see clubs. Clubs going Like. These types of therapies are starting to become a huge need and almost a must. So, josh, what makes an infrared sauna unique compared to a traditional sauna, so it's the.
Speaker 2:it's all about the technology, so it's the infrared light that makes it the most different. So traditional saunas, they use heat, steam, dry air. They somehow heat the air around you so that the body becomes hot and so the body can start to sweat. Right, the infrared light. It actually heats you up from the inside out, and so traditional saunas think about outside in and infrared saunas inside out.
Speaker 1:I like inside out, there you go Right.
Speaker 2:That almost I can almost feel it feeling better, right, and so the heat's able to penetrate in, and as it penetrates in through the skin, then the heat rises, and so it kind of it heats from the inner layer to the outer layer versus the outer layer to the inner layer. But if you think about it our skin and our body it's very good at keeping us at regulated temperatures, right, that's what it's supposed to do. And it does that because the skin is able to repel a lot of the heat out, but with the infrared technology it goes right through your skin, into your tissues, into your muscles, like right away, and then it heats you up from the inner, and then, as heat rises out, it helps to detox from those inner layers or those deeper layers as you start to sweat, kind of from the three inches deep layer, let's call it, versus just the surface level.
Speaker 1:Wow. So, if I'm understanding correctly, it's a more efficient approach. Yes, and you must get benefits a lot quicker inside out versus outside in Bingo.
Speaker 2:So you don't necessarily need to be in the sauna for as long, and so some people think that being in a sauna could be taxing. It's hard to breathe, sometimes the air is heavy, it could just be hot, and so it's just hard to stay in there for lengths of time. But because of the directed heat and the way the technology is able to work, people don't necessarily feel as stressed or as taxed coming out From the session, from the session, and so they feel more rejuvenated than they would let's call it more tired.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and infrared saunas the last decade have risen tremendously. It isn't what I would say that new of a technology now, and it's just a matter of mass-wide creating practices around heat therapy.
Speaker 2:Yes, so Restore has made it accessible to so many more people, and that's why there's just been more about it. It's because more people are using it.
Speaker 1:Now let's go through prescription here. How often do you recommend people use it and for how long?
Speaker 2:So typically an effective session you can do in 30 minutes. So typically when people do it for the first time, I always say let's try 30 minutes, let's make sure you can. It's tolerable. You like the feeling. You don't necessarily overdo it because again, it's new technology. You're going to sweat more in something like this sauna than you would a traditional sauna, just because of the way of the effectiveness and the efficiency of it. And so, in terms of length and time, at minimum 30 minutes you can be in there for as most as 30, sorry, 45. You don't necessarily need to, but at that point it's just preference, anywhere between 30 to 45. And then, in terms of how many times a week, it's pretty prescriptive in terms of like are you doing it for energy reasons? Are you doing it for weight loss reasons? Are you doing it Like what's the goal? What's the goal? Generally, two to three times a week is a very good general prescription. Now you can do it every single day. In terms of it's not health detriment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, every day, yeah, I almost look at sauna therapy like hot therapy as a way of training the body, and we don't always make that link with these types of new modalities that are out there. And we don't always make that link with these types of new modalities that are out there, Absolutely. Now, what's one change that clients usually notice first, the biggest thing people notice first is their sleep.
Speaker 2:They end up noticing that I sleep a lot better, I feel more recharged. After a few sessions they're going to notice their energy is different. Now you could argue well, I'm sleeping better, so I'm going to feel more energized throughout the day. But I might also throw in there that well, if the body's cleaner, it's going to run more efficiently. So if we're doing a strong detox with our sauna and we're getting out the heavy metals, any of the metabolic waste that we just produce naturally in our breakdown, the body's going to act and be more efficient, and so we'll feel stronger, We'll feel more cognitively focused, We'll feel just more rejuvenated.
Speaker 1:Very cool. Now, besides detox, getting rid of metabolic waste, improvements in sleep any other benefits that you could highlight for our listeners?
Speaker 2:Cardiovascular health immensely Also stress levels. It's going to regulate serotonin levels and it's going to regulate cortisol levels. So, if you want to help to manage your cortisol levels in terms of stress, in terms of we all love to manage stress.
Speaker 1:It definitely is a quoted. Hey, I want to do this so it can reduce my stress.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's also great for your skin. So if you're ever interested in just whether it's I want to focus directly on skin health or just it's, the added benefit of my skin is going to get nice and, um, just again I'm going to release a lot of that toxin from the skin or just I'm going to sweat from those pores. It's a good way to clean it, very cool.
Speaker 1:Now, cardiovascular benefits are probably the most evidence-based behind hot therapy, at least from my perspective of the little research I've done. That's pretty cool that you can get a boost there.
Speaker 2:So there's even studies done that'll say if you consistently use an infrared sauna four to seven times a week, you can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease by upwards of 50%.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's wild and enlightening because not a lot of people love cardio. So if there are other ways to improve our heart health and to not not even backdoor, that's not the right phrasing, but to help that on that prevention side, it's, it's a game changer. Now, may it a follow-up question to that? Four to seven times? Was it 20 minutes, 30 minutes?
Speaker 2:I'd have to look back at the study. Yeah, but it was really about the frequency, the consistency of it. It's about the consistency and the frequency. I also like to kind of go off your cardio workout comment. The infrared sauna can be considered an exercise, mimic Meaning. It's just going to mimic what the heart would end up doing in a zone. Two type of exercise.
Speaker 1:Awesome Now for our listeners. Describe zone two, so zone two is.
Speaker 2:it's getting your heart rate up a little bit. It's not going to be super taxing, but it's in that zone. Zone two is considered a high fat burning zone, where your body's in that of this it's kind of like a turnover point, or fat is your biggest substrate in zone two that your body is using for energy, absolutely, and so if we can get you in that for an extended period of time, whether that's 20, 30 minutes, you're just becoming a fat burning machine at that point.
Speaker 1:Josh, I'm so glad we stumbled onto zone two and the cardio kind of linkage here, because that is the number one form of aerobic activity that we wanna consistently be doing. So whether it is walking for 30 to 60 minutes five days a week, it's almost like sauna. Therapy here can go hand in hand and be another tool.
Speaker 2:So some people who are just getting into the idea of working out and I wanna lose some weight and I wanna be able to help myself with my heart health.
Speaker 2:It's hard to immediately go into four or five days a week of workout right, 100%, and so it's you know it's that, it's that transitionary period, and so I tell a lot of people hey, it's okay, start two or three days a week and on the days that you don't work out, use the sauna, because you're going to, in this exercise, mimimic. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to move as much, but it's getting your heart rate up and it's getting it in a zone where it's going to be super beneficial.
Speaker 1:That's such great advice and the phrasing you're using. I have not heard that before. Mimic, mimic, exercise, it's exercise, mimimic, exercise, mimimic. Yeah, nice, it's fun, yeah, let's flip to the other extreme cold Cryotherapy has become a go-to for recovery. In just a few short minutes. It's not a high duration of exposure and I think cryo is most well-known in athletes. Can you explain how it helps with recovery, inflammation and even stress?
Speaker 2:I can so Think about cryotherapy one. Cold therapy and cryotherapy are two different things, right? So cold therapy, let's call it it's like the umbrella term where it could include something like cryotherapy, and I'll get into the definition of that one.
Speaker 2:But then, underneath that umbrella could be your ice bath, it could be your cold plunge, it could be a cold shower. So think about just cold therapy as any iteration of getting the body to be cold in a let's call it an extreme way or not extreme way. Cryotherapy uses dry air right, so you're not getting wet, you're not submerging yourself and it's a lot faster of a treatment it's two and a half to three minutes.
Speaker 1:So short.
Speaker 2:Super quick. So the intensity of it has to be a little bit high in order for the benefit for it to come about in that two and a half to three minutes. But how it works, think about it as it's a trickery of the brain Meaning I'm going to expose the body to cold for two and a half to three minutes and the brain is going to undergo a little bit of a what's happening. I have to protect the body based on the temperature or the environment that it's in, and so you go into a little bit of a what's happening, right. I have to protect the body based on the temperature or the environment that it's in, and so you go into a little bit of a fight or flight reaction, right? So your heart rate increases a little bit, your blood flow changes a little bit. It constricts to the most important parts of the body, metabolic rate increase. So you're going to have a metabolic increase too, but not necessarily during the treatment. It is an after effect, meaning because the body has to figure out how to regulate its temperature and things like that, and so it has to increase its metabolism to help the body heat back up.
Speaker 2:But in terms of inflammation, so there are inflammatory markers in our body that we can take a blood test and measure those types of things right. There's certain proteins that we can measure that ultimately tell us if we have high, high inflammation or low inflammation, based on just the, the zones or the ranges, and cryotherapy has been shown in many studies to be able to reduce those markers. So it's not going to be in one session I'm going to have all my inflammation reduced, but it's an overtime type of thing where I'm gradually reducing the inflammation. So that's how it kind of affects inflammation. It's going to help to reduce any sort of irritation that's going on and that's through that neurological or kind of that nervous system reaction that happens Makes sense. Okay, in terms of what were the other two, again Sorry, we talked about inflammation.
Speaker 1:There you go, and then let's dig into stress a little bit more Stress.
Speaker 2:So stress is definitely affected. So during the treatment, right, there's a fight or flight reaction. You go into a little bit of that. But afterwards your body goes into this recovery mode, what's called your parasympathetic or your rest and digest. So if you come up you're going to come down and that interaction helps to regulate our endorphin levels. So you do get energized and you do feel nice and boosted right after a session because you went through a little bit of a fight or flight, your body had a little bit of an endorphin release. So you feel good, you feel energized, and then, as it kind of regulates back down, as you come down from that let's call it that high you come back down. That's where that recovery bit lasts anywhere between 24 to 48 hours, okay.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, it's essentially when we stress the body it's got to go back to baseline, rest and digest. And cold is another way to stress the body and in this case, a very short amount of time to get that type of change in or nervous system response right. Athletes have used cold type therapies like cryotherapy for recovery. Help us a bit more on the muscle side of this. Like will I, if I go into a cryotherapy session? I'm super sore. Am I going to be less sore the next day?
Speaker 2:so it's going to help to initiate the recovery process. Now, doing a strength training or doing a workout, you want that inflammation right after the workout because that's going to help to initiate the repair and the change right.
Speaker 2:And, ultimately, the building of tissue right, and so cryotherapy is best done. Let's call it a few hours after your workout, because you want there to still be that. Let's call it positive inflammatory reaction. From the working out that you do, you break down your tissues right. You want the body to be able to build back up naturally, or know that it needs to. If you do it too soon, you're going to reduce your inflammation and your body's going to be like well, I don't necessarily need to work, I don't need to build back up, because there was this intervention that made it so that this was no big deal. So you want to wait a little bit, but it's going to initiate the recovery process and so it's going to build those tissues a little bit faster. It's going to make sure. Did my workout? I hop immediately in the ice bath.
Speaker 1:You're recommending wait some time, it's it's not best to do it immediately after a hard session. Nope, yeah, yeah, let's get tactical on this. What's a first session? Look like so a first session it's pretty simple, right?
Speaker 2:It's two and a half minutes. And then there's different depending on the unit that you use. There's different technology when it comes to cryotherapy. So, in terms of temperature ranges let's talk about range, because every unit's a little bit different so you're going to be exposed to sub-zero temperatures, right, and let's call it, in Fahrenheit, it could be anywhere between minus 140 to minus 220. And you're thinking, wow, how can I even expose myself to that without having some sort of fear of danger or something like that? Because of the humidity control, there's very little moisture in the chamber, and so we feel the effect or the let's call it the level of cold is easier for our body to understand through moisture or liquid, right? So if you get into a cold shower, or you get into a cold let's call it bath, it might be 55 or 60 degrees or even 75 degrees, and you might think this is super cold, but you get into this cryo chamber at negative anywhere between those ranges there 140 to negative 220, it doesn't feel as cold.
Speaker 1:It's less of a neurological trigger of coldness.
Speaker 2:Right, and so your body can actually sustain and be within those temperatures very safely for that amount of time.
Speaker 1:That's encouraging for people who don't like cold Right.
Speaker 2:Everybody can do this. I've had so many people, from ages basically 13 to even. One of our clients locally is 83 years old and she'll go in and do this two or three times a week and she says that my inflammation is great, my energy is awesome, and she looks forward to her session every week, which I think is so fun. But we dress right, we dress. We have some slippers, some socks, some gloves, some hat.
Speaker 2:We want to keep your extremities warm because, as your body goes through this reaction, it says, okay, well, I have to go into a little bit of a survival mode. I have to keep my heart, my lungs, my liver all warm during the therapy. And so it vasoconstricts, so it keeps the blood flow close to the center, while it restricts blood flow to the outside, and so we're trying to make sure your hands are warm. So we got to make sure you wear some gloves, got to make sure you wear some slippers, some socks. We'll give you a hat. Ultimately, it's just to keep your outer extremities warm, because all the blood is going to focus towards the center. And so, for first time, like I said, it's two and a half minutes You're wearing your safety gear and you listen to your favorite song and you jam out to it on the inside of the unit and you just kind of have fun.
Speaker 1:I bet that first session is a pretty, pretty incredible. It's exhilarating yeah.
Speaker 2:A lot of people are it's. It's natural You're going to be nervous going for your first time, but it's very doable. Everyone walks out of there more than a lot more likely than not, with a smile on their face, saying like that was easier than I expected and I feel better. Nice.
Speaker 1:We've talked heat, we've talked cold. Now let's move to light, and I have a lot of members who are interested in red light therapy. It's something people have definitely heard about, but probably newer than the first two that we've spoken about cryo and sauna. Can you explain in simple terms how red light therapy works and why it matters for energy and health?
Speaker 2:I can, so the basics of how red light works. It's near infrared light and low levels of red light. Okay, so low levels of each, but you got near infrared light and you have red light. The infrared light in a um, in the red light, is a little bit different than the infrared light in the sauna. So in terms of the differentiating between the two, some people think they might be the same wavelength of light. They're a little bit different. This wavelength of light in the red light therapy is all about cellular energy. It stimulates those cells to produce a molecule, or let's call it this energy molecule called ATP. Okay, and we break down ATP ultimately to help us with our energy, and we do all of those things.
Speaker 1:We sprint because we have ATP. Correct Right.
Speaker 2:And so that's the near infrared light. Just like the infrared light in the sauna, it's able to penetrate through our skin and get to the tissues and the cells. So think about how it's like a recharge for your cell. It takes that light, it gets into the skin, gets into the cell, shakes up your cell a little bit and your cell's able to act more efficiently.
Speaker 1:Now, as you're explaining this, I'm very not knowledgeable. Even with that statement, the impact is on mitochondria.
Speaker 2:Yes, okay yes, so that's good. Um, so it interacts with your mitochondria and that's what ultimately is let's call it your, your battery to your cell. So if I can keep that guy charged and I can keep that guy active, I'll feel younger, I'll be able to output more, I'll be able to have the energy that I want or I did have when I was younger. Yeah, okay, the red light. This is almost like a two-part therapy. Your infrared light does all the cellular repair, that's the healing, that's the anti-inflammatory. Okay, the red light. It's topical, so that doesn't break through or doesn't get through the skin. The red light's all topical, so you get your skin health.
Speaker 1:You get your skin health through that. You get any sort of wound healing from that. Yep, wow. So if someone has a cut on their arm it'll heal faster. It's a red light therapy, absolutely. Yeah, it seems that most people turn to red light therapy for beauty reasons, skin health reasons. Can you elaborate on that, josh? So?
Speaker 2:that's the red light, so that's going to be. The red light interacts with the skin cells and it helps with the turnover rate. So as you age, all of our cells turn over slowly. The turnover rate, or like the rejuvenation rate, slows down, and so if we can stimulate those skin cells, similar to how I can stimulate all the other cells with the with the infrared light underneath, I can stimulate those skin cells with red light and they're able to turn over faster. And so I'll have if you think about it, I'll have younger cells towards the surface of my skin and so I'll appear younger or I'll look as though I have less wrinkles. I'll have brighter skin. I'll have, I'll be able to work on the pigmentation, things like that.
Speaker 1:The way you explain it, josh is super helpful. I'm very much connecting the dots the way you explain it, josh is super helpful. I'm very much connecting the dots Telomeres. The length of our DNA changes and shortens as we get older. Any linkage there?
Speaker 2:no-transcript it. It's an anti-aging therapy, for sure, but it's anti-aging more in the way of skin health than it is, let's call it like DNA longevity. There are other therapies that restore specifically um, some very potent kinds um that we can maybe get into. But red light therapy, specifically using um, it's really good for pain, it's great for inflammation, it's good for skin health, it could be great for sleep as well.
Speaker 2:So really those are your recovery modalities the cryo, the infrared sauna and the red light. Those are your core therapies for recovery energy and really sleep.
Speaker 1:What would be a therapy that your team offers that does get more into the DNA?
Speaker 2:So there are specific molecules that are naturally produced in our body. One of them is called NAD, or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. Now that therapy has been around for a long time, with a little bit of a different approach to what it was used for. Now, in the more recent years, it's really had a lot of light shined on it through the longevity lens, and so NAD, or something that's very new, is called Niagen or NR. It's more of let's call it a more potent form of NAD, and that's where it's going to affect the telomere length. It's going to help to lengthen those guys, and the more length you have, the more likely your DNA is going to be able to stay, stay healthy and not mutate, correct, it's able to keep its integrity and it's not going to break down as easy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Sounds good and today is is all about, like what I see, three main therapies that are going to be universal and already have evidence behind them and you're kind of that chemist right. You're at the cutting edge of what's next, and I think that's what I found so interesting about restores.
Speaker 1:You have a nurse practitioner on staff and this isn't just, you know, show up and take something. There's a lot behind the company trying to bring things mainstream to help people recover, which we don't do. Well, yeah, circling back to red light therapy, how often should someone use red light therapy, and can it be combined with other services at restore for even better results?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. So, in terms of how often do you use red light therapy? Use this as often as you can. This is one of those therapies that the more you use, the better it's going to get.
Speaker 1:It's not like strength training. No, I highly advise people to not strength train every day. That's just a free commercial.
Speaker 2:But red light it's within 10 to 15 minutes, which is a typical session for red light. You absorb almost the maximum amount of that light you can. So at some point your cells reach a little bit of a maximum absorption of the light and any time after the 15 minutes it feels warm, it feels nice. You're not really necessarily getting maximum absorption of the light and anytime after the 15 minutes it's just, it feels warm, it feels nice. You're not really necessarily getting a benefit after the fact. But short bursts of 10 minutes or 15 minutes a day is very beneficial short-term and long-term. But because this is a cellular health type of therapy, you might not notice some of these effects after one to two to three sessions.
Speaker 2:Because there's just so, there's so many cells that we have and they're so small right, it's going to take a little bit of time to build up to that, and so, um, it's a great lead-in to to your next point of what therapies do we combine with red light therapy? Well, I always want to be sure that when you come to a place like restore, we address your main concern, but I want you feeling better the moment you leave.
Speaker 1:You want to feel the impact right away. Right.
Speaker 2:And so red light therapy, although it has an impact right away, your cells don't feel, and so if I have cellular impact, you're not necessarily going to feel that today and right away.
Speaker 1:Like you would, cryotherapy and infrared sauna.
Speaker 2:Cryotherapy works on your metabolic system and your pulmonary system and your nervous system. Those are the systems that with change you feel that. And so when you have fight or flight or you're coming back down or we affect your metabolism, you feel the difference of those therapies. So a lot of the time I always suggest let's do a hot to cold right. So whether that's an infrared sauna session to a cryotherapy session or a red light therapy session to a cryotherapy session, you're gonna feel that difference in temperature, your body's gonna have a reaction to that and it's only going to benefit both therapies. So it's a little bit of an unlock.
Speaker 1:You're kind of attacking both systems. So if we think in layman's terms of cardio and strength, we can combine those two and get great effects. You may not do it like that all the time, but kind of a parallel between hot and cold contrast therapy Absolutely Nice. Well, josh, this has been a great overview of the core services at Restore sauna, cryo, red light therapy. Before we wrap up, I'm very interested and curious about how you see Restore and even these therapies fitting into the future of health and wellness.
Speaker 2:So I think that cellular health, if we can manage cellular health and we can manage inflammation. However, however that goes about being done, I think and I would have a huge advocacy for these therapies the cold, the heat and the light because they're non-invasive. They have so many auxiliary benefits other than just managing inflammation and cellular health, but I think that, in conjunction with modern medicine, these therapies should be used by anyone and everyone that can. Okay, and I've learned a lot since I've been a part of Restore, and I've been a part of Restore since 2018.
Speaker 2:And I knew nothing about these therapies coming in and I have passion for it and the rest, and so I learned all about them and I've been using them. I stay true to them and I feel great. I know I'm younger. However, I can only imagine what I'll feel like as I'm older, if I continue using these therapy. But at the kind of the base of what everyone should be thinking about is if I can manage inflammation and if I can promote good cellular health, whether that's through diet, exercise, sleep and some of these other therapies. You're going to see a monumental impact, not only today, but just how you feel moving forward in years to come.
Speaker 1:You feel moving forward in years to come. It takes your care and your personal fitness practices, health practices, to a different level. Yeah, yeah, where can people learn more about Restore and try their first session?
Speaker 2:So we have a few locations locally. So we have one here in Bluffton and we have one on the island in Hilton Head. But, like we said before, restore is national right and so it's got all locations around the country. Most major cities will have a Restore, if not two, and the best way to get started is just let them know. You want to learn more.
Speaker 2:I have a health concern, or maybe I don't. I want to just recover stronger. I'm an active person. I want to take care of myself, or, hey, I have an autoimmune disorder, or I have a weight loss journey that I want to go on, or I have a skin health journey that I want to go on. You have these therapies today are more accessible than probably they've ever been, and so I think what is most important is become educated. Look them up. Use our website, restorecom, or just look up cryotherapy right Now. Use our experts, use our nurse practitioners, use our studio teams. But, at the end of the day, we're here to help you, and so we would love to get to know you. We'd love to learn more about, kind of what your goals are, and then we'll put together a plan for you. We'll talk you through how often what types of therapies will understand your lifestyle and we'll put together, hopefully, a very easy to follow plan that fits right into your, your everyday life oh, what does wellness mean to you?
Speaker 2:wellness that's? That's a good question. I've been asked this before, so wellness to me means how can I best take care of?
Speaker 2:my body right, and that's going to be different for everyone, because I live a little bit of a different lifestyle than maybe you do, jeff, and maybe the client in front of me that walks into Restore right, or we're in different stages of that same journey. And so wellness is I want to be sure that I'm feeling my best, or I want to be sure that I can accomplish or working towards a goal that I have, and if I'm on that journey and I'm doing the right things, then I'm treating myself well, if that makes sense. But that's what wellness means to me. It's really just trying to focus on my goal, and if I'm focusing on things like nutrition and sleep and taking care of my body through the cells that I have, then I know that I'm treating myself well and that's kind of what wellness means to me. It's more of a lifestyle choice than it is, than it is like a tangible, a tangible thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks, josh. This was so much fun. I learned so many things about modalities that I was familiar with, and I am encouraged and know that our listeners will learn a lot from our time together today.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks so much, jeff. We're super happy to be here, love sharing the education, because that's really what I want to do is I want to make sure that everyone knows that these are available and how they can help people and how they can relate to almost any specific concern that people are dealing with.
Speaker 1:Well. I look forward to collaborating in the future. And listeners, remember that Restore, hilton Head and Bluffton are local and the Bluffton location is right off Buckwalter. Yes, it is Well. Thanks, josh, thanks Jeff. Listeners, feel free to hang out with me for a few more minutes and get some healthy momentum for the rest of your week, focusing on your goal feeling your best and treating yourself well.
Speaker 1:Josh really nailed the definition of wellness today, but let me turn the question to you has there ever been a season in your life when you didn't treat yourself well? If you're like me, maybe you sacrificed sleep to chase deadlines. Maybe you overindulged in food or drinks because it felt easier in the moment. We've all been there. Here's a reminder I took from today's conversation.
Speaker 1:The only way to feel at your best is to treat yourself well. It's that simple, but not always easy, and one of the most powerful ways to do that is to build habits that serve you. Now, what's the spark to those habits? A clear goal when you know what you're going after, you give your habits purpose, and when your habits serve you, you begin to feel your very best. So here's my challenge for you this week Take 10 minutes, grab a notebook and write down your answer to this question what goal am I pursuing right now that will help me treat myself well? Don't overthink it, just write. Clarity is what creates momentum, because when you put it all together, it looks like this Goal plus treat yourself well equals feeling your best. That's the formula, and you deserve nothing less than your best. That brings us to the end of this week's episode. I want to thank you for taking the time to join the conversation today and remember to actively participate in life on your terms.
