Life Float Offers Seattle a Wellness Experience

After giving floating a try myself, I sat down with James Kilgallon, manager at Life Float, to get some information on the company and how floating can be beneficial for the members at Seattle Kettlebell Club.

“If you are sore from working out, shifting into a parasympathetic state will help your body regenerate faster, and it will boost your immune system,” Kilgallon. “It can help with relaxing your muscles and lowering your inflammation by absorbing magnesium sulfate.”

If you are scientifically challenged like me, let me define some of these terms. Magnesium sulfate is a fancy term for Epson salt, and the float pool contains 1600 pounds of it, which is what keeps your body from sinking. Now, when your body is in flight or fight mode, it is in a systematic state which is beneficial for working out or focusing on intense task, but you’re also producing stress hormones. Floating is shown to shift the body into a parasympathetic state. In that state, blood pressure, cortisol levels, and brain waves are lowered while also relaxing your muscles.

“Some people are starting to use it for post-traumatic stress disorder, and it’s good for anxiety,” Kilgallon said.

To fully educate myself on the practice of floating, I went to Life Float last Saturday to give it a try. Compared to floating pods, which many people may find claustrophobic, the floating pool is quite spacious. When I arrived, an employee led me into one of the five float rooms and gave me detailed instructions on what to do. Each room has a toilet, sink, and shower, which leads to the pool. They want you to wash off anything that could affect the water before you float, and you’re able to wash the salt off your skin after the float.

I was given ten minutes to prepare before the lights went out, and the music changed to something more ambient. For those afraid of the dark, you do have the option to keep some pool lights on, but I think floating in darkness gives you the best results.

I have a pretty fast paced mind, so it did take me a few minutes to slow my brain down, but once I did, I began to feel relaxed as my mind and body began to decompress, and I forgot my stresses and felt at peace. Even though the pool is not huge, I did feel like I was floating in endless circles.  I also did start to see shapes (nothing scary, I promise) on the ceiling. After an hour, the lights, which are not too bright and didn't startle me, came back on. I showered, changed, and left feeling recharged, stress free, and mellow.

Kilgallon agrees with me that the post-float feeling could feel similar to how one would feel after a massage, and he also compares the feeling to receiving acupuncture.  While most people use floating as a form of relaxation or pain management, Kilgallon uses it to help with creativity to expand his mind.

“It’s a great environment for me to just have 'ah ha' moments,” Kilgallon said. “When I get out of the pool, I write everything down on my phone. Some of it is like ‘what was I thinking?’ and seemed so much cooler while I was in there, but I get some good ideas.”

Kilgallon has been with Life Float since summer of 2016, and he knew the owners from his previous job, where he used to develop online coaching programs, and he was asked to join the Life Float team to help with marketing.

Before starting at Life Float, Kilgallon has briefly heard of floating from celebrity Joe Rogan. 

“It sounded like the craziest thing ever,” Kilgallon said. “I started to hear more and more about it and started to learn about the health aspects, and that got me really interested.”

Given his career background in fitness, Kilgallon enjoys working at Life Float because it is a business that helps people achieve better wellness. He also discusses the recent clinical studies that show the health benefits of floating.

“I like that it helps people; I believe in the product, and there’s actually proof out there that it works, Kilgallon said. “So, it’s not just hocus pocus stuff.”

As far as Life Float’s future goes, Kilgallon hopes to continue to grow and build more of a wellness community. Many of their employees are involved in other wellness practices, so he hopes to attract clients who are involved with fitness, massage therapy, and naturopathic and chiropractic treatments.  

“One of the reasons we make relationships with other businesses is because there are a lot of positive health benefits to floating,” Kilgallon said.  

Book your float today at lifefloat.com! Use the promo code "kettlebell" at checkout to get your first float for only $25 ($89 value).

-Camille Borodey