Watch the full interview below or listen to the full episode on your iPhone HERE.
Stu: This week, I’m excited to welcome Max Casa to the podcast. Max is the founder of Max Vitality, a company centered around the practice of sensory deprivation or float therapy. Floating is designed to optimize recovery after exercise and can be beneficial for anyone interested in bringing their physical, mental, and spiritual health to the next level. In this episode, we discussed the principles behind floating, what to expect from your first session, and also the importance of minerals.
Audio Version
Some questions asked during this episode:
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What is sensory deprivation and how can it be of benefit to our health?
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What should we expect from our first float session?
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How important is the solution (magnesium) when floating?
Get more of Max Casa:
https://www.instagram.com/maxxcasa/
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The views expressed on this podcast are the personal views of the host and guest speakers and not the views of Bega Cheese Limited or 180 Nutrition Pty Ltd. In addition, the views expressed should not be taken or relied upon as medical advice. Listeners should speak to their doctor to obtain medical advice.
Disclaimer: The transcript below has not been proofread and some words may be mis-transcribed.
Full Transcript
Stu
(00:03)
Hey, this is Stu from 180 Nutrition, and welcome to another episode of the Health Sessions. It’s here that we connect with the world’s best experts in health, wellness, and human performance in an attempt to cut through the confusion around what it actually takes to achieve a long-lasting health. Now I’m sure that’s something that we all strive to have, I certainly do. Before we get into the show today, you might not know that we make products too. That’s right. We are into whole food nutrition and have a range of super foods and natural supplements to help support your day. If you are curious, want find out more, just jump over to our website, that is, 180nutrition.com.au and take a look.
Stu
(00:41)
Okay, back to the show. This week I’m excited to welcome Maxto the podcast. Max is the founder of Max Vitality, a company centered around the practice of sensory deprivation or float therapy. Floating is designed to optimize recovery after exercise and can be beneficial for anyone interested in bringing their physical, mental, and spiritual health to the next level. In this episode, we discussed the principles behind floating, what to expect from your first session, and also the importance of minerals during the experience, over to Max. Hey guys, this is Stu from 180 Nutrition and I am delighted to welcome Max Casa, to the podcast. Max, how are you mate?
Max
(01:25)
Doing well, brother. Pleasure to be here.
Stu
(01:27)
Fantastic. No, look, thanks for your time. Much appreciate it, I know you’re probably, a busy guy. But first up, for all of our listeners that may not be familiar with you or your work, I’d love it if you could just tell us a little bit about yourself, please.
Max
(01:41)
Sure. Yeah. So I’m a lifelong martial artist. I guess, a good place to start. My parents actually got me involved in the martial arts when I was just four years old, which was the biggest blessing for me. They’re originally getting me involved in martial arts with the hope to help the neuromuscular disease, I was born with called Charcot-Marie-Tooth or CMT, for short. And they’re trying different therapies and stumbled upon the martial arts, pretty early on. And thankfully, it was the martial arts and thankfully I stuck with it because it’s become a huge part of my life, man, these past 20 plus years now. Yeah. And just as I got older and started teaching and competing in the martial arts more, I was just constantly looking for ways to optimize my mind and body. So try just about every therapy in the book from high quality western technology to South American bruise and eastern medicine and everything in between.
Max
(02:38)
But one day, about probably eight, nine years back now, I stumbled upon float therapy and my life totally changed, man. And I remember, so I went out… I was living in Massachusetts at the time and ended up going to a float center in Massachusetts, getting into tank and coming out of the tanks to… And I was literally, just buzzing with this sensation of relaxation and inner peace that I had never experienced before in my entire life. So ultimately, I ended up floating more the evidence into the research deeper and deeper and ultimately, became so inspired that I ended up starting my company Max Vitality, where we manufacture, customize, and install flow therapy chambers, all over the globe.
Stu
(03:21)
Fantastic. Fantastic. So I reckon there’ll be a whole heap of people out there that won’t have a clue what the float tank is. Why they would want to listen to the benefits of whatever the float tank generates and offers. So I wondered if you could just unpack that for our listeners. So just tell us a little bit about what is a float tank, what health benefits come from it? Why should we want to pursue this avenue?
Max
(03:53)
Totally. Yeah. It’s a fair question. So floating or sensory deprivation, some users may have heard it called, is a powerful healing tool that’s totally taken the West Coast and Europe by storm these past 10 to 20 years. And ultimately, floating involves getting in a big egg-shaped hot tub type tank with a lid over the top, both the size of a small car typically. And inside this chamber is the most unique healing environment on the face of planet earth that I’ve ever stumbled across. And inside this tank, you’ll notice there’s 10 inches of water, but those 10 inches of water are super saturated with over a thousand pounds of therapeutic great Epsom salt or magnesium salts. And the benefits of Epsom salt alone have been well known and well documented for hundreds even thousand of years. But ultimately, thousand pounds of salt in such little water creates an extremely buoyant saltwater solution, put it in the water and it would flip to the topic cork.
Max
(04:58)
So it enables effortless floating, but it’s not just a 1000 pounds of magnesium in the tank that makes it so unique. The whole chamber itself is actually totally void of all sensory inputs all together. And what that means is basically in a properly calibrated flotation environment, not even a single photon of light is entering the user’s experience at all. There’s no sound inside the chamber because not only is the tank itself sound resistant, but the users also wearing earplugs. There’s no smells, there’s no taste, movement, no… The sensation of touch, which the most difficult sense to null out oftentimes is totally void because of the saltwater solution in the chamber, and the air inside the chamber is precisely heated and kept at a constant 94.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
Max
(05:53)
What’s so magical about 94.5 is actually the exact same temperature as the external layer of your epidermis, your skin. So this results oftentimes within a few minutes mentoring the tank, the user’s brain loses sensation of where their body ends and where the water begins. And this can lead to profound spiritual experiences. But ultimately, floating is as easy as going up to a chamber, opening the lid, getting in, lying down, flicking off the light and floating.
Stu
(06:25)
So I’m just thinking about this personally. So do you need to strip down, do you wear your swimmers? Do you get in there naked? And if and when you do crawl in there and shut the lid, how long would you typically lay in there? How long does the session last?
Max
(06:42)
So typically, we go in birthday suit, usually. So usually, you go into this room if you’re at a float center or anything like that. I know there’s a bunch from in Australia too, if your listeners down there. But you go into this room and it’s usually, 12 by 12 room with the… There’s a vitality flow pod in there. It’s a big luxurious pod, spacious, and then usually, a shower in the room nearby. So just go rinse off, stripped down, b-day suit, rinse off in the shower, get all body oils and deodorants or fragrance is off you, and then pop in the tank and you’re ready to rock. Yeah. You can go in. We have some users, sometimes I go in with one of their children or a friend and sometimes they’ll go with their bathing suit, as well. So it’s totally cool. But ultimately, if we want to get the full experience, even just having a bathing suit or any clothing on you at all is still sensory input to the brain. So ideally, cut note as much of that as possible is the best call.
Stu
(07:42)
And so, what’s happening, you, talking about sensory deprivation. What happens when we take away all of that sensory input that we’re, we used to on a day-to-day basis?
Max
(07:57)
A lot of powerful healing is what happens. And I think a lot of people, it gets overlooked. I mean, both of us have been in this health world for many years. We hear so many people talk about all these stressors coming in, whether it’s from our diet or EMFs or pollutants of all kinds. But so rarely, do I hear anyone talk about what are the largest stressors to our nervous system, just the fact… There’s two of the largest ones to our nervous system. But the fact that our nervous system is constantly having to battle the forces of gravity, which is a large one.
Max
(08:34)
And on top of that, it’s constantly having to process over 10 million bits of sensory over stimulation that we’re constantly being bombarded with from all of our senses every single second of the day. And when we give our bodies, our brain, and minds the opportunities to disconnect from all the external sensory over stimulation and the force of gravity, what we see is that our bodies have a natural and innate ability to heal themself. And that’s a really powerful aspect of floating. I’m sure, we’ll get into some of the other benefits, but definitely just profound systemic healing.
Stu
(09:13)
And how long would a session last?
Max
(09:18)
Typically, a session last anywhere… Again, there’s no set number. Honestly, if you go into most commercial centers, it’s typically, anywhere from 45 minutes to 90 minutes. But there’s no padlock on the outside of the tank or anything like that where you’re locked in there. So if someone’s new to floating and looking to get in on it and they can only manage five minutes in the tank and they want to pop out, they want to flip the light on or pop the lid open, that’s cool. But ultimately, a standard session, we start seeing the benefits really kick in all of them, including the transdermal magnesium start kicking in around the 45-minute mark. So usually, anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes, typically, averaging around an hour is ideal.
Stu
(10:00)
Okay. So you mentioned transdermal magnesium, and I know that magnesium is a mineral that we all know that super, super important and has so many different benefits, whether it be muscle relaxant to whatever they may be. Transdermally, obviously, a little bit different because you’re rubbing it on your skin, or you’re exposed to it on your skin rather than taking it orally. How important is that solution when floating?
Max
(10:29)
Yeah. It’s incredibly important. And it’s something that I think super overlooked in the float industry alone, because naturally two of those powerful medicines on earth are the silence and the darkness, right? So these are incredibly powerful medicines. So when you enter a chamber or an environment like this and you enter the silent darkness, it’s a very, very powerful medicine. But when you combine that with the zero-gravity aspect and the fact that you’re soaking up magnesium transdermally through your skin during the entirety of a float session, that’s an absolute game changer. And in particular, let’s take a one layer deeper soaking up magnesium transdermally through the hair follicles of your skin. So we’ve actually captured this in a laboratory now, magnesium islands passing through the hair follicles of the skin during a float session directly into the bloodstream where it could be utilized, absorbed by the body right away, which is far different than oral supplementation.
Max
(11:32)
And just given the fact that over 95% of people on planet earth are extremely magnesium deficient. And the fact that magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the human body, and also mix that with the fact that we’re not getting nearly enough from our food, even if we’re eating soup called magnesium rich foods for many reasons. But due to factory farming, through the soil being depleted, the acid rain. But even the foods that tested so high via chromometer when they were tested 50 years ago, have a fraction of a percent of what they had in the 1950s. So it’s profound. So people, for not getting it from our food and the study is done in oral supplementing, they’re showing increases in our urinary levels of magnesium. And they’re even showing increases in our serum levels of magnesium. But the marker that we’ve really care about in the magnesium world is the red blood cell magnesium.
Max
(12:31)
So RBC mag, which I’m sure you’re familiar with. But many of the studies done in oral supplementation don’t show any increase on our red blood cell magnesium markers, until we start getting to the nine to 12 plus month mark of consistent constant oral supplementation. And that’s profound. So it’s a great tool. I recommend that we introduce a high-quality mag supplement. But when I talked to Dr. Macola, he’s crystal clear that he wasn’t able to really move the dial on his red blood cell magnesium levels until he started introducing regular floating, regular transdural magnesium. For him, it was via the float tank at his house. So…
Stu
(13:15)
So then from a perspective of frequency, how many floats would you personally do a week?
Max
(13:23)
Yeah. So really just depends on what me or the client is looking to get out of it. Me, personally, I float on a daily basis for the beginning of the day, and we can get into different times of days and things like that. But for me, it’s really important, and honestly, I feel when I’m working with male clients versus female clients, there’s a little differentiation there. Is female hormones are running off of the 28 day lunar cycle and the male hormones are running off a 24 hour cycle. So I feel it’s really important, especially, for me and my routine to float on a daily basis at the beginning of the day, and connect and establish with that internal baseline at the beginning of the day of peace and stillness. And then as I go throughout the day, I’m much more acutely aware of any fluctuations away from that baseline that may pop up, whether I get cut off in traffic or whatever it is. Just really keeping my awareness on that baseline of peace, stillness, and love and keeping my awareness there throughout the day.
Stu
(14:28)
Okay. So from a female perspective then, so you’ve got average female, say 25 to 45 years old, wanting to optimize their health, never floated before, perhaps, can squeeze in one session a week. Recommendations for that strategy?
Max
(14:51)
Totally. Yeah. I think one a week’s a great place to start. The real trick is just getting those first three sessions within a two-week span, if possible. So getting those first three sessions in, so you can get any discomfort or you just get more comfortable in the float environment as a whole. But ultimately, Stu, really just depends on what their goals are. So if I’m working with clients and maybe they’re suffering from a chronic injury, maybe it’s back pain, a concussion or a broken ankle, floating as many days they can in the first week or two to really just accelerate that healing and decrease inflammation’s a good place to start. And then, if someone’s goal is more related to stress reduction, producing cramps, sleeping better at the end of at night, things like that, lowering levels of steady anxiety. We know that the short-term anti-anxiety effects of floating are lasting anywhere from 24 to 36 hours after a single one-hour float session. So using that data anywhere from couple times a week to a couple times a month can be extremely effective with that.
Stu
(15:54)
Okay. And in order to… This is going to be very new to a lot of people. And I’ve had one float before previously, and it’s something that I want to do more of because I understand that with all of the century inputs that we’ve got in our day to day lives, whether it be mobile phones, and everything that comes with that, environmental toxins, EMF, CMRs, all that kind of stuff, being able to shut down and escape that for a set period of time was going to be a good thing. The first time I floated was interesting. I was completely new to it and it was about two years ago. And I wanted it to be fantastic and part of it was, but part of it wasn’t, and I think it was purely because of the setup.
Stu
(16:42)
So I went into town where I live and I was nervous, didn’t really know, look, do I take my clothes off? If I take my clothes off and is the door locked? Am I going to be getting into this thing and you’re going to come in the door. And there’s all that kind of craziness going through my mind. Then when I went in, the lady said, “Oh look, we have a neck brace that you can wear. Do you want to wear that?” And I said, “No. No. I want to get in there and just have virgin experience.” But when I was in there, I probably, wish I’d had the pillow because my head went so far back and it felt really unnatural because of course, we’re used to staring at our mobile phones and we get this technique where we are looking down. And then when the neck goes all the way back felt a little uncomfortable.
Stu
(17:31)
And then to compound that, I had a little coral cut on my knee from surfing and it was itchy. It was itchy in there because I guess, because of the salt. So how can we optimize our first experience? Because I’m going to go back because I know that they’re super beneficial. And I know that that magnesium bath is ridiculously or can be ridiculously beneficial from health perspective. What can we do to make sure our first float experience, because they’re not going to be predominantly at Max Vitality establishment, they might be in Sydney or Brisbane or UK, wherever they are. How can we mitigate any roadblocks that might stop us from having anything but the best first experience to floating?
Max
(18:23)
Yeah. I got a few tips I can throw you. One is stay away from any coral reef the day before.
Stu
(18:35)
Yeah. I should do that.
Max
(18:35)
But yeah, so usually, we recommend that- the day before just because again any cuts is- fresh alien solution. So any cuts or anything like that, if you get any of the solution on it can be quite itchy or even might be painful. So usually, at most float centers they usually offer in the room, they offer a little bit of Vaseline or a little pack of petroleum jelly often times. So if you have any cuts or anything, it could potentially be problematic, just rub that on ahead of time. Top of that we usually recommend that no coffee or caffeine a few hours before if possible.
Max
(19:19)
And then just recognizing that the door does lock behind you typically. So you can lock that door and know that you’re in your own private safe sanctuary. That whole room is yours to do whatever you want. You can get in the tank, get out of the tank, flick the light on, have the lid open if you want. I think some people may be resistant to the idea of getting into the silent darkness sometimes, maybe they’re anxious, maybe they’re claustrophobic. And I feel it just helps to educate them on the fact that most of the tanks have a light on the inside. That’s why our chambers have a multicolor LED chromotherapy light on the inside, they can flick on or off during their session. So maybe for first 15 minutes, if they don’t want to drop right into the silent darkness, they can flick that light on, and soak up the benefits of red light therapy during their session.
Max
(20:09)
There’s also powerful underwater sound transducers, they could find on the back of a yacht on the side of our tanks as well, underneath the water line. So there’s an aux cord on the back of the tank, you can plug your phone in. And there’s this whole realm of active floats that’s emerging in the float industry as well, where people are now plugging their phone into the aux cord on the back of the tank and maybe blasting powerful solfeggio frequencies. Maybe, they’re playing breath work tracks, guided meditations, an interesting one to me because my fiance is a high-level hypnotist, is the efficacy of hypnosis inside sensory deprivation as somewhere five times more effective when done in sensory deprivation.
Max
(20:54)
But one deeper, even the navy SEALs, I mean many government agencies of the United States and many governments, military groups, but the Navy SEALs, for example, have been leveraging floating and sensory deprivation. Actually, is an accelerated learning environment where they’ve been using it to speed learn languages, for example. And they’ve told us that it’s cut down their learning time from six months down to just six weeks, which is over 78% more rapidly when done sensory deprivation. So this whole realm of active floats coming in, but ultimately, going in with no expectations, pop in the lid, close the lid, lie down and float.
Max
(21:37)
And really, the one thing that we can expect is not any crazy psychoactive visions or anything like that right off the bat. Not to say it won’t happen because there is a steady state release of DMT in the silent darkness. But on top of this, one thing we can, for sure, anticipate is an increased interceptive awareness. And oftentimes that means we can become more intimately connected with our heart, our heartbeat, with our breathing and the inner workings of our lungs, of our digestion. So as we can bring our awareness to these aspects and build that relationship and the connection with our inner being and our inner body, there’s a lot of healing that could be done there as well.
Stu
(22:25)
It’s fascinating. I remember that I felt like I was in a river. I felt like I was moving. And I felt like I was moving quite quickly. It was strange, really strange feeling. But I felt like I was traveling down a river. But of course, I wasn’t. And yeah, it just felt very, very bizarre. Talking to you definitely makes me want book another session in town. Now, that I have all of my original fears or concerns addressed, knowing that it’s super easy. One question just sprung into my mind and maybe I’m on other people’s minds as well, that listening to this, will I drown if I fall asleep in there?
Max
(23:13)
That’s a common one. Yeah. Dude, if you were there, I think it would ease a lot of their minds. If you saw… Maybe, I’ll post an experiment after this, me going to the float tank out back. But if I grab a bowling ball, like a heavy bowling ball and put it in the float tank, dude, it just floats to the top like a cork, literally. So a human, they lay in there and float, you just effortlessly float on the top of this solution. So it’s not like you can roll over on your belly or anything like that because that would take copious amounts of energy to do so. There’s no rolling on your belly or anything like that. You’re just laying there on your back, and it’s impossible for the water just to even go above your ears. Never mind.
Stu
(24:10)
Okay. Okay.
Max
(24:10)
Engulf you, totally. So there’s never been any death inside a float tank of drowning unless it was drug-induced.
Stu
(24:18)
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And in terms of, we mentioned, it touched a little bit on timing previously, as well. And I’m keen to understand, let’s just say, I wanted to work on my sleep for instance. So I’ve got monkey mind and I have trouble calming down, I’m plugged into social 24/7, all of the above, a lot of people are. Would it be… What timing, later on in the day or early evening be beneficial for sleep, for instance?
Max
(24:54)
Totally. Yeah. So again, totally just depending on what our intention is. If it’s to, maybe, sleep beautifully that night, in the next few nights. What we see is we get a huge hit of magnesium, which is an incredible muscle relaxant, mental relaxant as well. So if I was going anytime in the late afternoon, early evening, you’ll be in this state just zen and peace, that when your head hits the pillow at the end of the night, that narrator in the back of your head dims out.
Stu
(25:25)
Nice.
Max
(25:26)
Because you’ve been able to effectively transition from beta brainwaves or everyday waking state brainwaves to alpha to theta and deep to delta inside that chamber. And oftentimes, when you come out you can milk that theta and alpha as well, anywhere from 24 to 36 hours post-float. But we’ve had people that have been able to do it a lot longer. So my experience and many people’s experience, if you float the early afternoon, early evening, you sleep that night and the next few nights will be rock solid.
Stu
(25:56)
Excellent. Excellent. So let’s talk about some other tools and strategies then that you might use to optimize your health. Because obviously, you have a journey where you had an issue that you wanted to try and resolve or overcome in some way. And sensory deprivation is one very powerful tool that you’ve used to address that. What else have you built into your health toolkit that perhaps people may not be that familiar with utilizing every day but has been particularly beneficial for you?
Max
(26:30)
Yeah, man. There is so many as a human optimizer at heart, much like yourself. But one that we had touched on naturally, the floating, where at the beginning of my day, within the first couple hours of waking, getting into the float tank. And again, my main intention oftentimes, and it will change, but always going into that float session with an intention and naturally everything we do. But when I go into that float tank, it could be to drop into that baseline and establish that baseline of peace at the beginning of the day. It could be to open up my heart more fully during that session. It could be to just asking my inner being or high self, “What is one thing I can let go of,” whatever that is and just see what comes up. But ultimately, asking any question is another fun thing to do in there. And see what comes through to you and you will get an answer. It might not be one you’re expecting or one you want to hear, but your inner being will give you an answer and then we can work with that. And-
Stu
(27:37)
That’s interesting. So do you think then that it could very much be a tool to use for creative stimulus?
Max
(27:46)
Totally. And that’s what we see because in… What we see in the studies is because we have left brain logic and right brain more creativity, right? And typically, these lobes are hemispheres of the brain are working more interdependently. But when we enter the sensory deprivation within just 15 minutes spent during this tank to… We see both of those hemispheres in the brain, the right and left, enter this unique state of hyper synchrony, where they begin harmonizing and synergizing together. And this leads to the profound altered or heightened states of consciousness that we see inside the chamber. But above all, with both lobes of our brain are in the state of hyper synchrony, our creative abilities are absolutely skyrocketed.
And our abilities to connect with something higher can come through with a lot less resistance. So when we ask those questions, our brain or inner being will catch on to different vibrations that it may not have before and bring those through. But on top of the floating, big on, I’m a conscious creator, so throughout the day, constantly working on that, something I’ve been working on lately, a power tool for success, I feel is a mantra I’ve been working with.
Stu
(29:11)
So tell me about that. So explain conscious creator.
Max
(29:17)
Totally. So ultimately, we have… We’re all human beings here. And as we go throughout life, we can either be… So I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the work of Dr. David Hawkins, that could be-
Stu
(29:33)
Yes.
Max
(29:33)
… a good place to start.
Stu
(29:34)
Yeah.
Max
(29:35)
Love it. So he was able to prove many things. But one of the things that everything’s vibrating at a frequency, and two, is that our thoughts are literally creating our reality. So we have human beings over seven billion of them walking across this planet and they’re all creating their realities, right? But what percentage of them are creating the realities actively, consciously, every single thing that is popping up into the reality, what percentage of that have they actually creating, because many of the people on this planet are creating the realities by default. And what we see when I’m working with clients is… So my philosophy, I can break it down in a nutshell, is we have this feedback through this cycle and as we work with clients, 99% of people on planet earth are stuck in this cycle. And what we see is balancing our mineral levels is at the root of much disease.
Max
(30:39)
So let’s see, so what we see is when we’re working with clients where their minerals are dysregulated, the minerals are the backbone of our hormonal health. It’s the backbone of our mental, emotional health, right? So we’re working with clients and their minerals are dysregulated, and they’re magnesium deficient and we look at their thought patterns, what we find oftentimes they’re having stressed out, anxious and fearful thoughts, much of the time. And since we live in a universe where lake attracts lake, and from what we know from the law of attraction, these people that are having stressed out, anxious and fearful thoughts are attracting people, circumstances, and events of that same stressed out and fearful frequency back into their life. And when they attract these fearful things back into their life, these situations, these people, these events, it’s further depleting their mineral levels and they get stuck in this cyclical cycle, which is no fun for anyone. So then putting a lot of energy on helping people get out of this cycle through balancing their mineral levels and helping with their mental, emotional health.
Stu
(31:46)
What would you do to test the mineral levels to determine where they are and where you need to start?
Max
(31:52)
Yeah. So I know one test we had talked about was the red blood cell magnesium test.
Stu
(31:57)
Yes.
Max
(31:57)
That’s a great one.
Stu
(31:58)
Okay.
Max
(31:58)
Anyone listening at home, I’ll send you a link to it. But they can look on requestedtest.com and then get it like 40 bucks, which is super helpful. So I guess, order that at home, it’ll be delivered to the doorstep.
Stu
(32:08)
Okay.
Max
(32:09)
But on top of that we can get a more full panel look. And I can send you the link of this panel as well. But it’s a full moody iron panel, is one of the best tests that I’ve found to date to get a look at all the macro minerals in the body and their ratios with each other, which is incredibly important.
Stu
(32:30)
Okay. And-
Max
(32:31)
So you-
Stu
(32:32)
… And in order to… Would you supplement with minerals maybe full vit mineral supplement or would you look at using whole foods instead?
Max
(32:42)
I’m always a fan of the whole foods where we can get them, but at the same time… So for example, so if people listen to this and maybe they’re inspired to go and put some more awareness on upping their magnesium levels in the body. Maybe they’re taking magnesium at home, but a little trick we can take at home is, as I started going down the rabbit hole of magnesium alone, I learned that magnesium actually has three powerful cofactors. Okay. So magnesium has three powerful cofactors. One of them can be taken orally through its whole food form, which is B6, vitamin B6. So the best whole food form of vitamin B6 that I’ve found is organic bee pollen. So if anyone here takes magnesiums or looking up their levels, first thing every day, one of the first things I put in my body is the organic bee pollen. Just take a teaspoon of that beginning of the day and that’ll help your body actually be able to absorb more of the magnesium.
Stu
(33:42)
Right.
Max
(33:43)
And there’s two cofactors that can actually be absorbed transdermally. And we ended up exploring putting these into the float tank as well, to maximize that mag absorption. And they are potassium bicarbonate.
Stu
(33:53)
Okay.
Max
(33:55)
So potassium bicarbonate, it helps get more magnesium into the cells and into the mitochondria, which is super important, right? Because when people ask me what is the root cause of disease X, Y, and Z condition, I’m sure people ask you all the time as well. But it’s important to recognize whatever condition they’re talking about at the root of that disease, and disharmony in the body is an energetic deficiency.
Stu
(34:19)
Right. Yeah.
Max
(34:21)
Okay. So an energetic deficiency in that tissue, and our body’s primary way of creating energy in the body is ATP, which is a magnesium dependent process. So we can get more magnesium into the mitochondria, it can create more ATP because six of the eight steps of the Krebs cycle require ATP. And then we have more energy to heal these different conditions. But yeah, so the potassium bicarbonate, it helps get more magnesium into the mitochondrial. And then boron, it can also be absorbed transdermally as well, a very powerful micro mineral. But boron helps keep the magnesium in the cells longer. Does this by slowing calcium, the calcium burn rate, by shuffling more magnesium deeper into the bone, into the cells. So what we ended up doing is actually exploring with optimizing the float tank solution itself, right?
Stu
(35:13)
Right.
Max
(35:13)
Because my mind much self constantly goes to optimization, and what one other trick is, if anyone at home uses Epsom salts or anything like that, likely the float tank that you went in, they used probably a thousand pounds of Epsom salt, which is great. But the main aspect of that Epsom salt, this is sulfates in there, which can be beneficial, but it’s a magnesium-
Stu
(35:37)
Okay.
Max
(35:37)
… magnesium sulfate, right? So the Epsom salts, magnesium sulfate, all the float tanks on earth are filling their float tanks with Epsom salt. But as I went down the rabbit hole magnesium, I learned that Epsom salt is inferior to its cousin, severely inferior to its cousin, magnesium chloride, right? So that magnesium chloride bath flakes actually have 230% more magnesium by volume than Epsom salt. So we’ve been on this tear of trash in the Epsom salts and really just making the swap. So if anyone at home, maybe they already do bath at home, maybe they already do foot soaks at home with Epsom salts making the swap for magnesium chloride.
Max
(36:22)
And ideally, the highest quality because much magnesium chloride and Epsom salt is heavily contaminated with mercury and other pollutants because they’re in sources on earth’s surface. So we ended up sourcing this, the purest magnesium chloride on earth, source from this mine over a mile beneath earth surface. And we took the pure magnesium chloride and ended up exploring and experimenting, filling our float tanks with the magnesium chloride instead. And then, we ended up taking a couple steps deeper, mixing into potassium bicarbonate, mixing in the boron to really optimize that float tank solution itself. And then, we would even infoceuticalize, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with in infoceutical technology.
Stu
(37:05)
No. No. What does that mean?
Max
(37:07)
There’s a little infoceutical device around here somewhere. But this really cool, and I know we want to discuss other gadgets and things that we can use at home. But every day when I have my water, so previously, proud of having this glass of water. I put it on my infoceutical device. And it’s basically, a little device looks like a coaster. And I select a certain frequency of something I want to infuse into the water, whether it’s a certain amino acid, a certain mineral I’m working with. I do all my supplements nowadays, strictly energetic, infusing it into this water. And it saves me a lot of money every month on supplements, which is interesting. But the device uses different means to transmit information into the water itself or into the salt in our case. So what it does is it uses lasers to transmit the frequencies, the information, it uses sound waves. And it uses an electromagnetic field to transmit whatever frequency you want into the water or into the salt itself, so effectively do that. I didn’t tell you before this, I selected the wine frequency and it buzz [inaudible 00:38:15].
Stu
(38:15)
Yeah. I was going to say. So we can make whiskey, can we? I’m going to try that out myself.
Max
(38:24)
Yeah, dude. Yeah, I’ll send you the link. The link, you can check that out too. It’s interesting. But we took our salt, that salt blend and then we infused to a different grounding frequencies, heart opening frequencies and even magnesium frequencies. And we would have even seasoned floaters bro, come into the float tank with that souped up float solution. They were just raving about it. They’re saying they were sleeping better at night, their levels of state stress, state anxiety were plummeting. And anecdotally the red blood cell magnesium markers were shooting through the roof next to all the cofactors and the mag chloride.
Max
(38:58)
So yeah, man, we’ve went to optimize the float solution and then we ended up ultimately taking that, the exact ratio of all the magnesium chloride with the cofactors. The infoceutical, and the salt itself actually been brought through a ceremonial, a chemical process to raise the life force energy and therefore, healing potential of the salt itself. And now, we realize not everyone’s in a position to bring a float tank into the apartment living room or anything like that. But we ended up bagging up that bath blend, that magnesium chloride bath blend and now we offer that out because we want people to build that-
Stu
(39:39)
So-
Max
(39:40)
… that balance their minerals and build their energy.
Stu
(39:42)
That’s good to know, because my next question was exactly that. So if we’re in a situation where we can’t get to a float tank, it’s just not going to happen. Whether it be we live remotely or we don’t have the financial means to be able to do that, as well. Can I get the same benefits with a bathtub and a magnesium solution of sorts?
Max
(40:05)
Totally. So we can definitely get many tremendous benefits from home.
Stu
(40:11)
Right.
Max
(40:12)
Can we reap the benefits of a true sensory deprived environment? Probably, not.
Stu
(40:17)
Yeah.
Max
(40:18)
I haven’t seen a bathtub that I can lay totally spread eagle in just yet. But if you find one and then-
Stu
(40:25)
We’ll let you know.
Max
(40:26)
Also, to get it to a ratio where you’ll be able to really truly floating it and reap the benefits of the zero-gravity environment as well, put in touch on much. But the zero-gravity aspect of floating is tremendous because it’s not like laying on a bed or a mattress at the end of the night where there’s thousands of springs and pain points cutting off your micro circulation. So when you enter a true zero gravity environment, which can really only be found in a float tank, true zero gravity environment, unless you’re in outer space. But when we enter that our blood vasculature can totally relax, and our capillaries can totally vasodilate. So what we see is a huge surge and increase in blood flow, oxygen flow and micro circulation every part of the body, which is incredibly healing.
Max
(41:16)
But what they can get from home is the benefits of the transdermal magnesium. And we pair that with being more mindful about some of the largest stresses to our nervous system, like being bombarded with sensory over stimulation and taking a couple hours here and there. Or even just a 15-minute break, a couple times throughout the day to get away from our phones, get away from some screens, and whether it’s going to walk in nature or just connect with their inner being via meditation, whatever form that is, it can be really effective. But for people at home, we actually have that magnesium rich bath blend that we had discussed and even just a couple tablespoons of that stuff.
Max
(41:59)
And a foot soak at the end of the night is… Because that’s one of my favorite ways to use it because on the bottom of your feet are the largest pores in your entire body. And there’s every nerve ending to every major organ in the bottom of your feet as well. So with just a small amount of water, just a couple tablespoons of this stuff, you can get a really concentrated solution just in a foot soak, soaking it for 25, 30 minutes while you’re hanging out. It could be reading, meditating, watching TV, it don’t matter. You can start balancing those minerals, soaking it up directly into the body right away and mixing it a little bit of self-care, which a lot of people-
Stu
(42:38)
Yeah. No. That’s great. That’s really good advice because oftentimes people think, “Well look, I don’t have the time. I don’t have the means and I certainly don’t have the cash to be able to indulge in these health pursuits.” But I’m sure, everybody could then pop their feet in a bowl of mineral enrich water while watching Netflix and like you said, get all the benefits from that. You sound like the mineral guy. So you’ve done a lot of work on minerals, you understand the importance of minerals and all of the health benefits that come with that, as well. Do you supplement at all orally with any other minerals outside of what you’re doing in the float tank?
Max
(43:21)
Yeah. There is some, again, always opt for whole food forms when possible. But there’s still some and magnesium is one of those that we can’t get nearly enough even a fraction of what we’re looking for through our food. Like we talked about for the reason we discussed factory farming, depleted soils. And oral supplementation is a powerful tool, we’re talking about magnesium, but the transdermal is definitely king, and I encourage more of your listeners to start mixing that in, as well. Start moving the dial a little quicker. So…
Stu
(43:58)
And with transdermal application, is there a preferred spot on the body that you would apply that, or do you just slather it all over?
Max
(44:06)
Yeah. Honestly the foot soaks is hands down the best bang for your back. I mean, the foot soaks again, the largest pores in the body, soaked up right away. There’s a reason Chinese medicine uses the bottom of the feet for absorption of many things. And so definitely, a foot soaks best bang for your back comes out for a dollar or two for a foot soak with the salts. But it makes a profound difference. And then on top of that, as I’m in there, I got my feet in there. And then another great spot where you actually get some of the best absorption, some of the most be best absorbed place on the body is the forehead and the scalp, as well. So I’ll use that stuff, usually, take a couple tablespoons, put it in a little glass jar and I’ll use that, even a shampoo, get in the hair and soak it up while I’m in the shower. You can use throughout the day, use that as a little hydrator up top.
Max
(44:58)
Usually, I take a little bit, I rubbed in my belly button as well. It’s another great spot. But the foot soaks definitely king in regards to that. And in regards to other supplements I enjoy, really, at the beginning of the day to help with that magnesium absorption, the organic bee pollen is great, just take a teaspoon of that. And I hope you suck up more magnesium. And then on top of that, I got the vitamin K over there. Got the vitamin E, is another one that’s really tough to get enough of from food form. And then, another main one for the minerals are a high quality, shilajit, is really great. I use the company MITOLIFE, but the shilajit is basically all resin, taken from Himalayas up there.
Max
(45:47)
There’s just been all these pine needles and leaves and plants that have made these huge piles and just degraded over the past a hundred thousand years. And they degraded into this incredibly minerally rich black tar. If you take a tiny amount of this tar, it’s some of the most mineral rich stuff for the past began on planet earth. When you take probably, a half gram in that stuff a day, it has the perfect ratio of 89 of the top minerals in the body. So that’s a really great one. Again, it’s a whole food form as well. So I’m a huge advocate of the shilajit, MITOLIFE is the best brand I’ve found for that.
Stu
(46:27)
I’ll have a look. I will absolutely, have a look. I’ve heard of them before and didn’t realize that it was so mineral rich. In fact, I don’t even familiar exactly what it was. I thought it might have been a mushroom.
Max
(46:42)
I know, right.
Stu
(46:43)
So we’re coming up on time. But I’m always keen just to listen to your suggestions on your nonnegotiable. So the specific nonnegotiable practices that you do every single day that ensures that you crushed your day. So things that you literally can’t live without. And for instance, it might be, I like to get up and hydrate myself. Or I like to get up and exercise first thing. Or I like to get up and I don’t eat until midday. What might be yours be?
Max
(47:16)
I love the question. Great question. Yeah. I’ve explored so much of it, right? I’ve explored the fasting and its powerful tool. I love the cold, but a lot of these things are also immense stressors to the body, as well. It’s not something I would recommend for everyone to start out with right off the bath, especially, if they’re operating in a state of stress already. But thanks for me, man, I wake up, I thank the divine for a brand-new day, the opportunity to go out and live this beautiful life experience. Shortly, after that, I guess, I just bring it through super quick… I get a chug of the cleanest water I can. I know a lot of people like spring water, spring water is great. It’s just incredibly high in calcium, which in my philosophy, the mineral balancing philosophy that I carry, a lot of the patients that we work with, almost everyone on planet earth has extremely high amounts of calcium already, bordering that level of over calcification in the body.
Max
(48:21)
So we hear people talk about, maybe their pineal gland getting calcified or something like that. But that’s the least of their worries, is calcifications running rampant inside every system of their body and attacking different organs and it results in much disease. So calcium, magnesium are antagonist, magnesium dissolves excess calcium and calcium depletes magnesium. So upping that magnesium and lowering our levels of calcium, because most of us are getting far more than enough from our food already is a great step there. But getting the water as early on as possible, mineral rich, I get the highest quality salt in there. The salt I love is Icelandic Sea salt. It has over two times or three times as much magnesium and potassium as Celtic Sea salt. Pink Himalayan is trash, we don’t recommend that. But Celtic is good, it’s just that the gray in the Celtic and the red in the pink Himalayan, or the pink is the heavy metal iron, which again, in our experience is something many people have far too much of.
Max
(49:30)
So the Icelandic, the purest that test the highest in minerals, trace minerals and far more magnesium potassium. But I take a swig of that early on in the morning, swish it around before I swallow it, get all the probiotics and help send that message from the mouth. I’ll get those healthy bacteria into the gut so it can start alchemizing my body based on what I need for that day, what all the information had picked up overnight. Then other than that, man, the floating early on, the foot soaks at night focusing on balancing the minerals. And the main other non-negotiable is really, making sure we mix it as much play, as much fun, as much family time, soaking it out as much presence because so many times I hear people putting work or business above life.
Stu
(50:27)
Absolutely.
Max
(50:27)
Just a-
Stu
(50:27)
We’re all guilty of that.
Max
(50:28)
… great reminder to… Yeah. All of us, man.
Stu
(50:29)
Yeah.
Max
(50:32)
But we’re really just reminding ourselves to think life first, family, play, fun, gratitude, all these beautiful things. And I’ll leave you with one last one if that’s-
Stu
(50:46)
Yes.
Max
(50:46)
… that’s cool, but something I’ve been working on that may be interesting to some of your listeners, but something that’s helped me out a lot in life is, it was… taught it by the great Ram Dass, if you’re familiar, but he’s a great spiritual teacher. And he teaches us to go through life and day-to-day life with a little mantra. And that mantra is just, I am loving awareness. And we just reflect on that mantra. We can sit with that in meditation, but I am loving awareness.
Max
(51:26)
So the idea is that everything that you are aware of, we focus on loving unconditionally. And sometimes as I sit in meditation, I think it may be easiest to think of things that I love my fiance or a child. But then we can start expanding that, whether it’s a plant, a cat, a dog, a family member, we start expanding it to the room, and the sky, in my body. And we start emitting and carrying that frequency of unconditional love with us all day. I feel it’s a powerful piece to live a more fruitful, enjoyable life.
Stu
(52:04)
Oh look, I think, we would all want that in some way, shape, or form. And I think… Yeah, following those principles I think would be a good step towards hopefully, getting there in some form one day. That’s for sure.
Max
(52:17)
Totally.
Stu
(52:18)
No, that’s-
Max
(52:18)
Working on that.
Stu
(52:19)
That is excellent. That is excellent. So for all of our listeners out there that would like to understand more about you, your journey, your companies, the floats, the mineral salts, your philosophies, et cetera, where can we send them?
Max
(52:36)
So one of the best places, they can keep up to date with my journey on Instagram, @maxxcasa, M-A-X-X, C-A-S-A. They can definitely check out the website. We have awesome blogs and information on there as well, www.maxvitality.co. So that’s C-O. So it’s a great place to send them there, super active on there. Send some messages through there, Instagram, those two great places to start.
Stu
(53:05)
Wonderful. Thank you so much for the conversation. It’s been absolutely fascinating. And it has prompted me to get back into town and book another float session, as well. But for everything that we’ve spoken about today, all of the information and links, we’ll drop those in the show notes and share this with our audience. But Max, really appreciate your time and hope that we catch up at some stage soon in the future.
Max
(53:28)
For sure, my man. Let me know when you’re out in the islands.
Stu
(53:30)
Absolutely. Hopefully soon.
Max
(53:33)
Thank you, bro.
Stu
(53:33)
Thank you. Bye-bye.
Max
(53:34)
Bye-bye.
