What would it be like to spend an hour without sound, smell touch, taste and feeling? What would life be like without gravity and sensation?

The answer is the flotation experience.

 

For decades, people have been in the pursuit of bliss and relaxation. Think of the opposite of every brain stimulating pursuit out there. Music, food, clubs, sex, visual distraction, all goes away when you enter a float tank.

 

What’s the point and benefit of floating?

Our lives have become so wound up, we sometimes can’t even measure the contrast between being stimulation and being completely calm and de-stressed.

Floating shuts off all access to sensory stimulation and allows the brain to enter a deep relaxed theta state for rejuvenation and relaxation. The benefits are many, and well documented.

 

Listen to some interviews and Todd and Marie’s own personal experience of salt water floating and why they would recommend you try it. Not only does the magnesium boost relax and replenish your body, the time you spend checking your head, and resetting your brain has lasting effects that boost everything from recovery from your workouts, to better stress management.

Recently Todd and Marie took their equipment on the road and headed down to the Exhibition grounds to check out the 21st annual Toronto Festival of Beer.

 

More than 60 fantastic brewers featuring over 300 brands from all over the world were represented including an entire Irish pavilion featuring Irish bands, Irish food, and of course Irish beer that can only be found in Ireland.

 

At first glance, you would think that this event would attract people that do nothing but drink beer. NOT SO! There were many athletes there as well. Todd and Marie spoke to quite a few hard core fitness people, and some of the fantastic conversations can be heard in this episode. 

 

Later on in the show Marie gives Todd an ancient/brand new superfood to try. Are you into the marketing hype of “superfoods”? Marie shares her thoughts on why she thinks the term superfood is absolute nonsense, and what Marie thinks food really is.

This episode explores why patience is a rare virtue for some, and undervalued by many. Having patience and self control means you can endure a wait, or a situation without reacting negatively or getting angry.

Lack of patience can show that you don’t accept and respect where you are, or specifically where the universe has placed you. You are where you are for a reason. Often you are placed in situation in order to learn something. Find out what that is before chalking it up to bad luck

Have you looked back on an experience and said to yourself, “oh yeah, that’s why this happened", or conversely "why didn’t this play out the way I wanted". Often when we look back on life, what seemed important then, wasn’t as crucial as we thought. In retrospect, things generally do work out for the best.

 

Patience is a choice and can be learned.

Marie offers a meditation method she is currently practicing. Her task is to picture someone she can’t stand being extremely happy. Marie is supposed to practice feeling good about wanting this person to be the happiest they’ve ever been. The exercise develops adaptability, tolerance, and a skill set that can be used in many other situations.

Teddy Fury makes another pit stop at the Revenge Gym cabin in between touring stops, and reveals some of his recent on-the-road food adventures. Eating on the road can be hazardous to your health. 

 

On a similar note, sometimes the best intentions for a good life go horribly wrong. This episode is dedicated to an old friend of Marie’s who seemed to have more than nine lives. He survived so many brushes with death, repeatedly overcame personal adversity and remained happy, positive, and fun to be around. He never gave up living a hopeful life and remained optimistic in spite of the tragedies and accidents that found him.

 

Listen to the story of this Man and get inspired to change your own life.

Jim Gelcer returns from a 10 city US tour, and winds up at the Revenge Gym cabin to share some stories about his travels.

 

The conversation begins innocently enough, and like an airplane spiralling out of control, the topic somehow shifted to a discussion about poop.

This week, The Antidote podcast heads back to the Mikkeller running club to take part in the Toronto chapter, @RunTObeer monthly run.

It may be a favourite of many, however @RunTObeer isn’t the only running club in the Greater Toronto Area. The Parkdale Roadrunners ww.parkdaleroadrunners.com and the Toronto Night Terrors Crew @nightterrorsrun , along with Nike H.I.T. and Run, are also incredible running groups. Find a group where you live, lace up your shoes and try a short run. Maybe you’ll meet some like-minded fitness enthusiasts.

If you need some running technique info, check out Pose Method www.posemethod.com for improving your running mechanics.

Last year, Marie focused her attention on ballet. In the same building where she took her classes, an incredible hip hop dance group with close ties to the Toronto community, held weekly classes. Flavorshop Dance brings dance and the community together with brilliant choreography. @FlavorShopDance

You can experience Flavor Shop Dance classes free on demand by clicking on this link here: www.flavorshopdance.com/classes/

This week the Amy Winehouse documentary pre release screenings are happening. Marie attended a sneak peak screening of Amy, a documentary about the talent and tragedy of Amy Winehouse. Sharing her thoughts on the film, Marie relates to the story that not all parts of being an artist are glamorous. The life of musicians, and fitness trainers for that matter are not as glamorous as people think. Check out the film titled :Austin to Boston to get a peek into the real life of a music artist.

Todd and Marie recap on the past week’s activities including new fitness classes, recent workshops, and upcoming events.

 

This week’s episode covers some of the items included in Revenge gym’s new Damage Control kits. These damage control kits were designed to show people how easy it can be to switch out simple items you probably use almost every day. These pills and powders do much more than just satisfy your taste, and help you feel full. They feed your cells from the inside out.

 

Want some clean protein? It’s in the bag. Marie talks about a plant based protein thats easier to digest than meat for people looking for a change, and for the vegetarians out there.

How about switching out regular white sugar for a sugar that can help prevent cavities? It’s in the bag. This sweetener is made from hardwood trees.

Is your salt just salty, or is it feeding you? Is there such a thing as healthy salt? Yes there is, and it’s all in the Damage Control kit.

 

Have you ever used ph strips to explore the ph levels of your saliva or urine? These small strips that are available at many pharmacies, can help keep your body in a balanced alkaline state.

"No pain no gain". 

"If you stop lifting weights, your muscle will turn to fat".

"Your body goes downhill after age 40". 

"Running is bad for your knees".

"You need to eat lots of protein to keep your muscle mass".

 

 Throughout history, there have been many fitness slogans and sayings in our fitness world that are simply pure NONSENSE, yet people sill live by these sayings.

This episode aims to separate the meat from the bones and address some of the folklore fitness sayings still flying around today.

 

As the episode evolves, Todd and Marie notice that many of these folklore sayings that people still live by are merely responsibility deflections to achieving a better body and a better life.

 

To some, it must be easier to throw their hands in the air and call themselves big boned instead of getting honest and admitting the fat hanging from your arms has nothing to do with your bone size.

This week Dan Grant stops by the Revenge gym cabin to talk about how drinking beer and running go hand in hand.

 

Dan is one of Toronto’s most accomplished beer writers contributing to Taps Magazine, Now Magazine and many others. Dan is so knowledgeable, we barely had enough time to press the record button to catch all the new information we gleaned form his visit.

 

Would you believe that just as many men drink pink beer in Belgium as do women? Listen to Dan’s explain why.

 

While the craft beer industry is steadily growing, new running groups are emerging as well. These groups are not new. Learn the origin of beer running groups, and why beer is good for you to drink after you run.

Check out the kinks below to get you started on finding a running group in your community.

 

Recently, Toronto has an in bottle brewing product that you can make at home. Todd shares his story of how one time he had beer that was off, and the consequences were almost deadly.

No matter what you do as an adult, know that you are solely responsible for the outcome of your life. 

This episode pays homage to the hard core partiers that we know and love..and who we train every week.

Many of our followers, online clients, and class participants have dual lives. They work out on a regular basis, they have structured careers, they have extensive social lives and they party like sailors.

We know that living the fast life requires a bit of damage control, and an action plan so you don't end up looking like a modern day used up Axl Rose.

Living the fast life doesn’t mean you have to grow excess weight as you grow older  but it does takes proper planning, proper execution, and also the acceptance of the consequences and outcomes of your decisions.

People have different goals at different times in their life. If you are clear about what you want, there is a way to achieve it. If something doesn’t go the way you planned, look beyond what you think initially caused the problem, you may see a series of things that contributed to the straw that broke the camel’s back. It may not have been the baseball game that hurt your back, it may have been a series of other things that you do day in and day out that resulted in tweaked muscles, and time off work due to injuries.

Later on in the show, Todd tells a story about a friend he has known for over 24 years..and still doesn’t know his name.