Thoughts from Float Ambassador Grace Luer:

So before I delve into this, there are a few things that I should probably touch on. I am a CrossFit athlete and that can be extremely straining on the body sometimes. Training five to eight times a week in a high impact sport, which includes lifting and carrying more than your bodyweight around, takes a huge toll on the body. Therefore, recovery is a huge part of being an athlete outside of the gym.

Now, with much of what I have seen around floating, the aspects of mental, spiritual, and emotional health benefits are put at the forefront of this practice, and a few physical benefits often seem to be tagged along. While floating is an excellent therapeutic outlet for the mind, one I often utilize in terms of mindset surrounding sport, I feel like the amazing physical benefits that come along with floating are sometimes downplayed. This is not a case of the information of the physical benefits of floating not being available, I just looked and found a bunch of them listed on The Floatation Centre website! I find it to be more of case of the people in the floating community tend to be more geared towards the non-physical benefits of floating (which there is nothing wrong with at all). I think that this comes from a lack of athletes using floating as a form of recovery, which sucks! I think many athletes often are more concentrated on the physical game, rather than the mental game (although both play a huge part in sport), and when they see the floating community to be geared towards the mental game, they think “Nah, I need something that’s gonna help my body, not my brain”. This also comes down to the mental game in sports only starting to make itself known and become an important part of an athletes success in the past few years. What I think the athletic community needs to become more aware of, is that floating does carry several physical benefits with it, and that the mental benefits will also help you greatly.

I have recently seen floating making it into the athletic community, most notably in my mind, top Canadian CrossFit athlete, Brent Fikowski, starting to make floating a part of his recovery routine. Floating is something that all athletes should make a part of their life, floating has has helped me so much in the areas of recovery and mindset. Whenever I have a competition, I try to float before and after, to prepare and recover. Or after a particularly strenuous week of training to jumpstart my recovery. Or just to show my body some love and self-care, and that I appreciate all that it allows me to do, which is so important to do. That’s one of the things that I love about floating so much; it’s so versatile and each person has a different ‘why’ for floating. To list off a few of mine; recovery, preparation, and self-care.

Getting more athletes to float is my goal, whether they be involved in high impact sports or not, but above all, the goal is getting more people to float, so everyone can see the versatility within floating. There is no reason to not float, everyone has their own ‘why’. Happy? Float. Sad? Float. Sore? Float. Tired? Float. Energized? Float. Just float. I looked on The Floatation Centre website just now and it says “Floating enhances your overall wellbeing.” Now, who doesn’t want that? I hope more and more people start to see all the benefits of floating, whether they be mental or physical, and that floating can reach out its branches and continue to touch more and more peoples lives in the most positive way possible. I hope a bunch of those people are athletes. Because there is no reason not to. Floating has helped me grow as a person and as an athlete so much, stepping out of the tank is like a perspective shift with my outlook on life each and every time. Floating is a practice and no two floats are the same, and that is the beauty of it. Everyone can float, and everyone can have a different ‘why’. Find yours and try floating, I can promise you, you won’t regret it.