Parking lot cold plunge (Human Pursuits 13/2/23)
Cycling through extreme hot and extreme cold at North Vancouver's Tality Spa
NORTH VANCOUVER – A soft rain drifted into the alley as Leah and I approached the covered metal gate that serves as Tality Spa’s front entrance. Located in the back parking lot of a low-density industrial complex, just spitting distance from the Second Narrows Bridge, the spa is the experiential wellness outpost of local beverage-ier Tality Kombucha. But while the spa was no doubt designed with an eye toward promotion (admission includes unlimited access to kombucha on tap), it’s easy to envision a not-so-distant future when the name Tality conjures more than steel kegs and SCOBYS. Indeed, the parking lot retreat, which features ice and ambient temperature baths, a wood sauna, and an outdoor relaxation area, has tapped into something bigger than ‘booch.
The spa’s sessions run for two hours, with space for ten people and still they sell out weeks in advance. Our 10 AM appointment, booked mid-January, was no exception. Seven other people slid through the gates after us. Incredibly, every single one of them had visited the spa before. Like Scandinav and other non-industrial spas, Tality centers on the idea of cycling between extreme hot and extreme cold. But unlike those spas, Tality is not silent. Conversations flow as freely as the kombucha itself. And they reveal that local millennials seem very into spa culture.
One North Vancouver mom told us she visits the spa several times a week while her kid snowboards and does other cool girl shit. “I have no chill,” she said. And she was serious. In less than two hours she completed four intense cycles of hot and cold, never stopping for more than a couple minutes of relaxation. With the help of her sauna hat (recommended by some Russian Tality regulars and purchased off Amazon), she could go more than 20 minutes in the sweat lodge. I watched her slink into the ice tub like it was a gentle bath. Water up past her shoulders. She did six minutes, maybe more. She told me and Leah “One time, a few weeks ago, I got out and felt like I was on drugs. My vision blurred, the music got all distant.” Above the relaxation area a large sign recommends sitting in the sauna for 10 to 15 minutes and the ice tub for one to three minutes.
One thing you learn when you sit in a sauna with people who really like to sauna, is that saunas and ice baths are really good for you. “The shivering breaks down your brown fat,” said one girl. Still, she wasn't quite sure how exactly brown fat differed from normal white fat. “Huberman did a whole thing explaining it, but now I can’t remember,” she said. Several people told us the weirdest part of cycling was shivering in the sauna. “It took me forever to warm up,” said one guy who used to be an Olympic weightlifter. Later, he used a tripod to film himself in the ice tub. He lasted at least five minutes.
He was kind enough to coach me through my last cold push of the day. I had managed to go a full minute on my previous attempt, but, like everyone at Tality, I wanted to go farther. To push my body past its breaking point. Imagine my disappointment, then, when I dunked myself beneath the ice only to feel my whole body go stiff. Brown Fat Girl had told Leah and me that, at a certain point, your body relents, that it realizes the cold water isn’t going anywhere, and so the cold push gets easier. I thought about that as I sat there watching the timer on my Apple watch. From the neighbouring tub the weightlifter spoke.
“Slow your breathing down,” he said. “Really focus on it.”
Two minutes later I emerged, if not reborn, then at least revitalized. The kombucha was pretty good, too.
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