Home is where the cold plunge is.
Forget curbside appeal and great school districts. Some homeowners are playing the really long game with their homes. From infrared saunas to cold-plunge pools, BI’s James Rodriguez reports on the wellness and longevity hacks people are upgrading their homes with.
Turning your place into a Bryan Johnson fantasy can get expensive. (Hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers can easily run you north of $45,000.) But it’s not just the ultrawealthy getting in on the action. People with more moderate means are turning their homes into mini wellness retreats.
The trend is real, with mentions of the word “wellness” in Zillow listings increasing 33% last year.
Renovating a house based on any trend comes with risks. (Anyone in the market for a house with popcorn ceilings? Anyone?) But since this is just as much an investment in yourself as your home, maybe there’s more upside.
Creating wellness palaces in isolation might risk turning our homes into prisons.
Research consistently shows, and even longevity experts like Johnson admit, that the most effective ways to improve your lifespan are free or cheap.
As nice as it is to have all this stuff in your backyard, there are real benefits to leaving your house. Or, as the kids say, ‘touching grass.’
People who have lived past 100 previously told BI they view regular social interactions as far more important than any pill or fancy machine.
That’s why I’d like to make the case for an under-the-radar wellness hack: the gym friend.
A unique relationship in our social structure, the gym friend is a close confidant who doesn’t even know your last name.
Relationships bonded between sets and spins are built differently. They hold you accountable in ways that are less annoying than a lifelong friend or family member.
I might only see Dave in gym shorts and sneakers, but that doesn’t make the knowledge we trade any less valuable.
So go out and get yourself a gym friend. And who knows. Maybe they’ll have an at-home sauna that they’ll let you use.
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