James Zammit was inside a float tank, prepping for an upcoming interview when he decided he’d had enough of his corporate career. Fifteen years of long hours and what he described as a “toxic environment” had been taking its toll on his health and wellbeing. “I just decided, I’m not doing this anymore. I’m opening a float centre.” he said.
That epiphany grew into around six months of planning and set up, before James and his partner Belinda opened the doors to their new business… two weeks before the global pandemic hit. With Melbourne being placed under some of the longest and most restrictive lockdown conditions in the world, it was a challenging time to launch a new business, but having found sauna and float therapy helpful in his own stress management, James knew that there were plenty of other people in the community who would get benefit from what he was creating and needed to find balance from burnout.
Creating a wellness and recovery space in Melbourne
Both Belinda and James had experienced high pressure careers and found the combination of floatation therapy and infrared sauna beneficial for their sleep, relaxation and overall performance. Initially launching as True North Float in 2020, the couple have broadened their repertoire of offerings and rebranded as Recharge Lab to better reflect the wide range of treatments they can provide for Melbournians seeking respite from their busy lives. Today, Recharge Lab host a variety of health and wellness modalities, including:
- Traditional float therapy
- Zerobody Dry-Float
- Infrared sauna
- NormaTec compression therapy
- Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF)
- LED light therapy
- Massage chairs
- IV vitamin infusions
- Body composition scanning
- Wonder Axon body sculpting, and
- Brain Tap
“We’ve modelled the business on everything that can help calm the central nervous system,” said James.
“It’s all about helping everyone’s body naturally heal and regenerate. We’ve created environments and implemented tools that allow people to do that and accelerate that process, both from a mental and physical perspective.”
The unique treatments available at Recharge Lab:
James says that the infrared sauna is probably their most popular offering, which isn’t surprising given the huge trajectory in popularity that sauna bathing has enjoyed in recent years. At Recharge Lab, however, most people book their sessions as a combination of therapies, such as sauna paired with a dry float or NormaTec compression. “We also do six week holistic health programs, so that works on the physical (building muscle with Wonder Axom body sculpting), and then we use other tools for both that mental and physical recovery.” said James.
What is dry floating?
The Zerobody Dry-Float is pretty unique to Recharge Lab, with it being the only one in Melbourne at the moment. The user lies on a water-filled membrane that is heated to body temperature, providing the sensation of floating while wearing an eye mask and headphones that take the user through either a guided meditation or breathwork session.
A thirty minute session on the dry float bed can offer health benefits such as reduced stress and anxiety, improved sleep, reduced pain and inflammation, as well as promoting psychophysical and parasympathetic recovery.
Brain Tap: A treatment for the mind
Brain Tap is a brain fitness tool that combines neurolinguistic programming with binaural beats and brain wave entertainment, or colour light therapy. There are about 2500 different programs that are designed to help you sleep better, think better, and perform better. The therapy is based around helping you reframe or reprogram your thoughts using NLP practices (finding patterns and behaviours that don’t serve you anymore and replacing them with things that do.)
“Negative self talk, poor relationship with food, not sleeping well, PTSD – there’s a whole range of things that we can work on with clients,” said James. “We generally pair that up with our PEMF mat so if people are lying on the PEMF mat and they’re not really doing anything, brain tap’s a really beautiful tool and accompaniment to that.”
Helping others find balance from burnout
Recharge Lab know that no two clients are the same and customise treatments according to individual needs. “Everything has to be tailored,” said James. “We get to know them, we do a bit of a wellness assessment to understand what their needs are and then we work with them to deliver the outcomes that they’re after.”
Reflecting on his decision to start the business, James said he has no regrets about leaving his corporate life behind. “Not at all! I work too many Saturdays but other than that, I love it. That’s our clients – corporate clients – they’re just cooked and overworked. We help them find that relief to come back to their peak performance, mentally and physically and do what they need to do in their personal and professional life.”
Recharge Lab offer casual packages or memberships, depending on what suits each person. “We try to tailor everything we do, from body composition scans, to nutrition, to wellness and recovery and longevity,” said James. The centre also offers a 10 day introductory package, which gives new clients the opportunity to try out all of their services. If you’re in the Melbourne area and keen to experience some of Recharge Lab’s unique wellness and recovery modalities for yourself, make an enquiry via their website.
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