The first time Robbie Bent visited a bathhouse, it wasn’t a quick trip – but it was a transformative one.
He was living in Toronto, when his then-girlfriend suggested that they visit a bathhouse, after hearing about the benefits of ice baths from a podcast hosted by biochemist Rhonda Patrick. The only problem was that there were none available in Canada’s largest city.
“So we went to the outskirts of this small town called Mississauga and that was our first date,” Bent said. “And it was amazing, because you’re not on your phone and the ice bath boosts norepinephrine, dopamine in the brain, these neurochemicals that make you feel alive and reduce social anxiety, the same way alcohol does.”
For Bent, this experience became the catalyst for building a movement. He went from visiting small-town bathhouses to constructing an ice bath in his garage to eventually founding Othership, an “immersive sauna and ice bath experience” with locations in Toronto and New York.
Like many wellness aficionados, Bent’s passion for the space emerged from the stresses of his own life. After finishing university, he first worked for a hedge fund and then founded a venture capital-backed tech startup.
“The tech company itself failed and I went through a ton of struggle,” he said. “I struggled with alcohol and was completely broke and really felt pretty awful. And to get over that, I ended up getting into meditation and 10-day retreats.”
Bent is not alone in this experience. In recent years, a growing number of men working in high-salaried, high-pressure industries have increasingly turned to the once female-dominated world of wellness. Experts attribute this change to a number of factors – including the pandemic and shifting attitudes towards mental health.
“We’ve noticed an upward trend in male guests that are particularly drawn to services like IV Drip Therapy, bodywork treatments, and longevity-focused sessions,” said Steven McAninch, the general manager of The Well, a full-service spa in Manhattan.
“Many of our male members approach wellness with a goal-oriented mindset – their focus often centers around feeling better internally to enhance their external performance, whether that’s excelling at work, on the field, or in other areas of their lives.”
Jyima Ofori-Atta, a certified personal trainer and holistic health coach, explained that many of the men who come to his Los Angeles gym – the Jyim Fitness studio – are also influenced by seeing athletes like LeBron James and Tom Brady perform at high levels, even as they age into their late 30s and early 40s.
“Men are now seeing athletes who are able to play five-to-ten years longer than the average career span and they’re asking why,” said Ofori-Atta. “ It’s because [athletes are] going to yoga, because they’re getting massages, because they’re doing ice baths.
Ofori-Atta said that many of his clients, who include musicians, Nike executives, and restaurateurs among other professions, are increasingly making the connection between better performance and taking rest and recovery seriously.
At the same time, however, Ofori-Atta has said that he has to build different levels of trust with male clients to encourage them to rest and recover.
“I spend a lot of time emphasizing regulating your nervous system and managing stress. And most of my male clients are like, ‘Oh, don’t come up to me with that spiritual BS,’” he said.
For people in careers that emphasize maximizing results and optimizing performance, it can sometimes take witnessing someone else’s demonstrable progress – whether that person is a trainer, a friend, or a professional athlete – to buy into the idea that rest and recovery is both effective and important.
“I do have certain clients that are used to bullying their way through things,” Ofori-Atta said. “When, when they hit an obstacle, they put their head down, and they forcefully push their way through along with the stress. So for them, it does get a little difficult,” he explained, to accept that improving their overall health and wellness will require time and patience.
Bent has described the experiences that men have at Othership as a “Trojan horse into emotional work.” After feeling the physical relief of sweating and moving in a sauna or an ice bath, they’re more willing to open up emotionally as well.
“We actually see a ton of men crying,” he explained, after being in a positive space that encourages recovery.
While some people in high-powered careers need more encouragement to embrace wellness, some experts point to a parallel phenomenon: an obsession with health at all costs. At the most extreme end are people like Bryan Johnson, the billionaire founder of Kernel, who has reportedly spent millions of dollars on experimental procedures intended to reverse the aging process.
When the Information, a subscription tech industry news site, polled their readership about their wellness habits, responses poured in: Subscribers wrote about common activities like taking supplements, going to the spa, and getting massages. But respondents also detailed getting red-light therapy, using IV drips, and entering a $70,000 hyperbaric chamber, Business Insider reported.
Kim Peirano, an acupuncturist, hypnotherapist, and Jungian life coach, said in the 14 years she’s worked in wellness spaces, there have always been instances of people investing enormous amounts of time and energy into their health, only to find diminishing returns. But she says the phenomenon has become “exponentially” worse since the pandemic.
“We all had a lot more time with our phones. TikTok had its blow up and so did all of the dude bro podcasts. There’s a lot more avenues to get this information. I don’t think even five years ago you could order your own lab tests on yourself,” she explained.
“One of the things I end up working on with a lot of people around is the harm that’s been caused by overdoing wellness stuff,” she continued. “It starts turning on us, right? It’s like creating a stress response in the body in and of itself.”
Peirano and Ofori-Atta both say they make a point to remind their clients that the most important parts of achieving better physical and mental health are often the most simple: sleeping, eating an appropriate diet and taking time to actually rest – rather than focus on optimizing results at every stage.
“As humans, we are unfortunately prone to the magic cure, which sounds really nice,” Periano said. Instead she said people should first focus on improving their baseline physical and mental health. “Then move into diet and fitness and sometimes all these things will coalesce together.”
Continue reading to learn more about spas, bathhouses and wellness spaces in New York.
