Field reports

Experienced first-hand. Tested first-hand.

For two years I talked to doctors, scientists and longevity specialists and tried just about everything the market has to offer.

To the reports

No peak performance without regeneration

Three things I learned along the way.

Field report 01

Cold or warmth: what truly regenerates?

I put it to the test. Ten-visit pass, cold chamber Lucerne. Three minutes at −110 °C. You instantly feel where your body is inflamed: the blood rushes there. Adrenaline? Check. Endorphins? Those too. Relaxation? Well, not really.

What cold can do

Strengthen the immune system, ease chronic pain, speed up recovery in elite sport. Scientifically documented, valuable in the right context.

What cold cannot do

Regulate the nervous system. It stresses it. Nobody steps into −110 °C relaxed, you step in with adrenaline. That is biology. If your everyday life already runs on constant stress, you simply get one more stimulus on top.

Our way

Regeneration begins where the body feels safe. Deep infrared warmth in our Halleluja Sauna activates heat shock proteins, promotes autophagy, regulates the nervous system. No adrenaline. Only depth.

Combined with oxygen training (IHHT), this becomes a concept with lasting effect: for people who do not want to perform at the expense of their health.

Cold belongs in medicine and elite sport. For everyday life we rely on warmth, depth and stillness.

Field report 02

The underestimated performance factor: sleep

In 15 years as a management consultant I saw one thing again and again: the smartest decision-makers make their worst decisions when they are tired. Not drunk. Not distracted. Simply tired. And nobody notices, least of all they themselves.

The 0.05% blood alcohol effect

17 hours awake equals a blood alcohol level of 0.05%. 22 hours? 0.10%. That is not an opinion, that is a finding by Australian sleep researchers, published in Nature, confirmed many times. If you get up at 6 and still have a call at 11 pm, you are no hero. You measurably function worse.

The blind spot

The insidious part: after three days with six instead of eight hours of sleep, sleep deprivation starts to feel normal. The tiredness disappears from your perception, but not from your performance. Reaction time, risk assessment, emotional regulation: all measurably worse. You do not notice it, because the brain stops reporting its own impairment.

What I learned from it

Sleep is no luxury, it is a strategic resource. That is why sleep quality is part of the concept at magic places®: deep infrared warmth and IHHT prepare the body to sleep more deeply. No pill, no gadget, just a nervous system that winds down again.

I (Christian) track my sleep with the Oura Ring. My wife then always says: «Surely you can feel for yourself whether you slept well.» True, that is the goal. Until then I compare measuring and feeling.

If you sleep badly and too little over a long period, you work at reduced capacity and make worse decisions more often than you realize. If you do not start the morning rested, you chase your missing energy all day.

Field report 03

Loneliness at the top

It is lonely at the top. For extreme mountaineers just as for CEOs and top managers. With every meter of altitude the air gets thinner and the surroundings quieter. And at some point you notice: there is no one left you can really talk to.

The C-level mode

Many leaders' self-image is shaped by the expectation of knowing everything and being able to do everything. Show weakness? Out of the question. Because whoever shows weakness risks their position. So many remain stuck in «I can handle this» mode. Their own loneliness often goes unnoticed, or is covered up by the feeling of being irreplaceable.

Why that is risky

Research shows: a large share of our decisions arises in the emotional part of the brain. If you do not know your own emotional world, you decide on layoffs, investments or strategies on an unconscious basis, with potentially grave consequences. Distance from others is distance from yourself.

A different kind of sparring partner

Going it alone at the top of a company is risky. An external mentor, independent and free of his own interests, opens up new perspectives and starts where pressure first becomes tangible: in the body. Body-based mentoring makes stress and inner blockages perceptible, uncovers unconscious patterns and strengthens your connection to yourself.

At magic places®, CEO mentoring is therefore no coaching talk in a conference room, but a bodily process. Honest, confidential, without an agenda.

Loneliness is not part of the leadership profile. Whoever has the courage to bring in a true sparring partner makes better decisions, for their company and for themselves.