Jimmy T. Martin: Cold, Cryo, and Cancer

Today on the show is an incredible human. Jimmy T. Martin is helping to bring new modalities to make people feel better. He is also a survivor. He co-founded BRRRN Studios in New York City - the world’s first, cool temperature fitness studio. The studio has been featured on Good Morning America, Live with Ryan and Kelly, Men’s Health, GQ, Vogue and People Magazine.

On this episode we get into the science behind cold therapy, the brown fat you want more of on your body, how to turn an idea sitting on your laptop into one of Manhattan's hottest (but coolest) fitness studios, and how beta testing your program inside a 38°F beer fridge in Brooklyn made all the difference in the world.

I want to also prepare everyone for the candid and at-times difficult conversation we have about Jimmy’s role as a caregiver to his late wife and her battle with cancer. Their bravery, her beauty, her strength, and this very real story is something we have the honor to experience. This show really hits my heart and if you could make a special place for yourself to be able to hear everything that unfolds in the next 45 minutes, I think you will look at life a little differently after the experience.

Episode Highlights

• 2:29 - About BRRRN Fitness Studio
• 4:02 - Self-care is never out of style
• 6:26 - How the cold brought fame to David Letterman
• 9:26 - What is brown fat?
• 11:38 - The inciting incident
• 19:56 - How Jimmy's time as a caregiver changed him
• 24:37 - Getting started with cold fitness
• 27:52 - The necessity of no
• 32:07 - Cultivating a culture
• 34:13 - Gaining permission
• 38:06 - Would you trade your most painful day for easier times?
• 40:55 - What beautifully broken means to Jimmy

Connect with Jimmy:

• Check out the studio’s website - https://www.thebrrrn.com/
• Facts about cold training - https://www.thebrrrn.com/the-cold-hard-facts
• Follow along on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brrrn/

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (00:00.106)
And it's so unbelievable when I committed to doing it, how the path opened up. I think a lot of people have a hard time trusting their gut and to just go into something without question. I saw what the worst could be when she died in my arms. And to see the value of what the extent of life can be, I'm like, I got nothing to lose. I got nothing to lose.

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (00:33.881)
Welcome to the Beautifully Broken Podcast brought to you by AmpCoil. I'm your host, Freddie Kimmel, and on this show, we discuss the common threads survivors share after walking through the fire, the practitioners making a difference, and the treatment modalities that deliver healing back into the hands of the people who need it most. Witness the inspiration we gain by navigating the human experience with grace, humility, and a healthy dose of mistakes. Because part of being human is being beautifully broken.

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (01:07.971)
Ladies and gentlemen, today on the show is an incredible human. Jimmy Martin is helping to bring new modalities to make people feel better, and he is also a survivor. Jimmy is one of the founders of Byrne Studios in NYC. That's Byrne, B-R-R-R-N. They are the world's first cool temperature fitness studio in the country. Now they've been featured on Good Morning America, live with Ryan and Kelly.

Men's Health, GQ, Vogue, and People Magazine. On this episode, we get into the science behind cold therapy, the brown fat you actually want more of on your body, how to turn an idea sitting on your laptop into one of Manhattan's hottest but coolest fitness studios, and how beta testing your program inside a 38 degree beer fridge in Brooklyn made all the difference in the world. Now,

I also want to prepare everyone for the candid and difficult at times conversation we have with Jimmy about his role as a caregiver to his late wife and her battle with cancer. Their bravery and her beauty and her strength and this very real story is something that we have. We have an honor to experience. The show really hits my heart. And if you could make a special place for yourself to be able to hear everything that unfolds in the next 45 minutes.

I think you'll look at life a little differently after the experience. All right. This is Freddie Kimmel with the Beautifully Broken Podcast. Our guest today, Jimmy Martin. So as I walk down 20th, I walk probably by six or seven boutique fitness studios. It's literally like the lane of get my ultimate butt in shape and shape my muscles and thighs. And now here you guys are at the end of the street. Tell me a little bit about

burn studios. absolutely. So, you know, we're the world's first and only cool temperature fitness experience. So we exercise people in a group exercise setting between 45 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Now at first glance or even just hearing that for the first time sounds like it's terrifying and we can get into obviously the perception of cold and why we feel it's a necessity to see it as an ally, not an enemy.

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (03:22.842)
but we have four different class offerings. We have a flow class, which is our yoga inspired class that we do in 60 degrees. We have a slide class, which is a core and cardio slide board series where we put booties on our shoes and sort of pretend to be Apollo, no, for 50 minutes in 55 degrees. Then we have a hit and slide class where it's half slide boards.

half dumbbells that we do in 50 degrees. And then we have a HIIT class, which is with half battle ropes and half weights that we do in 45 degrees. In addition to that, we have a communal infrared sauna, which seats up to eight people and a great community that we've been building since May 1st of last year. Incredible. Well, congratulations on your first year of business. I know, I know what goes into that and it's just, it's an incredible undertaking and I'm sure you get sleep where you can.

Yeah, sleep is one thing. A resolution this year is definitely self-care and finding more time to nap and to be with my fiance and to just really invest in my health because something like this can take over you and this has literally become another home and you want to make sure that you are taking care of yourself before you can take care of other people. Yeah, so I want to go into this concept

of working out in the cold, which you said to some people out there listening to this, they're gonna say this is another fad, there's no science to support it, but I'd like to hear your take on it. Yeah, actually, I mean, there is a huge collection of literature that points to the benefits of what's called mild cold stress, which is having your body undergo brief periods of hormesis, which is like exposure to

elements if done in a longer period of time could kill you. know that sounds like it's not a good sell, but Ben Greenfield articulated that in his last interview on impact theory. I think he explained that better than anybody else, we live in a constant state of comfort and since millennia we've been trying to survive cold, which is why inherently we see it as an enemy, not an ally.

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (05:27.375)
you look at all the research that these polysomnologists, which I've learned over time is like sleep doctors. So use that for a bar talk, know, polysomnologist. I'm gonna write that one down. Yeah, you write that down. Hashtag stay woke. So, or not, I they actually want you to sleep. you know, it's pointed how 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit is the optimal temperature to sleep. The rise of cryotherapy, you know, the research that's being done about improving insulin sensitivity in diabetics through cold exposure.

All of these things that show that the necessity of having that in your life, but yet we hadn't seen that in the workout space. I mean, when we were first cultivating this concept from like 2015 with my co-founder, Johnny Adamic, who's a former public health official here in the city, we recognized that there was currently like 36,000 fitness concepts in the United States and zero were focusing on anything below 68 degrees Fahrenheit. And we saw that as an opportunity. So we went with it.

a screaming opportunity. I think every entrepreneur in the field listening to this just had a few. Got goosebumps literally. Yeah, more ways than one. I mean, you guys are the studio. Now I've I've tried to I do I incorporate cold therapy and healing and cold plunges and cryotherapy into my healing paradigm. I've probably done this for the last five years and the most basic biohack that I have gotten out of habit.

from because it just hurts is I would go to the grocery store and just get myself three or four or five pound bags of ice. I would fill my bathtub and I would do about 15 minutes. But the first time I ever did that, I couldn't believe the altering of my base levels of happiness. I mean, for a day, day and a half after, I was really shocked with my first experience. Yeah, it lives with you. I I thought you were going to say that you went to the grocery store and you were just hanging out in the produce section, which is a good sort of gateway to then warming up to

to other ways to cool yourself, but it's unbelievable how it feels like you had the best cup of coffee or espresso or tea. You feel reinvigorated. And I find that that's the missing elements in people who come to work out. Oftentimes, fun and challenging aren't necessarily in the same sentence when it comes to working out. It's either, it's like, it killed me, or, it was fun.

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (07:50.878)
But you never get fun and challenging. And what we've been learning over time is that people feel encouraged to move. And I think that's the hardest thing to do anywhere, whether you're working out by yourself or you're going to a group exercise class is moving purposefully. And what we found through the research is that heat discourages movement and cooler temperatures encourage movement. We can all sort of think back to a time when we were in a hot classroom trying to learn information. What did we do? We dozed off, right? Your body's trying to.

stay at 98.6, it's dumping heat to cool down so that your organs don't melt, right? It's a natural cooling mechanism, sweating. But when you're outside waiting to go into school and it was chilly, it felt like every conversation was in fast forward, right? Like you're you're aware, you're jacked, you're aware, you're awake. And I find that that works in our favor when it comes to working out with our no to low and high impact movements in our classes. Fun fact that

And I can talk about my background a little bit, but David Letterman in the 80s noticed that his audience was nodding off and he's like, it's not my humor, it has to be them. So what do I have to change about my studio? And he recognized it was the temperature. So he brought the temperature down to 55 degrees. I mean, he sampled, went from like 75 to 70 to 65 to 60 and found that 55 was the sweet spot. And in doing so, his audience was more aware and more receptive to his jokes.

And that has served as the standard of the late night talk show audience. Like you walk into it, it's a little chilly, but that's purposeful so that you can stay awake. Yeah, it's so amazing when you look back over time and you see that some of these pioneers, they were already biohacking. They were changing their environment to get favorable results. And that's what you guys have done. I noticed when I was scrolling through your website, one thing that jumped out at me was the bat fat.

And I had to reread because I was like, are they telling me that I can gain back fat by coming to their studio? Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, there's, you know, in part of doing this venture, we knew that we had to edutain, right? We had to entertain people through a workout that brought them back and also to have them leave learning something. So in doing so, you know, this is truly a byproduct of having a co-founder that is a former public health official. He was a true skeptic. When I met him,

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (10:13.16)
in 2014 and had told him about this idea that I was thinking of, he was like, let me review the research and I'll get back to you. And when he sent me that caps lock email the next day of like, my gosh, there was so much literature about brown fat or brown adipose tissue, BAT, and how when exposed to cooler temperatures, this fat that is sort of, it's like down our spine, it's under our shoulder blades, it activates.

in cooler temperatures and what it uses for energy is white adipose tissue, which is the fat that we usually wish away at the beginning of every new year during resolution season. the byproduct of that activating is heat. So essentially you are burning fat with fat, which doesn't really happen. And this happens within the first few minutes of exercise, because once you start to move, your body relies on glucose for energy. like, know, it's carbohydrates, but rarely in any other setting.

can you say with confidence that you're burning fat with fat because brown fat isn't activated in ambient or hot temperatures? Yeah, I did a little walk through myself. I like to make little timelines. And one doctor that I always refer to is Dr. Rhonda Patrick. And she just does this brilliant walkthrough of the thermogenic effect. And basically it's a cold exposure leads to an increase in norepinephrine, which changes. is, have, so we have mitochondria in the cell, the little powerhouse, and it changes the charge of that.

mitochondria and it starts to create this excess of brown fat and brown fat is actually it's some cells with extra dense mitochondria inside. Which under Microsoft look brown. That's exactly why they call them brown. Yeah. Amazing. was like, my mind was blown and I really want to do more research because I know beyond fitness are very, very extreme health benefits to this to increasing the brown fat in your body. You know, I want to go to, I want to talk about the origin story.

Yeah, I wanna, this concept, you I often ask people, know, imagine you're a superhero, you're either you're Batman and you're walking down the alley with your parents, or you're, you know, you're a young Spider-Man, you're young Peter Parker about to get bit by that bug. Like, tell me that, where were you before this idea came to fruition? Yeah, the inciting incident, right, of any heroic story, so.

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (12:30.775)
I came to New York in February, it be 10 years. So I was lucky enough to have been given an athletic scholarship to George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia to wrestle in their Division I program. So was a Division I wrestler from 2003 to 2007. Shortly after I graduated, I got involved in the theater community. I was performing theater in DC. Loved that beginning. It's what brought me to New York.

came to New York in 2009, was doing all the jobs you can think of that parents wouldn't be proud of. Having had a college education, I was passing out newspapers, was what I considered the Michael Jordan of nude art modeling for a little bit at this one school. My dad had, I remember very vividly the conversation where he was like, know, most normal people get dressed to go to work and you get undressed to go to work. So how do you feel about that? I'm like...

It's paying the bills and it's in cash. it's, I'm a specimen. on. know, no false advertising. Uh, and what a great incentive to work out. Right. But, um, you know, all the while doing personal training and I started in the gym scene, a few blocks away here at the New York sports club on 23rd and eighth, I got to do a lot of private training and then move back to the corporate scene at a 24 hour fitness where this idea was born. And this idea came about when I was speaking with a client of mine who was a former Harvard professor.

and it was hotter in the studio than it was outside the day that we were training. And I remember her and I just having a conversation and she was just remarking on how she was her fittest, how she performed her best and how she just felt her best during the fall winter months in Boston. And as being a comedy guy, they say follow the unusual thing. So I was like, okay, if that's true, then why aren't we turning the thermostat down when it comes to exercise? Because I was one of those people

that saw excessive sweating as the barometer for a great workout experience. I I was cutting 15 pounds a week in water weight to make weight. You know, I would go from 220 pounds to 184 throughout the course of the wrestling season. that, and that had, you know, obviously sprung many different issues like body dysmorphic issues that I had that I'm still, you know, working through today. But that sat with me I was like, that's really interesting. And so I went home that night and just went down this rabbit hole on Google, trying to figure out if there was such a thing as a

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (14:52.281)
cold gym or a cool workout space. And I pride myself on being able to find things on Google and I couldn't find anything, so it was more of like a challenge to go, okay, I'm gonna find something. There has to be something like that. And there wasn't. And so what I did find was like some limited research, know, limited, by limited I mean like I only saw a few articles at that time, found more once I met Johnny a couple years later about how you burn more calories in cooler temperatures than ambient or hot because of your body having to work harder to stay warm.

brown fat is part of that equation. So the pun master in me, and I'm not even a master, I'm a participant at the very best. I'm in the game. I performed in Punderdome with my buddy Nick Tonnery, who is an improviser and comedian here in the city. had a pun, our team name was Fun Intended for Punderdome, which is performed in Brooklyn and I think now in New York. Joe Firestone, she's a phenomenal comedian. Her and her dad run that, but you know.

Getting back to your question, you know, thought of the name burn, but it's B-R-R-R-N. So I thought burr, like you're cold and burn, like burn more calories. And then when thinking of a symbol, cause you know, obviously the soul cycle symbol is iconic, you know, it's that wheel. And I was thinking, well, what really does represent this, that could represent this movement that I was hoping to start, or at least for the sake of completing the idea. And I thought a snowflake. That's how we, you you go to a water cooler,

The snowflake is a symbol for cold and also the symbol for being inimitable and unlike anything else is also a snowflake is from what they say. They're not, you know, one is not like the other. So then that sat on my computer and two months after thinking the idea, my wife was diagnosed with cancer and then everything stopped. I became a full-time caregiver from September of, or actually November 2nd of 2013.

until eventually she had passed in May of 2014. And her and I had met, her name was Lymarie. Her and I had met as college athletes. She was this five foot nine Puerto Rican bombshell who was emotionally and physically stronger than I was. A person who helped me become the best version of myself and had always prompted me to follow my foot on the things that excited me in life. And it wasn't until losing her that I realized that

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (17:19.579)
my life had shifted in my purpose and that I wanted to be a platform for others to experience something that's perceived as uncomfortable or a threat with the hopes of coming out on the other side better for it. And so in June of 2014, I came back into the city after being with my parents for about a month to sort of recalibrate and deal with all the things that a 29 year old widower would have to undergo and just put it

put that intention out there in the universe to want to start this thing, to fill this empty folder with something that can make it a reality. And I met Johnny Adamic in a private training studio in Soho. And he since he had left the public health world working for former mayor Michael Bloomberg on his OBC task force and was trying to personalize his health and wellness experience, trying to find a way to create his own platform. So I really saw that as an opportunity to have a conversation with him.

I liked how he was as a trainer. He also had an affinity for spandex. I unapologetically wear it without shorts because my mantra, if it's not tight, it's not right. I think that might be copywritten, but if it is, I do apologize. But bad jokes aside, there's something about him that made me say he was the other half to this concept. I told him, I pitched this to him in a coffee shop in Tribeca. And then literally the next day he's like, let's do this for real.

We did trials, our first being at Six Point Breweries Beer Fridge in Brooklyn, the next being in my hometown in Pennsylvania, at Bayo Zeiss in Swarovskville, Pennsylvania. I got a bunch of friends who were former college athletes to mothers who were, you know, months without working out, who wanted to get back in to really have a, you know, a good baseline to see if this is something that people could, that people would take a liking to. And so we did those two trials and then we

ran out of money because this was a side hustle. And it wasn't until we brought on our third partner, who was a former client of mine at 24 Hour Fitness, he came from the investment banking world and commercial real estate, that we realized that we needed that type of person. He was the Uncle Phil to our Carlton and I like to say Vivian, but sometimes Will, more of the times Will, sort of Fresh Prince of Bel Air business team.

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (19:44.667)
and he became our first investor and our other partner. because of that, pun intended snowball effect happened and we were able to raise enough money to be here, May 1st of 2018. What an incredible story. My heart, obviously my heart goes out to you as someone who's been through cancer. And I know what that does. And I always use the analogy of if your life is like this,

concrete block and I always think of the experience of going through cancer is like pouring water over the concrete and it goes in the cracks and it freezes and it just breaks everything apart because everything you thought you knew or you thought was important is completely changed. It'll never, there's never going back to before. I wondered if you couldn't just speak a little about the role of being a caregiver and how that changed you. Yeah.

Well, first off, mean, being a caregiver, have to acknowledge all the people that were around me, lifting me up. What I did notice initially was that a lot of people who are affected with cancer, there's a lot of light going to them to shine light in there during their dark times. And the caregiver is there to help be a lighthouse for their spouse or their friend or whomever. But it was a little bit lonely at first because, you know,

The people that were really coming to me were like close friends or my parents, but like everybody was like shining light to my late wife. And I think that caregivers can oftentimes be, you know, they're, not given the attention that they need. And luckily someone, a place like Gilded's club, which was very essential for me after, you know, in bereavement recognizes that and it gives what words are people who are having people who are affected with cancer and opportunities to voice.

how they feel, good or bad. But it was trying, it was a full-time job and trying to take care of someone that is your world while trying to make a living, know, because she had to leave her job and I was the sole provider and being an actor, writer, personal trainer, all the hyphens, thinking about do I need to leave everything and get a full-time job, what does that look like? It was a lot of stress, it was a lot of stress and

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (22:09.019)
It's easy to sort of say why me, why me, why me, but fortunately having the background that I had as a wrestler, a challenge was never something that I avoided. And if anything, I've been sort of groomed to lean into that. And so I saw it as a form of encouragement. So when things got tough, I sort of stood up and stood taller and just try to make sure that I took care of myself first.

making sure that I got enough sleep, make sure that I ate well, make sure that I was a positive voice for my late wife. And to not forget that funny side of myself that I was trying to share with other people when I came here to New York, to know that humor really is a great form of medicine and to have a sense of humor in the process, which is so needed. I mean, I remember a time where Lynn

I had made her food and she was watching some reality show and when she was done she just like lifted her plate in the air like almost to say take this plate for me and I had joked with her. was like, Lynn, look, you have cancer. You're not paralyzed. You can put your own dishes away. And though that may seem like somebody, like it's like insensitive, but like it was the jokes that we had and you know.

when she would walk out, I she had lost a lot of weight and she actually looked like, cause she was like about 185 pounds and she was a strong crossfit, like, you know, amazing, strong athlete as a, as a D1 rower. And she got like, as if someone who's like going from their bulk phase to their like cut phase, like she thinned down when she lost her hair, it made her look like, she looked, there was a new type of like sexy that she was in bond. She was already a bombshell, but,

people would say like, what's your secret? She's just like, I'm chemo skinny, you know, and just like would rock it. make sure her makeup was done. Her nails were done. Like that the femininity wasn't lost and, nor was her sense of humor. And so I think, you know, short story long, you know, is, is to not lose a part of yourself while you see somebody like slowly losing or trying to win a battle, like a battle that's often lost, you know, in the process. just,

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (24:31.387)
finding ways to continue who you've always been while embracing this new chapter in your life. I completely, I'm looking right behind you, there's a box and it just says, heavy. Heavy, right, yeah. It's funny how the universe will drop those little clues, but you can't lose that sense of humor. You've gotta stay in this, you've gotta stay in your heart and just be open to, know, life still happens.

we still make really dumb mistakes while we're going through chemotherapy and life still rolls out just the way it was. I think the more you can be open to that, better and more you can hold on to some sense of normalcy where you're going through one of those things. I just, my heart goes out to you, man. You're just, you're hero. And I had approached Jimmy and I knew, I said, I wanna talk to that guy. And right away we had this instant connection. I was like, he's gonna be on the show.

we're gonna come talk about this struggle and the things he's doing and what you're creating here in the heart of New York City with this amazing studio. How do people get started? How do they take their first class? What do you recommend? Yeah, I mean, what we've been doing now, especially in this new year where we've been seeing a lot of people embrace that whole new year, new you or new year, same me, whatever tagline you're living by at the beginning of the year.

to try for the first time for free. I think the one thing that both Johnny and I want to do is to be in the likeness of the boutique scene, like in terms of expectations of how a space should feel, how a workout should be programmed, but to provide that, like we've been saying, like small town manners, big city wit, to have that warm communal vibe that both Johnny and I are in admiration of what

Julie and Elizabeth have done at SoulCycle. If we can be anything close to their shadows, it would be an honor to have a place that you can really see yourself in and to be cool because of thermostat says. that's another one that we, more of the puns, but. Is there a t-shirt for that yet? Well, we have my workouts cooler than yours, but I think that's, you know, that might just live as a tote bag. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, we're getting there. But.

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (26:48.685)
Yeah, it's to try it for free because I think it's in the perception of what this is that may be the limiting factor. So we have a first-timer special. It's on our website at theburn.com, T-H-E-B-T-R-R-N dot com, where you can try it class for free. And then after that, if you enjoy it, we have a buy one, get one offer. And then after that, the choice is yours. We have paper class options. We have membership options.

We have referral programs. Yeah, I didn't want to be a place that was so money driven. I wanted to be accessible to all capabilities to meet people where their wallet's at. That's why we're also on ClassPass and PeerFit. And we want to make sure that people feel fit reserved to make sure that we can bring people in to have them go, wow, I've never experienced this before. Because I think it's very hard to experience new things. I mean, especially here in New York City.

There's a lot of more of the same and we knew that this concept was not just another branch on a tree. We were literally supplanting a whole other system to create something that's never been done before. And we're super proud about that. Yeah. I want to mention besides the cold therapy that you guys do have an infrared sauna in-house. Yeah, we do. The one thing, it was so interesting because we were pitching this to investors and mind you, we pitched it over 300 times. I mean,

When I see Shark Tank and I see all these other places, it's like PTSD, because I've been there. We've heard no. And the necessity of no as well, right? To refine what you are and who you are and what you want in those troubling times to never settle on the first draft. No writer writes the first draft and it's like, that's the script that we're buying. It's always in the revision. So we constantly refined our voice in those nos. And then the few people that said yes,

helped us develop what it is today. But going back to the infrared sauna, part of that was we wanted to say that, yeah, we do enjoy heat, but just not in the workout space. We see heat like dessert, not the main course. And so we say, earn your heat in the workout space, celebrate together in this communal infrared sauna. So we have eight seats that you can book independently of your workout experience in the fridge, as we call it.

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (29:01.935)
or you can do it after the workout for like sort of an add-on. But the infrared sauna is sort of, I compare it to what cryotherapy is for a cold plunge, it's sort of the optimized version of the sauna experience. Typically a dry sauna or a steam room has like a centralized heating stove that heats the water molecules in the air. So you sort of get heated from the outside in, whereas the infrared sauna, your body absorbs the light and in doing so,

your cells vibrate at a certain frequency. mean, Dr. Rhonda Patrick speaks about heat shock proteins, all these things. mean, Joe Rogan, big fan in more ways than one of him. But, you know, just to be able to tap into your parasympathetic nervous system to trigger that rest and digest response and to feel great. And it helps produce collagen. And people walk out like they just got a facial and they feel amazing. And they feel even better because they're alongside other people. It's not this like,

Individual experience where it's like me me me me me. It's like us us us us us and I just love how You know people have been coming to it in the in the fall in the winter now especially it's it's sold out most of the times early mornings even to the evenings and It really pushes that restorative the idea of having like some sort of restorative fitness experience in your life where you can literally get the most out of something by being still and So it just it completes the whole circle for us

I mean, that's how I found my way here. I actually have a client that I work with that's three blocks away who's going through Lyme disease. And then I have another person that I work with who's going through a heavy metal detoxification program. And infrared sauna is incredible for helping that process along, whether you're doing chelation, chelation IVs, supplementation. So we actually stopped in here just to do the sauna. And that's when I saw the vibe

you know, it's a communal thing. Everybody's in the sauna and it's social and people are talking about their day and work. And I thought it was the most fun I've had that I'll talk about on the radio in a sauna. And it was just a really nice experience. And that's why I approached you and actually, you know, we were about to walk out and then standing in the waiting room, waiting for the classes to begin, the vibe about all these people, if you guys could see it.

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (31:23.193)
the workout studios are built like an actual meat cooler. Yeah, yeah. Because we're mostly plant-based guys here, we say say a produce fridge, everybody goes back to Rocky with the meat locker and stuff. yeah, so essentially it's a commercial fridge that we've engineered and right now we're pursuing a patent to have it to literally own that space. And a lot of mechanics, a year of sitting with engineers to...

play with humidification and lighting and sound and refrigeration to make this one of a kind experience for people. But I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. No, no, I was just gonna say that the vibe going into the class.

People were giggling and laughing and it wasn't like people waiting to get and get their workout over. There was a clear energy in the room that people were charged up and were excited to go in and do it. And I know that's connected to the cold therapy, but I think it's also the community and the vibe that you guys are creating here in the space. It's a different experience. Yeah, I mean, we wanted to be the table that everybody can sit at. So it's fun to see people who are clearly at the top.

you know, the 1 % of people who have surpassed the goals that they had set and are, you know, quote unquote, influencers in the space. And to see people who are like, I gas out when it's ambient or hot. I want to be in a space that I can be encouraged to move. So to see them all doing the same thing together and to be encouraged to, you know, from minute zero to minute 50 to move.

to move well and to be like reinvigorated after a workout is like a really amazing thing. you know, what really stuck with me is we had two situations. One, there was a woman who had MS who after class pulled me to the side and she said, hey, my name is so-and-so and her name is not so-and-so. If it was so-and-so, that would be amazing. I'd be like, my gosh, you don't realize that's the amazing joke, but also your name. Say, any other place exacerbates my symptoms and

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (33:25.359)
For the first time ever in my work experience, I was able to not have to worry about that. I can truly be in the moment and not have to worry about, I'm feeling X, Y, and Z because of my condition. And that really stuck with me. And the same thing with some, you we have many people who have, you know, diabetes that come in here who feel amazing. And even my sister who had gestational diabetes, when she slept in a cold room and did cold showers, like her levels were lower.

I mean, we're onto something and though we can't say that this workout space does that, there is research being done at the Joslyn Diabetes Research Center in Massachusetts that really does enlighten people on the necessity of cold temperature exposure for bettering their health.

Dude, I'm so proud of you. know, it's, it's, you know, cause we both come from the theater background and you know, lots of people show up in New York to pursue acting or television or film. And then you watch as people fall away and they move or some people just come to this beautiful apex, which you have this beautiful center and a beautiful studio and you're doing really good things for people. They're benefiting. I love that story about the woman with MS. Cause in my head, even if it's at one person that

all this trouble was for. You never know how they're gonna spin off in that little butterfly wing experiment scenario. Yeah, totally. And going back, I really feel personally that I've always struggled trying to figure out how to identify myself. Am I an actor? Am I a writer? I was at one point not confident to say I was personal trainer. I was a little bit confident to say nude art model. That was cool to me. But I feel like Byrne is the amalgamation of all the things that I'm passionate about.

And having done work, I did background work on SNL. I wrote ads and commercials for big brands here in the city as a copywriter. And again, background being a performer and improviser here in the city through UCB and the People's Improv Theater. And then just being a former Division 1 athlete who was also a private trainer to C-suite execs and other influencers in multiple industries. It made sense that this was going to be the thing. And it was affirmed.

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (35:42.427)
Literally in one of the last conversations I had with my late wife when we were just talking about the things that we were most proud of each other. And I was just going on about how I was enamored over her ability to just walk into a room and just light up, light it up without even saying anything. And how her as a business banker here in the city, just like she just, she, she achieved a lifelong, a childhood dream of being able to come up here and making a difference on a, in a place where

you know, every person is talented and there's so much here in the city to compete against and she found a way to be noticed. And when I was, when I was, she was talking about me, I, you know, I was surprised by her answer because she said, I'm proud of the things I'll never get to see. And it like, it destroyed me when I heard that because we both know, we knew when she was told it was terminal that, you know, the things that I've always talked about doing,

that she won't hear like together in spirit she's here, but that she won't be able to see them. And she had said like, Jimmy burns the thing. It's not just an afterthought, it's not a funny play on words. Like it's the thing that you don't know is gonna be the thing for you. It's gonna be your legacy. It's gonna be the platform that you get to bring all the things that you're passionate about and to finally make it into one singular profession.

And to me, that was the endorsement to just unapologetically pursue this thing. And it's so unbelievable when I committed to doing it, how the path opened up. think a lot of people have a hard time trusting their gut, you know, and to just go into something without question and to not have a backup plan. I saw what the worst could be when she

died in my arms and to see the value of what the extent of life can be, I'm like, I got nothing to lose. I got nothing to lose. And I'm so grateful to have lived through that experience and to have come out on the other side, a better human being so that I can help other people become better human beings.

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (38:07.491)
That's incredible, man. You are the definition of somebody who is beautifully broken. And you've lived that and you're walking the walk. And I'm excited to be able to touch base with you on the ground floor and see where you guys are at in five years and 10 years. I'm going to ask this question and I don't know how you're going to answer it now. But we end the show with, would you trade the most painful experience of your life for easier days?

I would definitely trade it to see my wife again. I mean, that's without question. But I am grateful for having learned and having to have grown up so quickly in an experience that people don't necessarily experience till the end of their lives. Starting over is really important. I think people need to not say fail, but they need to, I think you learn so much about yourself.

when things are in your favor. My father has always said, and he was my coach my whole life growing up, Jim Martin, give him a little shout out, he's a great guy, a civic servant in his community in our small town in Pennsylvania, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He had said that winning builds confidence and losing builds character. And this was no, this whole experience built character for me.

and showed me what I'm capable of doing. Because if I was able to make it through this, anything else was just icing on the cake. And there's times here where it's hard. I I clean the toilets, I do the branding with Johnny, I teach the classes, I check people in, we fundraise. Which by the way, there's no fun in fundraising. I know like the word fundraise has the word fun in it. That's completely false, but debunked, right? Yeah, I mean, again, to answer your question,

I wouldn't trade what I learned in these moments of pain, but to see her again, to share this with her in real time would be something that I would definitely want. So I'm an intuitive and I feel things and I definitely see things on a different level sometimes. And when you said earlier in the interview, when you quoted your late wife,

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (40:33.753)
Jimmy burns your thing. I could, I literally felt her presence in the room. I could see that and I could almost see her with that statement. It was the most beautiful gesture of her opening the door for your spirit to literally go through 10 X growth. And that's evident. I'm just, again, I'm so, so honored to be in the room. No, that's my pleasure. You know, I believe in the power of coaching through questions.

as opposed to telling people what to do. I like to have them cue up the idea. And I think when you give people a prescriptive service, it's a, you put them down a narrow hallway. And I wondered if you couldn't leave the audience with a question that they can ponder about life, fitness, whatever you want it to be. And this will go on as they listen to this broadcast again and again. Yeah. You know, this question comes from someone that I think is,

A guy named by the name of Simon Zenick. He his I watched a video on YouTube about, you know, affirming your why like asking like your why because I feel that doing that, like the why is a purpose driven prompt that guides you to where you either need to go or what you need to leave in order to become the best version of yourself. So it asks people to constantly

find their why and in doing so you'll feel just like this relief of, oh, like I don't need to do this or oh, I don't need to worry about this. Like the wants versus needs. I know Mark Manson and his, I'm a big fan of the subtle art of not giving a fuck, apologize for the word fuck, but yeah. But his whole thing of like heck yes or hell no.

either doing something because you're drawn to it or to not do something because you're so opposed to this. Like living in that gray area, I don't think it's healthy for anybody. I've always prayed in gray as I said it, as I used to say. And now it's I'm so black and white. It's either yes or it's no. And, you know, being an improviser, it's always yes and, but there's a power of saying no, you know, not feeling like you owe anything to anybody. You know, be a good friend, be a good partner, be a good example for your community. But put me before we.

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (42:53.627)
If you don't take care of yourself, you can't take care of other people. And that's something I'm trying to constantly reinforce in my own life. And I want to comment before about just the title of your podcast and what that means to me to be beautifully broken. I believe it's an acknowledgement to essentially shed light on a dark part of yourself and to see it as a way to move forward.

Something's broken doesn't mean it can't be fixed and I don't think it's It could be misinterpreted But I think it's I think it's important to be vaunted to express your vulnerability and to say hey There's a part of myself that has that part of my life that has happened It's a troubling part But I can work through it and I could be better because of it and to see it as a strength and not necessarily weakness you know, it's it's what makes you you and and to embrace that as part of your story and to

know that it could connect you to more things than to disconnect you. It's beautiful. I want to ask, how do people get in touch with you on either follow Burn Studios, on social media, give us some names. Yeah, sure. So Burn is on Instagram at burn. So B RRRN. You can go to our website, which is just www.theburn.com

My Instagram page is at Jimmy T Martin and we're super happy with again, the traction that we've created eight months out. Couldn't have done this without our investors, without our, you know, with our families, without our publicist, Brittany Blake from Beeline Collective. She's a one woman show and has, we've given her that baton and she's crossed the finish line before everybody else. And so super, super.

fortune for her. We're super grateful for her abilities and I think anything, I'm just happy that this thing came to life. The victory or the dream came true when we were able to open these doors. Everything from this point forward is just icing on the cake, it's just added value. I'm so excited for people to get down here and try a free class. Your first class is free at Burn Studios.

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (45:20.149)
It was a pleasure to have you on the show. know we're going to do it again, because I know there's going to be more from you guys. Yeah, we're working on a lot of interesting things. know, where the next location is going to be, you know, some really interesting at home experiences. There's a lot to come. I'm super excited about what the future has in store for us and super grateful to be on this podcast. So thank you, Franny.

Freddie Kimmel and Jimmy T. Martin (45:54.507)
If you liked today's episode, are you kidding me? Liked? I loved today's episode. Jimmy Martin, my hat goes off to you. A hero, you've persevered. You showed up like a true human being and we are going to hear more from you. And I can't wait for the audience to hear this episode. Although if you're hearing this now, you already did. moving along. Guys, this episode of the beautifully broken podcast was brought to you by our sponsor, AmpCoil.

Upgrading the vibration in hearts minds and bodies across the world Thank you so much for tuning in if you enjoyed today's show head on over to iTunes or Spotify or freddysetgo.com and leave a review and grab a download and Subscribe when you do that for this podcast that simple little action helps spread the message very far

Now, if you want to connect with me, shoot me a message on Instagram at freddysetgo and send a request or a topic or a guest that you'd love to have on the show. That's it for today, my friends. Our closing, the world is hurting. We need you at your very best. So take the steps today to always be upgrading. And remember, while life is pain, putting the fractured pieces back together can be a beautiful process. I think we've just seen that.

I'm your host, Freddie Kimmel. This is the Beautifully Broken Podcast. Namaste.