What You Should Know About Cryotherapy
Have you been pushing yourself extra hard during your workouts recently? Maybe you’re a weekend warrior clocking hours and miles running, biking, or doing obstacle course races. Regardless of what it is, you’ve probably got some sore muscles and aching joints that are reminding you of your hard work. Now you’re trying to figure out what to do so you can get back to moving around the house normally and not like the mummy just awoken from a 1000 year sleep. You could take some ibuprofen, do some stretching, light cardio, or sit in your chair contemplating why you signed up for all that to begin with. Or how about you strip down to your underwear, put on a pair of gloves, heavy socks, and something to cover your ears. Then stand in a giant freezer where the temperature is between -130 and -200 degrees for two to four minutes. If that got your attention, then you need to try cryotherapy.
If you’re reading this you’ve probably heard of the word “cryotherapy” and are wondering what it is and if you should try it. Despite it’s recently popularity cryotherapy isn’t anything new. If you’ve been around athletics or simply watched sports for any period of time you’ve probably seen some level of cold therapy. You’ve likely seen pitchers or quarterbacks with bags of ice strapped to their shoulders after the game. Or maybe you’ve seen athletes sitting in giant metal bathtubs filled with ice. However, what most people think of when they hear the term cryotherapy is that space age looking device you walk into or what’s technically called “whole body cryotherapy” (WBC). Like you, I’ve heard a lot about WBC recently. It seems like every podcast, interview, or article I read mentions cryotherapy for performance and recovery. So I decided to look into it and try it out myself.
What’s the Science & How Does It Work?
Remember that time you sprained your ankle. as soon as you could you put a bag of ice on it? That’s a form of cold therapy used for acute injuries all the time. The idea is that lowering the tissue temperature slows down what’s called secondary injury where the blood collects in the tissue causing bruising and swelling. That’s the concept behind whole body cryotherapy. Advocates of WBC explain that being in the chamber lowers your whole body temperature, reducing bruising and inflammation throughout the entire body . When you get out and your body warms back up, a fresh surge of oxygenated blood coming back into your extremities helps healing and recovery. A 2017 review of studies on athletes in the International Journal of Sports Medicine suggested that WBC can reduce muscle pain, inflammation and cell damage. Other research has shown that athletes feel like they recover more quickly from hard strain after using cryotherapy.
Despite cold therapy treatments being used for centuries and cryotherapy used in Japan since the 1970’s to treat multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, there’s little scientific research one way or the other. It isn’t regulated by the FDA and isn’t approved as a medical treatment. It’s simply a supplemental health and wellness treatment.
What’s the Benefit of Whole Body Cryotherapy?
Depending on where you look you can come up with quite a few benefits to cryotherapy. The most common benefits listed include:
Reduce migraine symptoms
Numbs nerve irritation
Reduced arthritic pain
Muscle and joint pain relief
Improved skin (anti-aging)
Weight loss
Improved mood and energy
The first five of those benefits listed for cryotherapy all relate back to the reduced inflammation and improved blood flow mentioned previously. The theory behind cryotherapy weight loss is that cold temperatures force your body to work harder to stay warm therefore burning more calories. As for the improved mood and energy, who doesn’t feel better after being near frozen to death and surviving? Seriously though, the theory is that cryotherapy helps release endorphins and your natural adrenaline along with getting your blood flowing (think fight or flight response). All of that is helpful for people experiencing anxiety and depression.
While there are immediate short term benefits (or perceived benefits) from cryotherapy, there’s little research to support long term effects. Cryotherapy shouldn’t replace regular exercise for weight loss. 3-4 minutes per day being cold won’t have the same long term health benefits of regular exercise and healthy diet. It also shouldn’t be used in place of a mental health professional for anxiety or depression.
What’s it Like?
When I decided to try out cryotherapy for myself I didn’t have to look far. US Cryotherapy had just opened up a few miles away from my house and literally right off the exit I took to and from work every day. When I arrived, the process was just like any other health club or wellness center; a quick sign in to provide contact information, answer general health questions, and sign a waiver confirming I understood what I was getting into. (note: this is just like doing any other physical activity for the first time. If you’re taking medications, have health issues, or are just unsure about your ability to handle it, check with your physician before booking a session.) I had met the manager Megan previously at an event and after signing in she gave me a quick tour to show me all the services they had to offer. Most cryotherapy businesses offer a variety of modern healing and recovery options beyond the cryo chamber and I was excited to see that they had Normatec compression therapy, Joovv light therapy, infrared sauna, and cupping.
After showing me the exercise equipment where you literally warm up after your session, we came to the cryo chamber. As I stripped down to my shorts Megan explained everything I’d need to do to have a great experience. To keep me safe during the process I needed to wear protection over my eyes, ears, mouth/nose, feet, and hands. The reason is because the temperature in the cryo chamber is -160 degrees or lower which means anything that you touch gets instant frost bite. In addition, as your body pools it’s resource to protect your organs, smaller body parts with poor circulation like fingers, toes, and ears are at risk of freezing. So with earmuffs, thick wool socks covering my ankles so my achilles didn’t snap, and thick wool mittens (all cleaned and provided by US Cryotherapy by the way) I headed to the door to enter the cryo chamber.
US Cryotherapy has a large multiperson chamber that resembles an industrial walk in freezer or an air lock chamber you’d see in a space movie. When you enter the first part the -33 degree temp hits you in the face like a brick wall. My heart skipped and I did that natural gut reaction gasp as Megan closed the door closed behind me. After a few seconds the light overhead turned green I was clear to open the second door to go into the main chamber where the temp would be at it’s lowest. Strangely enough after the initial blast from the smaller entry chamber, the now colder temp didn’t feel that bad. I moved into the middle of the chamber where I could look out the window at Megan running the controls. I gave her a thumbs up that I was good to go and she reached down to do two things, start the timer and start the music.
You can safely do cryotherapy for up to 4 minutes without risk of hypothermia. Megan recommended two and a half minutes as the standard time most people do cryotherapy, but I could always stay in longer or come out sooner depending on how I felt. During the tour she had asked my favorite band and I was pleasantly surprised when Foo Fighters came on over the speakers. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. I took a few moments to calm my body and senses. I closed my eyes and took long slow breaths to slow my heart, feeling the cold settle in on my skin and again thinking this wasn’t as bad as I thought. After about a minute I started moving around. Not so much to warm up but to pass the time. Doing something like cryotherapy is more mental than it is physical so moving around gave me the feeling that I wasn’t just freezing, but was actively participating in my wellness some how. However, the ultimate goal of cryotherapy is to drop your skin temperature 30-45 degrees so the more time you can spend calmly letting the cold do it’s work the more you’ll feel the benefits.
When your body goes into hypothermia it’s first priority is to keep you alive by protecting your organs. It’s why you get frost bite so easily in your extremities (i.e. toes, fingers, nose, etc.). Your body is pulling all that warms and circulation to keep your heart, lungs, and liver going so you can live. As time went by and the circulation slowed in my muscles and joints I felt my body get slow and stiff. When my two and a half minutes were up I heard Megan’s voice over the speakers tell me I could head to the door. While the time went a lot faster than I thought, I was still plenty ready to come out. As I got to the door to exit back into normal room temperatures Megan met me with a skin thermometer. From when I entered to now coming out I had dropped by skin temp from 98.2 to 62.7 degrees.
I sat down to take off my arctic protection and slowly let my body warm back up. After a few minutes I slipped my socks on and headed for the treadmill to walk and get the blood flowing again. As my body warmed up with the blood circulating normally it felt like my body got lighter. Joints that had been stiff from my previous days workout now felt loose. Muscles that had been sore felt fresh. I felt like I wanted to go work out. As I stretched and finished putting my shoes and shirt on, Megan told me they have members who do a session in the morning and evening every day. I understood why. I could see how it would help me feel fresh and ready to face the day or loosen up to recover from whatever I had done.
Just like any idea or practice you can find people who love cryotherapy and people who hate it. If you were to ask me if I recommend it I’d definitely say yes. Since my first session I’ve gone back to US Cryotherapy several times to help in my recovery. I typically work it in as part of bouncing back from major competitive events, especially when I have consecutive weekend activities planned. There are a lot of recovery and healing practices you can use to feel better from exercise or life in general. What I like about cryotherapy is that it’s fast (literally less than 5 minutes), I don’t need to shower or clean up afterwards, and after every session I feel refreshed and ready to take on my next physical challenge.
