Everything You Need to Know Before Your First Cryotherapy Session

You’ve heard all about cryotherapy from your friends and social media posts from celebrity athletes, or even read stories about benefits online. Now you’re curious to learn more and maybe even try it out for yourself; however, you probably have questions first. And even if you don’t and you are ready to go, there are still things you’ll want to consider before your first session. With any new experience, it’s important to be prepared. In today’s blog, we’ll discuss what a cryotherapy session is, the benefits and uses, and a few other things you may need to know beforehand.

What are the Benefits of Cryotherapy?

Cryotherapy was originally developed for addressing arthritic pain. The sub-zero temperatures calm the pain receptors and flush inflammation. Athletes later discovered the process also helped flush lactic acid build up which eliminated muscle pain and soreness and increased endurance. Cryotherapy is a great option for those who have an active lifestyle. Because Whole Body Cryotherapy triggers endorphins, additional benefits include better sleep and a boost to your mood and focus. Science shows cryotherapy increases metabolism and burns calories which helps with weight loss as well as boosts collagen for healthier skin and hair. Moreover, the whole body flush helps eliminate toxic cells helping boost immunity and keeping the body healthy.

What Do You Need for a Cryotherapy Session?

All you need is gym shorts and a sports bra and/or tank top. Everything else is provided. Because the therapy elicits vasoconstriction to bring blood towards the heart, we want to make sure your extremities are covered. We’ll provide head covering, gloves, socks and slippers and a medical grade mask to avoid breathing in the cold air. You’ll need to leave your cellphone and electronic accessories outside so they don’t crash in the cold, but you can certainly use wireless headphones if they are covered. We suggest removal of exposed metal jewelry as it can get pretty cold! Our chamber allows for up to three people at a time, but you’re always welcome to go at it alone for your own personal space and time.

What Happens Upon Arrival for your First Cryotherapy Session?

You’ll be asked to complete a general waiver and an Intake Questionnaire for a quick assessment on any injuries, medical conditions and overall health. There a few absolute contraindications including pregnancy and some severe heart conditions, but mostly just general discussion to give you a chance to ask any questions and feel secure about the experience. Dressing rooms are provided for changing. If you are cold or aren’t comfortable walking around the center in gym attire, we have robes available. We’ll outfit you for the experience and set music of your choice. To allow your body time to acclimate to the cold, we start new customers at 2:30 for the first session, increase to 2:45 the second, and settle on 3:00 for repeat visits. That’s all it takes to cool your body, increase metabolism, flush inflammation, produce endorphins and boost collagen.

Localized Cryotherapy is also available for any one particular site of pain. Because capillaries are opened during whole body cryotherapy session, the application of Localized Cryotherapy provides exponential healing (400x more per science) to any one site of pain when used immediately after the cryotherapy session. For those that don’t wish to use whole body cryotherapy, Localized Cryotherapy is beneficial as an individual application similar to an extreme ice pack

Try a Day Pass to experience red light therapy, whole body cryotherapy, localized cryo, vibration therapy and compression therapy. From Fort Walton Beach to 30A to Panama City and all along the Emerald Coat, come experience pain relief and wellness treatments at CRYO850. Contact us today for more information.

Can Cryotherapy Truly Help You Sleep?

There are a number of benefits to cryotherapy and some of them are still being discovered. A few minutes in a cryochamber can help to reduce chronic pain condition or pain from an injury. The cold exposure therapy can help to reduce stress, relax your body, and even help you feel more motivated and focused so you can go about your daily life despite your injury or chronic pain condition. One of the benefits most touted by cryotherapy users is the that cryotherapy helps them sleep better at night. But what’s the science behind this? Can cryotherapy truly help you sleep? The answer is yes, cryotherapy can help you sleep — and some of the reasons are actually clear when you consider the other benefits of cryotherapy. Let’s break that down in today’s blog.

Disrupted Sleep and Secondary Insomnia

Secondary insomnia refers to a type of insomnia that appears as a symptom for something else, such as chronic pain. Muscle pain can make it very difficult to fall asleep. For many chronic pain sufferers, even when they fall asleep, they’re likely to wake throughout the night due to their pain. Cryotherapy can be used to help reduce the occurrences of disrupted sleep and lessen secondary insomnia by addressing the root of the issue: the pain.

Reduces Inflammation

One of the major benefits of exposing your body to extreme cold in short bursts is that it reduces inflammation at the site of pain. Anyone who has suffered pain for an extended period of time knows inflammation can make it hard to fall asleep. After cryotherapy, you can say goodbye to nights of tossing and turning trying to get comfortable.

Positive Hormone Responses

Cryotherapy treatments also produce positive hormone responses that help to relax your body. This is excellent for pain management, as positive hormone responses like endorphins give your body more energy and clear your mind for better focus. It can also help to relax so you sleep more easily and with less interruption. And being able to focus and be more productive during the day will even help to ensure that you are tired by the end of the day, making it that much easier to fall asleep.

By helping to lessen the physical symptoms of pain — and even easing some of the mental and emotional symptoms of pain, cryotherapy can help you sleep better at night and wake more refreshed in the morning. This is just one of the many benefits of cryotherapy. Want to learn more about how cryotherapy can help you? Set up an appointment and try it for yourself. Contact CRYO850 today for more information or questions about scheduling an appointment.

How Cryotherapy Can Help Your Performance Recovery

For active people such as athletes and dancers, an injury can mean more than just pain. It can also hold you back from the activity you love. Injury recovery takes time and adds time to the process of building up muscle and performance fitness. Fortunately, cryotherapy can help. Cryotherapy involves short sessions inside a colCryotherapy d chamber to cool your body and address areas of pain and inflammation. Here are a few ways cryotherapy can help your performance and recovery.

Shortened Downtime

Cryotherapy shortens the time you taken away from the sport or activity you love. Athletes know periods of inactivity can affect their recovery progress and their overall performance. Short whole body cryotherapy sessions can help accelerate the recovery period which means less time away from training.

Muscle Repair

One key element of performance is the recovery of your muscles. With injury, muscles can tear or become inflamed. During the period of inactivity that follows an injury, you can lose muscle mass. Healthy blood flow provides the right nutrients to your muscles for repair. The short bursts of cold temperatures during whole body cryotherapy sessions boosts circulation and helps with post injury muscle repair.

Boosted Endurance

Cryotherapy not only assists with injury recovery. It also helps you to withstand more and prevent future injuries. Because cryotherapy helps to optimize blood circulation, the process helps provide your body with the nutrients needed for endurance. Long distance marathon runners and endurance athletes often incorporate whole body cryotherapy into their training regimen to withstand longer periods of activity to finish the race.

Increased Energy

Think about showers. When you want to relax after a hard day, we often take a long, warm shower. On the other hand, cold water provides energy and springs the body into action. If you need to wake up quickly to face the day, a cold shower is the answer. Cryotherapy has a similar effect. The cold serves as a jumpstart to your blood flow and your body as a whole. Cryotherapy helps to boost your energy to provide the motivation to increase performance and get back in he game.

Need help recovering from a sports or dancing injury? Cryotherapy is an effective and efficient way to boost your performance recovery. Whether you’re missing regular trips to the gym or the stage at the ballet, cryotherapy can help get you there faster. Contact CRYO850 today to learn more about whole body cryotherapy and the myriad of additional performance and recovery services we offer.

How Cryotherapy Can Help You Manage Arthritis

It can be hard to explain to someone on the outside, but when you suffer from osteo- or rheumatoid arthritis, it’s more than just aches and inflammation. It impacts your quality of life most days. You’re not able to be as active as you might like to be, and it can even have a severe negative impact on your mood, making you more stressed, anxious, or depressed. Finding pain relief that makes this manageable is essential to making osteo- or rheumatoid arthritis livable, and many people living with arthritis are finding relief through whole body cryotherapy.

Why?

The Next Level of Cold Therapy

The Arthritis Foundation has long recommended cold therapy for acute pain when it comes to arthritis. For some, this means applying ice packs or even a bag of frozen peas if you’re in a pinch. It slows blood flow to a particular area of your body, thus reducing the inflammation and swelling that cause your pain to flare. It also temporarily slows nerve activity on the site of pain, so that essentially, your body fails to remind itself to be in pain. Cryotherapy takes cold therapy to the next level, using extremely cold temperatures for a couple of minutes to refresh your whole body.

Flight-or-Fight Response

The effects of arthritis are more than just physical pain. Constant pain from inflammation can also cause stress to build up, which can, in turn, worsen your inflammation. It’s a vicious cycle. Cryotherapy can help this, too, by activating your body’s “flight-or-fight” response. In doing so, it activates endorphins and other positive hormones, releasing them through your nervous system. These hormones have been proven to reduce stress and boost your mood. They can even help you to have more energy throughout the day so that you can focus on what you love rather than your pain.

Improves Your Mobility

When it comes to arthritis, it’s essential to keep moving, to reduce swelling, improve joint function, and keep your pain at a low. This can seem like a bit of an oxymoron sometimes, especially when you wake up with stiff, swollen joints that hurt to move. This is perhaps the most common challenge that arthritis sufferers face. When you have cryotherapy treatments, your inflammation will be reduced, and your body will feel refreshed. Combine that with the lower stress and boosted mood, and you’ll find that you want to move. And the more you’re able to move; the more manageable your arthritis will be.

Arthritis can be a challenge to live with. The important thing is to keep your pain at a manageable level so you can live your life. Cryotherapy can help with proven effects of cold therapy now applied to your whole body. At CRYO850, we offer cryotherapy in comfortable cryo chambers with electric, nitrogen-free treatments to avoid nitrogen burns. Contact us today for more information or to set up an appointment.

 

The Health Benefits of Cryotherapy Amid COVID-19

In the past month, everyone’s life has been impacted in some way by COVID-19, more commonly known as the coronavirus. It may be that you’ve had to adjust to working from home, or that you’re a business owner experiencing a loss of income. You may know someone who’s sick, or you may be worried about getting sick yourself — or passing it onto someone you love. You may be missing your much needed social interactions due to social distancing.

In a time where high anxiety runs rampant, it’s more important than ever to practice self-care. Fortunately, cryotherapy has a number of health benefits that are perfectly suited to caring for yourself and even helping to protect yourself from the coronavirus and other illnesses.

Boosts Your Immune System

You’ve probably seen the word “immunocompromised” float around your social media feeds in the past few weeks. The truth is, for most of the population, the coronavirus proposes little if any threat at all. Many people won’t show any symptoms at all, and for some, it will be little more than the typical flu symptoms that we are used to seeing. However, those with lower immune systems are at higher risk, which can be a scary position. Studies have shown that exposure to cold boosts the immune system by increasing the body’s stock of immune cells. Essentially, cryotherapy allows you to build a firewall (or ice-wall) with your immune system to help protect you from the coronavirus and other diseases.

Reduces Stress

A glance at Facebook or Twitter will show that almost everyone is stressed right now. You may be shouldering quite a bit of stress yourself. Stress can be unpleasant to live with, and it can also impact your physical health as well as your emotional health. Cryotherapy is used as a stress relief for patients going about their daily lives, and it can offer stress relief during this trying, chaotic time as well.

A Solo Comfort

Health experts and government officials alike are all recommending social distancing to slow the spread of the coronavirus, so that hospitals aren’t overwhelmed, and the disease can be beaten thoroughly. Cryotherapy, however, remains a safe and wonderful place to escape from all the chaos of the outside world for a bit. Your time in the cryo chamber is a solo activity, and Cryo850 meets and exceeds all cleanliness and hygienic standards to keep our clients safe while they’re in this space.