Cryotherapy is a great way to heal your injuries, but did you know that you can speed up the healing process? Here is a complete guide to how you can make cryotherapy treatment more beneficial to your health.
We included sections on everything from what to do after cryotherapy and other self care treatments to go along with cryo.
How to speed up healing from cryotherapy? You can implement a variety of different things into your self care routine to speedhing cryo’s healing process. This includes doing treatment at specific times, implementing massages, getting more sleep, and improving your diet.
What is the Best Time do Cryotherapy?
You can do a cryotherapy session at any time you think will be more beneficial for you. Doing a cryo session before or after a workout will benefit your body in different ways.
Pre Workout Cryotherapy
Some studies have shown that doing a cryotherapy session 30 minutes to an hour before a workout can be beneficial. Both Sports Medicine and Muscle and Fitness Magazine did their own studies on pre workout cryo and it showed numerous benefits.
Their tests showed that doing cryotherapy pre workout increased their flexibility and blood flow. It also increased oxygen levels in their body which made pre workout cryo perfect to do before endurance training.
They both noted that they had better training sessions after doing a whole body cryo session.
Post Workout Cryotherapy
Post workout cryotherapy has also shown to be beneficial to an athlete’s body. Doing whole body cryo at this time can help reduce inflammation and soreness from a hard workout. Allowing an athlete to recover faster and be able to get through your next training session pain free.
Can I Eat Before Cryotherapy?
No, you should never eat anything before doing a cryotherapy session. Most cryo centers note that you should avoid eating anything 1-2 two hours before doing cryo.
Foods that you should avoid eating before cryotherapy include anything containing high carbs or sugar. To get the most benefits out of whole body cryo, you should always avoid eating before you go in.
Ways to Speed Up Healing From Cryotherapy
There are a wide variety of things that you can do to speed up healing from cryotherapy. Here are some of the most beneficial things you can implement to speed up the cryo healing process.
Massages
Both cryotherapy and massages have similar positive effects on the body. They both decrease the activation of muscle spindles that hit trigger points which cause nagging pain. Also helping remove built up lactic acid from hard training sessions.
Implementing massages and cryotherapy into your recovery routine can have numerous positive effects on your training and overall health. Cryotherapy can reduce inflammation in your entire body while massages can pinpoint sore areas on your body and release muscle tension.
Cryo centers are well aware of the benefits of mixing massages and cryotherapy together. Which is why many of these businesses have massage chairs, wands, or even registered massage therapists on their staff.
Offering massages to go along with a whole body cryo session.
Yoga/Stretching
Yoga and stretching has been used for years as ways to destress your body, increase flexibility, and reduce inflammation. Doing yoga or stretching regularly along with cryotherapy can be extremely beneficial to your health.
After a cryo session, your body is more relaxed and your blood flow increases. Due to this increased relaxation and blood flow, your body is under less stress. Allowing you to go deeper into stretches and improve your flexibility.
Having better flexibility will not only increase your range of motion, but also prevent you from getting injuries. Improving your overall quality of life.
Sauna
Most cryo centers not only offer cryotherapy, but also offer infrared sauna sessions. These businesses will often recommend sitting in one of their infrared saunas for twenty minutes after a cryo session.
This practice of mixing hot and cold therapy is something that people have been doing for centuries. By sitting in a freezing cryo chamber for a short time, your muscle soreness and blood flow will increase.
Since your blood flow increases, this is a good time to switch from an extreme cold environment to a hot environment. You will sweat out more toxins in your body and further improve your recovery.
Routine sauna sessions have also shown to improve your endurance while also decreasing your glucose and LDL cholesterol. Which is why doing both hold and cold therapy will no doubt improve your training and overall health.
Proper Diet
Many people do routine cryotherapy sessions, but still suffer from inflammation and fatigue. They may think that the sessions aren’t working, but it’s actually something they’re doing wrong in their routine. Their diet.
Your diet plays a huge factor on how your body feels and performs. Whatever you put into your body plays a factor in how you feel and train.
A diet consisting of high carbs, sugar, and alcohol will increase your lactic and glucose levels. Making you feel sore and sluggish.
To get more out of cryotherapy and improve your overall health, you need to maintain a healthy diet.
Drink More Water
Another thing to improve the benefits of cryotherapy is proper hydration. You need to drink plenty of water before your session and after your session.
Water is incredibly important for your body to function properly. It won’t matter how many cryo sessions you take if you don’t hydrate your body.
Your body will continue to be chronically sore and you’ll never recover from your workouts. Aim to drink at least a gallon of water to help achieve all of the benefits of cryotherapy.
Improve Sleep Routine
The most important thing you can do to increase the benefits of cryotherapy is to improve your sleep routine. Sleep and rest are the most important things you must make a priority.
Not only to help improve the benefits of cryo, but your overall quality of life. Doctors and sleep experts aren’t kidding when they see you must get 6-8 hours of sleep a night.
This rest time is extremely important for you to have energy and function through the day. No amount of cryotherapy will make up for your body’s pains if you’re not getting enough sleep.
Cryotherapy + A Better Routine= A Better Life
The positives of regular cryotherapy can drastically speed up your body healing. But cryo alone won’t help improve your training or quality of life.
Adding any or all of the things listed above will definitely speed up the healing from cryotherapy. Once you add them along with routine cryo treatments, you’ll immediately notice the positive effects.