What's The Best Form Of Cryotherapy?

Does the idea of cold water get you shivering from the thought alone?

Despite the challenge and initial shock, many people are still braving the cold for the benefits that it provides, including reducing inflammation, improving mood and mental health, and even supporting weight loss.

But as you dive into the research on the different forms of cold exposure, also known as cryotherapy, you’ll find that there’s more than one way to face your fears.

You can turn your shower to cold and step under those icy droplets, plunge your whole body into an ice bath, or enter a cryotherapy chamber that drops the air temperature with liquid nitrogen.

What’s the best way to brave the cold?

Here are a few findings from research as well as experiences from our Flow Spa clients on what they prefer.

Rain Down On Me

Many people will start on their cold water journey by taking cold showers. It’s accessible and realistic for most of us to do, at least part of the year.

Online communities for cold water afficionados often kickoff new recruits with one month cold shower challenge. Mentally this is very challenging because you have to force yourself to turn that tap to cold and stay under the icy needle points of water as they land on you. This in and of itself is a great and powerful usage of cold water. It helps to build self-confidence and comfort in facing other challenges in your life.

But taking a cold shower isn’t likely going to work as well for the other benefits of cold water immersion as you’re not getting the whole body anti-inflammatory effect of submerging yourself up to the shoulders. So it doesn’t seem as effective for improving recovery.

Depending on where you live, cold showers are also only available for about half the year because as the water supply temperature warms up in the spring and summer, the water coming out of the tap can be above 60 F and no longer very effective for deliberate cold exposure.

Do You Get 10X The Results with a Cryotherapy Chamber?

Cryotherapy chambers are marketed as being more effective than cold water immersion but are they really?

At more than 10 times the cost of a cold water immersion set up, it isn’t feasible even upon first glance to think that a cryochamber could be that much better. And research leans far in favour of cold water immersion being superior. Over 90% of the studies done on the effects of cryotherapy have looked at cold water at the mechanism for cold exposure.

Anecdotally, from our clients who have tried both cryotherapy chambers as well as ice baths, they have found the cold water to feel much more challenging, which increases the mental toughness boost from the experience, but also have felt better from their recovery from training after the cold water.

So what makes cold water that much better?

Cold Water Immersion

All of the options we’ve discussed are cold, so what’s the biggest difference that has cold water immersion reigning supreme?

It’s likely due to the better conduction of heat away from the body when immersed in cold water. The shower doesn’t cut it because you can’t get your whole body covered in cold water enough and while the air in the cryochambers gets much colder, our body creates a warm air vapour barrier against the cold air that mitigates the effect.

So having heat drawn from our body all in one encompassing effect in the cold water helps to create that anti-inflammatory effect and the challenge is much higher mentally than the other options because our body sends out the signal that we must get out. This is what creates the spike in dopamine and norepinephrine in cold water that promotes a boost in mood and mental health as well.

But because it is so cold and challenging, it can be hard to get started in doing full cold plunges, which is why there’s one more level that’s our own secret weapon to the best and most beneficial cryo experience.

Our Pick of Plunge - Contrast Both Hot and Cold Tubs

Contrast thearpy involves alternating between extremes in heat and cold. With our setup, we like to use the infrared sauna to relax into the experience and spend some time warming up before entering into the extremes. Then alternating between hot tub and cold tub will allow you to brave the cold without as much of a problem since you can immediately transfer back into the hot tub when you need to. This allows you to spend more total time in the cold than you would otherwise, extending the benefits of the anti-inflammatory effect.

The contrast also acts like an additional pump for circulation to enhance blood flow and recovery by dilating the blood vessels in the heat and constricting in the cold.

It provides the right amount of challenge for the mental toughness benefits of the cold plunge while also generating a massive boost in feel good hormones because you accomplished something tough and pushed your body through the extremes.

Book a session for yourself or challenge a friend to come in and feel the difference with you!