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!
Cryotherapy For Recovery and Pain Relief
I first drafted this blog post as I entered the final week of preparation for the Canadian Strongman national championships a few weeks ago. The context as I had written it was perfect so I didn’t want to change anything up in that regard even though the competition has been over for about a week and a half.
There are countless factors in the world today that contribute to what amounts to a chronic state of inflammation for most of the population. Giving your body the chance to literally chill out is paramount to wellness and keeping inflammation under control.
While I don’t often galavant around with my training for strongman, I’ve come to realize that it’s of interest to our Flow Spa audience, a group that includes many athletes both past and present who are seeking to recover and remain pain-free.
Research has supported a lot of benefits to cold exposure - often known now as cryotherapy - and at its core, it comes down to three main benefits:
Eliminating inflammation.
Reducing pain and boosting feel-good hormones norepinephrine and dopamine.
Increasing blood flow and circulation.
I recently talked about a couple of the keys ways that I use floating for recovery from heavy training, as it positively impacts the physical beat down of heavy weightlifting along with the nervous system overload.
Something that is not just present and pervasive in heavy training athletes but most of our society is a problem with inflammation. Our gruelling exercise regimes contribute to this issue but so does our less than ideal diet, sleep patterns, long work hours, and constant exposure to the blue light of buzzing devices.
My absolute favourite method of immediate sports recovery is contrast therapy which utilizes hot and cold tubs or sauna combined with cold exposure to induce a powerful anti-inflammatory effect.
This method of recovery does take more gumption than going in for a relaxing float and so it’s not suited for everyone but the research on the anti-inflammatory effects of cold exposure certainly makes this therapy compelling. Runners who immersed their legs in cold water immediately after hypertrophy-stimulating workouts inhibited that muscle growth compared to runners who did not use cryotherapy. This research has led experts to agree that the best time to include contrast therapy or cryotherapy is not immediately post-training like the football teams of old.
Instead, it’s best to do it on days off or as far away from training as possible.
So if you were to train in the morning, it would be best to do your contrast therapy recovery at night. This consideration is most important when you are trying to stimulate muscle growth or strength gains with your training. If you are just working out for health, it won’t be as big of a deal for you. Another caveat is that I consider it a positive to include contrast therapy to reduce the turnaround time between events placed closely together, like when an athlete has a weekend full of tournament games to play and needs to be fresh for the finals.
When it comes to general pain and inflammation these powerful effects still apply, acting like a natural dose of ibuprofen to kick out inflammation and reduce pain. The circulation effects are also very beneficial for those who gradually increase their tolerance and exposure to contrast therapy so as to not shock the system too severely. While soaking in the warm water of the hot tub, blood vessels dilate and then when moving to the cold tub the autonomic response of the nervous system is to constrict the blood vessels to keep the core temperature up.
Moving back and forth from hot to cold therefore acts like and additional pumping mechanism to move the blood through the circulatory system. Increased circulation through any mechanism has been associated with reductions in cardiovascular disease and the incidence of a heart attack.
The other benefit of cold exposure in keeping the body and core temperature warm is that it activates a special type of fat in our body called brown adipose tissue (BAT) which is metabolically active, unlike typical fat stores, and increases in BAT activation is associated with weight loss. Another cool effect (pun intended) of cold exposure is that has been confirmed in the last couple of decades is that we can overtime increase our stores of BAT which was previously thought to be impossible and this can lead to consistent increases in our metabolism over time.
Finally, both the shock of heat and cold lead to euphoric sensations and increase our mood. You may have heard the old story of how Van Gogh was subjected to daily ice baths as a way to control his mercurial mood. Our bodies are incredibly adept at staying in a happy norm but when we push ourselves out of our comfort zone, there are interesting reward mechanisms in place in our bodies. Both heat exposure and cold exposure that leads to an initially uncomfortable feeling in our body lead to the release of a hormone called dynorphin. It’s a kind of protective mechanism in our body that tells us we’re in a situation that we need to be vigilant of and get away from. But when we maintain conscious control to keep ourselves in an uncomfortable situation and literally push past that metaphorical comfort zone, there’s a subsequent rise in endorphins to balance out that dynorphin release, along with a boost in dopamine and norepinephrine which lead to euphoria and a clear focus.
If you ever do take the plunge and try an ice bath, getting out of it you feel incredibly refreshed and focused. I liken it to a cup of coffee without any hint of anxiety or jitters to go along with it.
Any hot or cold exposure can also help us sleep better as one of the primary sleep-inducing signals to the body is a drop in body temperature which can come from either getting really warm and letting your body cool back off before bed or literally plunging yourself down in temperature with cold exposure prior to sleeping. Either way leads to deeper and more restorative sleep.
Reach Out If You Want To Learn More About How Contrast Can Help You
Use This Morning Routine For Stress-Free Living
All I have is good days.
As I spring out of bed ready to tackle the day and all of the challenges in front of me, I think back to when it wasn’t like this - when the mortal coils of the daily grind seemed to close a little bit tighter around me day after day.
With the right morning practices in place you can inoculate yourself against a lot of the mundanity of daily life and start to find more joy in living mindfully and paying attention to the little things that matter.
Fortunately, I am a morning person and so I do understand that the feeling of a great morning is going to be different for some people. If you gravitate towards the night, then just being able to roll out of bed before 9 may be a victory for you if you’ve owned the previous night and gotten the most out of that quiet time.
Regardless of your disposition towards mornings or nights, we do live in a society that tends to require you to prepare yourself well for the mornings before distractions and stress start to creep in from every direction. If you feel yourself stressing out almost as if the cortisol were oozing out of your adrenals by just thinking about the daily grind, try taking action towards these following tips for starting your morning with a routine that can combat your stress all day.
First Thing’s First:
Keep your phone off. If you really want to start the day off right and without your cortisol levels spiking from a cascade of notifications, keep your phone powered off or at least on airplane mode as you go about starting your day.
Practice Gratitude
One of the simplest ways that you can improve your morning routine is by practicing gratitude. If you are also going to start journaling your thoughts (see below) it can benefit your to write down the things you are grateful for, or you may just want to think about and meditate on them. I find it more powerful to write the things I am grateful for down, an important practice that I will talk about more in the next tip on affirmations.
Tony Robbins talks about including a morning gratitude practice as part of his 10-minute routine to prime his body and mind for a great day. Robbins’ gratitude practice includes thinking about 3 things he is grateful for and spending about a minute on each one. When coming up with 3 things to be grateful for, he recommends that you include one that is a small, simple thing in the present moment to be grateful for.
This simple object of your gratitude could be the cool glass of water you’re drinking or the sun creeping over the horizon.
Whatever it may be, feel grateful for something in the present moment - this ties into living mindfully.
If you want to read more about Tony Robbins’ morning practice read this: https://www.businessinsider.com/tony-robbins-morning-priming-exercise-2017-7
Start Your Day with Intention - Affirmation
In addition to being grateful for 3 things and taking a moment to truly feel that gratitude, write down your intention either for this day in particular or for this overarching chapter of your life.
If you’re seeking a new job, write down that you will ace the interview:
“I will have a great interview today” or “I am the type of person who shows confidence at interviews."
If you’re trying to lose weight, you may write that your goal will be to lose 10 pounds, but also be specific in what steps you are taking on a daily basis to get there:
“I am the type of person who goes to the gym daily” or “I will not eat carbs before dinner.”
These “I am” or “I will” type of statements are more powerful than simply stating what you want because they tap into your subconscious and start the process of you actually identifying with the statement.
In Grounded in Gratitude, Josh Bryant talks about how writing down these intentions or affirmations is also very important.
By actually writing it down, the information is able to be shared by both the left brain and the right brain and so you can more powerfully work on making your goal a reality by synergistically combining the power of your whole brain.
The other benefit of writing your intention down is that by allowing your subconscious to start identifying with the statement, you will be primed to pick out more opportunities to act upon that goal in your everyday life.
Sound too good to be true?
Try it out and fully embody that intention and let me know how it goes.
Journal
Create a short, daily journaling practice to harness these affirmations and things you are grateful for. Tim Ferriss often talks about using a morning journalling routine to get the thoughts bouncing around in his monkey mind trapped on paper so that he can focus on what’s most important for that day.
I like to structure my daily journalling practice around the "Five Minute Journal" concept and then if there are thoughts in my head I need to structure better on paper I’ll write those down after I’ve completed the 3 steps.
The morning component of the 5-minute journal that I’ve adapted looks like this:
1. List three things you are grateful for:
2. List three things you must accomplish today (this is your Power List)
3. State your intention or affirmation for the day, or for this chapter of your life.
Move
Even if it’s just 3-5 minutes, move around and get your blood pumping as soon after you wake as you can. Do a brief yoga and stretching routine or chase your dog around the yard, as Aubrey Marcus suggests in Own The Day, Own Your Life. Moving, combined with the next tip, is more powerful than a shot of espresso to get you kicked into high gear and ready to start the day on a positive.
Cold
I saved this tip for last because it requires the most discipline to implement but is also the one that can have the most powerful effect.
"The Iceman” Wim Hof has popularized cold exposure on his quest to educate people on how powerful the cold and just breathing better can impact your quality of life and your health. Brief cold exposure in the morning fires up your nervous system and releases norepinephrine which will boost your mood and leave you feeling invigorated. Chronic stress exposure can wear down your immune system and leave you constantly battling illness. Research has now validated that the jolt to your body from brief cold exposure has a powerful effect on combatting chronic stress and will reduce your susceptibility to getting sick.
Tony Robbins also includes a cold plunge into his morning practice and has plunge pools installed at his homes to be able to do this daily.
That quick burst of firing your nervous system up in the morning leaves you feeling great and is one of the reasons that we built the contrast therapy room at Flow Spa. In this room, we have a hot tub along with a cold tub set to 5ºC. We will definitely be running the morning Wim Hof club for all of the morning warriors wanting to kickstart their hearts with a cold plunge.
There are a lot of different things that you can start to implement for having a better day and eliminating stress from your life. If you’re already stressed out it may seem like too many things to juggle at once, so instead of trying to add in everything at once, just pick the one idea that’s easiest for you to implement right away and start with that. Overtime as you start to feel the beneficial effect of the routine you can add in more steps to the harness the full power of a morning routine.