Several weeks ago, Brandon Yu contacted me to let me know about a new business in Annapolis–Thrive CryoStudio. The studio is located in the Gateway Center (Best Buy, Staples, PetSmart) and is a part of the new Symmetry Salon Studios.
I had heard of cryotherapy before and was intrigued as the concept had come up in conversations more the past year than my entire life–aside from the frozen Walt Disney. When Brandon offered me a chance to check it out first hand, I figured why not. So I did.
The experience was very cool (pun intended), quick, very non-frightening; and from my limited experience it seems effective.
The treatment takes 3 minutes with about 15 minutes of preparation for me as a new client. I suspect the subsequent treatments will be under 10 minutes long from start to finish. And it is really quite simple–you change out of your clothes (guys keep on their underwear) into a pair of heavy socks, slippers, gloves and a robe. You get into the chamber (that is not nearly as constricting as I expected) and take off the robe and just stand there.
The chamber is activated and the nitrogen gas begins to cool down to a -240 degree temperature. It is cold. But it is not a frostbite type cold. The thin skinned parts of my body felt the coldest (elbows, kneecaps), but all over it was a very cold tingling feeling. Not uncomfortable, just different. The cold started at my ankles and moved up my body and the nitrogen spilled out of the top of the chamber. My head was exposed all the time and warm. For those with claustrophobia the chamber does not constrict around your neck at all and I probably could have crawled out of the top if the place was on fire! As for the chamber itself, I had maybe 6″ or so of space around me and I could have (with some finagling) raised my hand.
The process took about 3 minutes and the temperature dropped to about -240 degrees and I turned 180 degrees about mid way to get the full exposure. When I was done, I just re-robed, got dressed and left. Very simple.
But does it work? Thrive CryoStudio does say that you should not expect any drastic results with one treatment. They also say that the treatment will likely leave you feeling more energetic–seems kind of obvious to me after being in a -240 degree chamber. But I can vouch for that. I did seem to have a lot more energy after the treatment. Additionally, the night before the treatment, I had slept strangely and my back had a bit of an ache that seemed to go away after the treatment.
While not FDA approved, the uses of Cryotherapy range from athletes and sports performance to health and wellness issue to peace of mind and body.
Will I give it another try? Absolutely. Aside from the occasional back ache, I am doing ok; but I did enjoy the process and the energy I seemed to get from it afterwards! And if it can help a backache–bring it on.
