Ice and rest – Whole Body Cryotherapy to speed healing

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I am a serious practitioner of Parkour. I train at least 4 times a week, and push myself pretty hard.

I am not a performer I just enjoy the art, movement and the level of fitness required to even achieve a basic level of ease when running/climbing over obstacles. As a result of my training, I occasionally injure myself. I had sore knees last summer, got a sprained ankle earlier this year, and am currently contending with a strained rotator cuff and trapezius muscle with a pinched nerve in there somewhere. My entire right arm, all the way to my finger tips is constantly tingling and sometimes numb. It’s been like that for more than a month.

I was doing probably too many dips when my right arm collapsed. A few days after this happened, the pain was excruciating. I could not stand up with out grimacing and hunching over. I got acupuncture, various kinds of massage and even cupping! That helped a lot. But what really helped was ice. I iced nearly every night for three weeks. It kept the pain down, it felt great and it sped up the healing process.

My trainers/coaches always told me “Ice and rest”. I ignored them on both counts until this injury. And only now, I am resting my right arm and the healing is picking up even more.

I came across a bizarre article in the NYTimes about Whole Body Cryotherapy (WBC). There have been times where a bed of ice would have felt pretty great some nights after training but the temperatures involved with cryotherapy get down to around -110^o F! There is no natural temperature like that on the planet!! Athletes stay in this chamber for only 2 – 3 minutes at a time, waving their limbs around in order to keep the blood flowing.

There have been conflicting clinical studies about this but professional athletes seem to enjoy it. [1]

Whole Body Cryotherapy

WBC can also be dangerous. If any article of clothing is even a little damp going into the cryo-chamber, that area of the body will get frost bitten.

I don’t think I’d ever do cryotherapy for injury, but perhaps this will simultaneously help us gain insight into how to freeze the body for deep space shipping