Cryotherapy by Catherine Cooper

Cryotherapy is almost mainstream in many parts of Eastern Europe where it is used to treat ailments such as arthritis and osteoporosis while athletes use it to ease injuries and improve performance.

The super-freezing treatment also increases the release of happy-hormones endorphins and is billed as easing tension and inducing calm. It is for all these reasons that people are queuing up to experience cryotherapy at Aquacity so I thought I’d give it a try.

After a very brief medical examination we were given our special cryotherapy clothes to protect our modesty and extremities – blue cotton shorts (and T-shirts for the ladies), white ski-socks, clogs, an insulated head band to protect ears and foreheads and oven-glove-like mittens. Clothes that aren’t 100% natural would freeze inside the chamber.

We were also given paper disposable masks to wear and rather alarmingly warned not to breathe too deeply to avoid the very dry, cold air damaging our lungs.

The cryotherapy chamber is actually made up of two chambers which look like medium-sized saunas taking six to eight people at a time. The huge door was opened and we stepped into the first chamber, set at a relatively balmy –60°C. Even this felt indescribably cold, but so far, so good.

After half a minute the door to the second chamber was opened and we went in. The cold air hit almost like a wall and I tried to concentrate on not breathing too hard. In this chamber we marched round in a little circle like caged animals as instructed, our clogs making a rhythmic “clump clump” sound on the floor while Dr Jan Potocky kept an eye on us through the window in the door and said things like “Welcome to minus 120 degrees!” through the microphone. Shivering in my shorts and T-shirt, it was certainly surreal.

It’s a strange kind of cold inside the chamber – because the air is so dry it isn’t as unpleasant as you might expect but after just a few seconds I started feeling prickles in the back of my calves which quickly spread up my legs and all over my arms. The prickles quickly became more intense, ending up somewhere between pins and needles and a dull stabbing.

As soon as we entered the second chamber a dense fog had started forming and by the time Dr Jan said “Everyone alright? One minute up, time to walk the other way!” it was almost impossible to see. I realised I was concentrating so hard on my breathing I had started to hyperventilate so decided one minute in the chamber was enough for me – my braver chamber-mates stayed in for two. Stay in for much more than four minutes and you would apparently enter a euphoric state, closely followed by death.

Immediately after coming out we were led up to a gym to do 20 minutes of cardio-work to bring our body temperatures, which will only have dropped by 0.1 to 0.2 degrees, despite the extreme temperatures.

So did I feel better for my cryotherapy session? Yes. But that may have been my relief to still be alive and the couple of gin and tonics I had to get over the shock