Goodbye Icebaths Hello Cryotherapy by Lizl Kotz Owner of Lizl Kotz Performance Center

Siobhan Maize-avid endurance athlete trying out Whole Body Cryotherapy for the first time.

If you are already a believer in icing for injuries, tendinitis, and inflammation, keep reading.  If you have never found icing to be helpful or tend to get lost in the "does science back up icing",  it is unlikely that cryotherapy will be of benefit to you.  Being an active person who tends to push the limits, I have had many injuries along the way.  Plantar fasciitis, lateral epicondylitis, IT-band-itis.  Many of the pesky "itis" ailments have paid me a visit and I have found benefit in controlling pain and the length of being injured by applying raw ice.  Raw ice, is ice applied with little or no barrier between you and the ice.  A ziplock bag filled with small pieces of ice or a frozen styrofoam cup is as sophisticated as one needs to get to apply raw ice.  In comparison, gel packs and bean bags are comparatively whimpy cryotherapies and tend to warm up too quickly to get the job done.

I actually went into CryoEvolution in the Whole Foods Shopping Center (Houston Northcutt) as a non-believer.  Maybe I just did not want to believe that there may be yet another item to add to my menu of staying healthy.  After my first 3-minute session, I decided enduring three minutes of very cold dry air was really not so bad and that I would try it a few more times.  Well, a few more times turned into regular visits.  My main reasons for adding WBC (whole body cryotherapy) to my routine is that I truly feel that my body recovers faster after an intense workout and I do notice an increase in energy.  

My recommendation is that if you are an endurance athlete or an athlete who enjoys intense workouts, it really is worth your while to buy a monthly membership for $250 and make WBC a part of your routine while in training.  With each year of growing wiser aka older, it takes just a little more work to stay strong and healthy. At Lizl Kotz Performance Center our motto is "Prevention, Prevention, Prevention."  I think we can all agree that taking the time and effort to prevent an injury before it rears it's ugly head is far more sensible than having to take time off from training.  Cryotherapy is another modality athletes can add to their training menu to train hard and stay healthy.