NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Cryotherapy has been used by professional sports teams for several years. The frigid technology has now been made available to the general public in Nashville.
Select Cryo opened a location on Belmont Boulevard in June. The company has been offering customers whole body cryotherapy in its chamber.
Fitness instructor Haley Poston used the technology after a recent workout. She was a little nervous about cryotherapy before her first session.
"Because I was thinking about an ice bath being really painful, I don't know if it's going to hurt, or do anything weird," Poston said.
Now she has regularly used the chamber when her body needs to recover from a strenuous workout.
"If you have any pain, it just kind of eases it, joints, even a lot of people wake up with back pain," according Poston.
Customers walk into the chamber, with only their head visible, when the cool down begins.
"It's a 20 minute ice bath in two, to three minutes. That's what we're doing, without all the recovery time from an ice bath," said Cryo Select owner Bert Simmons.
There's a tank of liquid Nitrogen located next to the chamber.
"We take liquid Nitrogen out of this tank, we send it to our machine, and it converts if from the liquid, to the gas, at that point," Simmons explained.
Temperatures inside the chamber reach between -245 and -300 degrees, with Nitrogen gas vapors coming from the top of of the machine.
The chamber has been said to help in exercise recovery, injury recovery, arthritis, chronic pain, depression, and problems with sleeping.
"Things that people could never really get a fix for, we're not a fix necessarily all the time, but we do help alleviate some of that pain and make every day a lot more manageable and bearable," according to Simmons.
Customers spend less than three minutes inside the chamber. During her time inside, Poston did not hide the fact it is a very cold experience.
"It's really cold. I am trying to pat my leg, and move around," Poston said. "It is kind of hard to describe, it does not feel like a cold day. It feels like freezing. Colder than I've ever been."
Cryo Select has a location on Belmont Boulevard in Nashville. They have also operated a chamber inside Schroeder Chiropractic in Franklin. The company also has a mobile chamber it can take to sporting events so athletes can use it after they put their bodies to the test.
