Cryotherapy

Cryotherapy is the use of very cold temperatures on the body for a short time. It ranges from ice packs on a single area to whole-body cryotherapy, where you stand in a chamber of extremely cold air for roughly one to three minutes.

At a whole-body session, you are screened for health concerns first. You then wear protective items such as gloves, socks, and a robe or minimal clothing, and step into the chamber while a trained technician stays with you. The cold feels intense but brief, and most people describe feeling alert and energized afterward.

People commonly use cryotherapy to recover after exercise, ease sore muscles, or support comfort with chronic aches. Some athletes add it to a training routine, and others try it for general wellness or a boost in energy. Practitioners describe it as a way to calm the body after strain, not as a standalone answer to pain.

The evidence is mixed. The most consistent research is in exercise recovery, where trials suggest reduced muscle soreness and some inflammation markers, with results similar to cold water immersion. For pain conditions and other uses, studies are smaller and findings are less clear, so expectations are best kept modest.

Cryotherapy is not suitable for everyone. Check with your doctor first if you have heart or circulation problems, uncontrolled high blood pressure, breathing conditions, or are pregnant. Choose a facility that screens everyone, monitors every session, and follows the manufacturer's safety guidance.

Cold has been applied to the body in many medical traditions. Writers from ancient Egypt and Greece describe cold applications for swelling, and in the 1850s the English physician James Arnott used freezing mixtures of salt and ice for local cold application. The word cryotherapy covers a wide range of methods, from ice packs and cold water immersion to cold air and nitrogen-cooled devices.

Whole-body cryotherapy as a distinct practice dates to Japan in 1978. The rheumatologist Toshiro Yamauchi, working at a rheumatism institute in Oita, built a chamber of extremely cold air that people entered for a short session. Poland became an early center for the method in Europe, where researchers studied it in rehabilitation and sports settings, and chambers spread to other countries through the 1990s and 2000s.

Single-person cryosaunas and cryotherapy studios later became common in the United States and elsewhere, often marketed for recovery after exercise. In 2016 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration stated that it had not cleared or approved whole-body cryotherapy devices for medical conditions. Sessions are usually short, lasting a few minutes. There is no single licensing body for cryotherapy operators, so training and safety standards vary by provider and by country.