Extreme measures bring warmest results

Inches are so often the difference between winning and losing at elite level - where the pursuit of sporting excellence is an endless one. Sport science has become an integral part of the road to glory as sporting teams turn to the expertise of nutritionists, psychologists and ever-evolving advanced training methods in order to outdo the competition and achieve success.

There are so many fads and crazes - I recall Robin van Persie's horse placenta treatment on an ankle ligament injury he picked up on international duty with Holland back in November 2009. He went to see a housewife in Belgrade who practised alternative medicine in the form of massaging the placental fluid into the problem area - a therapy which by all accounts had been tried and tested by other Premier League players who believed it had enhanced their recoveries from other musculature injuries.

Man City players Vincent Kompany and Nigel de Jong used it also and if memory serves me right - the club even tried to bring her on board as member of their medical team. Who knows though if it really works? Is it scientifically quantifiable?

One I tried for myself though was cryotherapy which is now widely used by elite athletes and sporting teams as they attempt to achieve perfect preparation and optimum recovery within their training and match schedules.

Cryotherapy involves going into a freezing cold ice chamber for a few minutes a couple of times a day and is believed to help in recovery from injuries and also from strenuous training sessions where heavy weights are lifted. That's why it’s used by a lot of rugby teams and some soccer players are also sent for this treatment.

How do you describe it though - or even compare it for that matter? I’ve had to endure ice-baths in the past and they are not pleasant. The initial shock to the system is awful to say the least as you submerge yourself in the ice-cold water before another helping of frozen cubes is dumped mercilessly in on top of you. Ok, so you feel great afterwards but it’s just not nice at the time. I don’t particularly like the cold, but how cold can it really be? Could it really be colder than an ice-bath?

Modern research points to 12 to 15º C or 54 to 60º F as the ideal ice bath temperature range; remember that the temperature will rise steadily with your body heat. Ice-bath routines tend to alternate being submerged in the bath for periods between five and twenty minutes, with warm showers for one to two minutes in between.

So how cold is a cryotherapy chamber?

The answer?

Minus 110 degrees Celsius!

Does such coldness even exist? And if it does, I just could not for the life of me begin to imagine what it would feel like!

As I stood there in a pair of shorts, sports bra top, trainers, face mask, gloves and ear muffs I was put through the paces of the procedure which lasts just over three minutes. A health questionnaire had been completed, blood pressure was taken and I was ready to go in.

First of all you enter a chamber which is a tame -10º C. From there you advance into the second chamber which is -60º C and with no hanging around, you proceed straight into the third chamber which is at an indescribable -110º C. It is COLD and catches your breath as you begin to walk slowly in circles around the small chamber.

A voice comes in to say, “Your three minutes have started. Are you ok?” At this point you give the thumbs up and disappear into your own thoughts as you encircle the chamber.

It’s hard to explain the feeling as the blood starts to leave your periphery and take sanctuary in the warmth of your midriff and organs and the coldness is just all-consuming. About three hours later (or at least that’s what it feels like,) you hear the voice announce “Two minutes remaining. You’re doing great! How are you feeling?”

The honest answer is that you want to leave there and then but the fact that I had to endure the experience with a body-builder as part of the journalistic research, meant that I was way too stubborn to give in and so presented the thumbs up to the girl peering in the window at me.

More circles and it felt now like a crust of ice was starting to creep across my calves and up my shins. You could not even contemplate speaking as your will to experience it suddenly transforms to a will to just survive it.

“Sixty seconds to go, good stuff guys, how are ye doing?” You kind of wait to see if the other person is going to bail out and when they don't, you just give the thumbs up again and know that you're just going to have to endure it to the bitter (cold) end.

Eventually it’s over and we leave the chamber, into the -60º C room and then the -10º C one before it’s back to normal room temperature where the rush of blood back to the surface of the skin and limbs is nothing short of exhilarating. An unbelievable feeling of elation and warmth and lightness as if you could walk on air.

The hefty training session of the previous day seemed a million miles away and the aches and pains from it were gone. Honestly!

This Whole Body Cryotherapy constricts the blood vessels during the cold period and therefore reduces inflammation in the joints and muscles as a result of strenuous training or injured limbs. When you go back to room temperature the veins and capillaries (little blood vessels close to the skins surface) get a rush of blood back into them bringing freshly oxygenised and revitalised fluid.

After exercise, lactic acid builds up in the muscles and can leave you feeling heavy-legged and fatigued. Following cryotherapy, the lactic acid gets flushed away quickly thus is said to improve the body’s recovery time.

I’ve looked into this from a scientific perspective and really there is no hardcore evidence that says cryotherapy (or ice-baths), actually improve sports performance but I can tell you that I definitely felt amazing afterwards and did not ache like I usually do after a tough football training session.

I did the cryotherapy session in White’s Hotel in Wexford which has a fabulous facility which is used by the Welsh and London-Irish rugby teams and indeed plenty of other high profile athletes from the GAA, soccer and athletics fields but the facilities are also available for use by the regular Joe Soap among us and any sporting teams out there that might want to give it a lash as they push on for league or cup honours.

And while it may not make elite athletes out of them, at €35 per session, (other team packages are available) it’ll separate the men from the boys that's for sure!