We’ve all been there. It’s a great day out and summer’s peaking around the corner. Your buddies call you up for a quick round of golf or your softball team is having their first real game of the season. Despite your promises to yourself, you haven’t prepared yourself adequately to be athletic. Again.
You come home and your knee is killing you. You’ve got another game on Thursday night. What are you going to do now?
First, let’s go over some things that Johns Hopkins suggests to prevent injury in the first place: developing a fitness plan that includes strength training, cardio, and flexibility; stretching properly; cooling down twice as long as warming up; using the right equipment and supportive footwear; learning the right techniques for your sport; and rest when you’re tired. You’ve maybe done one of these. Two, max.
And it gets worse as we inevitably age but still try to do the same things with the same intensity as we did when we were younger. Studies show that it takes a 45-year-old about 15% more time to recover from the same injury than a 30-year-old. This news is unlikely to make any of us feel any better as we drop more Advil on the problem.
“Most of these injuries are due to inflammation,” explains Brian Rzucidlo of RZ Health. That’s why doctors recommend icing an injury, pushing blood away from the affected area to reduce swelling. And that’s the reason that cryotherapy is becoming a science-forward, evolutionary way to help athletes recover from their injuries and just plain overdoing it.
Brian’s company is a big proponent of cryotherapy. “These are treatments that can be done in 5 to 10 minutes for a relatively low cost. It’s isolated on the affected area, so you’re going to see some instant relief that will feel even better during the next few days as new blood and nutrients come back to help heal the injury.”
The process works effectively enough that many schools have used cryotherapy to help their student-athletes to not only speed up the healing process for injuries but also to recover faster and improve overall mobility. “We have a mobile setup so we can go to the school to offer our service. The coach will have us set up next to the weight room so the kids can come in and we can get entire teams done in one session.”
They also have high-profile athletes as clients, including UFC fighter Nick Diaz, former MLB pitcher Vin Mazzaro, and Mr. Olympia competitor Victor Martinez.
Brian has found that this treatment isn’t simply for athletes and people with injuries. Cryotherapy can also be used to relieve arthritis, post surgery, and for facials. In fact, one unexpected positive impact of cryo-facial treatments came to light after he’d heard from six different people who’d undergone recent treatments. “They said ‘I can finally breathe again.’ The cryotherapy treatment had reduced the inflammation in their sinuses, so it was effective for them as a side benefit as well.”
Nobody’s saying that you should avoid the Advil or turn down a massage when you’re sore. But this is a quick, affordable therapeutic process that will speed up your recovery and get you back out onto the field again far quicker than statistics say your will.
Never turn a cold shoulder to science — unless that’s where you need it.
RZ Health is located at 148 Hamburg Turnpike in Bloomingdale. You can learn more about the benefits of cryotherapy on his website, rzhealth.org.
Playing like a kid is easy. Recovering as an adult is hard. But what if it wasn't?