Next Health Cryotherapy
Let me just start off with this, I HATE being cold. I escaped the harsh winters of the northeast by running off to sunny southern California. Every time it drops below 60 degrees in LA it feels like winter. One of Derek’s many nicknames for me is freezer baby because I am always cold.
Something I have been hearing a lot about recently is cryotherapy. What that means is you basically go into an absurdly cold chamber for a few minutes. My first thought, no thanks.
Some of the benefits of cryotherapy are said to be; decreased recovery time, collagen productions, joint and muscle soreness relief, endorphin release, and anti-inflammation. All of these benefits are things I would want in my life so I decided to get over my fear of the cold and try it out. I had heard great things about Next Health.
Looking on Next Health’s website this is what I saw. “Next Health Cryo does not use liquid nitrogen which could be potentially dangerous. Our system is designed to provide even cooling throughout your treatment. We provide you with protective gear and our staff is there to supervise you the entire time. You will leave feeling invigorated and refreshed, ready to live life to the fullest.” This all sounded good to me so I booked an appointment for myself and Derek.
This is where I have to give Derek a huge shout out for being such a good sport. He willingly agreed to subject himself to a -150-degree chamber on a perfectly sunny Saturday afternoon.
We arrived at Next Health on Sunset Blvd a few minutes before our appointment and were greeted by such a friendly staff. They provided us with a quick overview of the process and gave us some paper work to fill out. They are very focused on your health and medical history to make sure they provide the safest experience which is very comforting.
We were then brought into the changing area where they provided you with gloves, socks and slippers, a face mask and a towel if you were not comfortable going in your undergarments. I’m not going to lie at this point I was getting nervous. My heart started beating faster and I was anxious about going into the arctic tundra.
After getting ourselves ready, we decided to go in separately to have the full experience and of course I went first. You are then asked to pick a song to listen to while you are in there and they provide you with Beats headphones. I asked the girl helping us, Tara, what a good song choice was and she said All I want for Christmas by Mariah Carey. I went with it.
There is a timer on the floor that she set to 2:30 minutes (since it was our first time we started with a shorter time than the typical 3 minutes). She opened the door, a burst of cold air came out and I stepped inside. At first it was a shock; my body was kind of like uhhh what is happening. I started to relax and dance around to the music and suddenly I didn’t even feel that cold. I just felt a nice cooling sensation all over my body. The time went fast and before I knew it I was done.
I came out and immediately put a robe on because at that point I had goosebumps all over and felt pretty cold. Derek went next and I watched his silly dance as he froze his butt off.
The whole process was pretty quick and not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I felt like I had a huge adrenaline rush and like my body got a reset. I had worked out really hard that morning and the typical soreness I have in my legs was less than usual. The rest of the afternoon I can’t really put into words how I felt but it was good. I felt a mix of relaxed, tired, happy, and light. That feeling stayed with me for the rest of the day and into the night. We stayed in that night, ordered food and watched a movie. By 9pm both of us were struggling to keep our eyes open, we were exhausted. But it was a good kind of exhausted, the kind you feel after an amazing day. We both fell fast asleep and woke up the next morning feeling very well rested.
Overall it was a great experience and something I would definitely add to my self care process. It is on the expensive side but one of those things I would say is worth it. The benefits for sure outweigh the cold, and that is a lot coming from me.