Cyrotherapy is one of the latest and greatest modalities for spas and healthcare establishments. While it has been practiced for decades, there are many new uses, offerings and applications within the cold thermal therapies industry.
Cyrotherapy is generally recommended for a variety of medical benefits or purposes. These range from natural, opioid-free, pain relief options to applications intended to reduce swelling. Human body detoxification might be a goal when heated and cryotherapy applications are contrasted. There are endless indications and noninvasive uses with thermal therapies that include cold applications.
Cyrotherapy offerings range from cold plunges to exfoliating ice treatments, ice massages and more; there are plentiful cryotherapy applications available to almost any practitioner at any budget. Cryotherapy applications can be budget friendly with simple applications such as ice packs to multi-thousand-dollar investments with various cryotherapy machinery or equipment. Because of the opioid epidemic, there's been a lot of research as of late investigating non pharmacological pain relief including the use of hydro and thermal therapies.
Cyrotherapy is one of the latest and greatest modalities for spas and healthcare establishments. While it has been practiced for decades, there are many new uses, offerings and applications. It is generally recommended for a variety of medical benefits or purposes. These range from natural, opioid-free, pain relief options to applications intended to reduce swelling. Human body detoxification might be a goal when heated and cryotherapy applications are contrasted. There are endless indications and noninvasive uses with thermal therapies.
Cyrotherapy offerings range from cold plunges to exfoliating ice treatments, ice massages and more; there are plentiful cryotherapy applications available to almost any practitioner at any budget. Cryotherapy applications can be budget friendly with simple applications such as ice packs to multi-thousand-dollar investments with various cryotherapy machinery or equipment. We will primarily review hydro cryotherapies that utilize large quantities of water for therapeutic value here.
Le Spa du George V in Paris France offers a fancy ice chip production in a tiny cold room as pictured above. The ice chips can be rubbed on the skin for exfoliation of dead skin cells, and to affect cardiovascular circulation. A client can also wrap the ice chips in a towel around a swollen ankle, wrist or other area to create an analgesic affect and/or to help reduce swelling.
MSC cruise lines offers a “snow room” on some of their cruise ships. Customers could literally lie down on top of snow and pack their bodies with snow on top too; although, this would not be recommended due to sanitary reasons. While cold temperatures often kill germs, the temperatures in this snow room are not cold enough to eliminate all pathogens.
If you can find a clean area of newly manufactured snow in a room like this (pictured below), you could also rub that new snow against the skin for exfoliation practices, as well as place any area of the body against the snow itself to create an analgesic affect or reduce swelling.
Cold plunges (pictured below) are generally a tub filled with cold water, around 40 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the individual and their tolerance level. Some are more tolerant of cold than others. Even a few seconds of full immersion in a cold plunge can create a hunting response, which is the body’s defense against soft tissue damage where the skin of any area exposed to cold starts to turn pinker or reddish. It is not recommended to immerse oneself in a cold plunge for more than a couple of minutes. Customers can also contrast between a cold plunge and hot tub to increase circulation and detoxification.
It's usually quite easy to spot a cold plunge tub amongst various hydrotherapies. Cold plunges are usually smaller than the average hydrotherapy equipment, because people usually are not moving within them. They might only spend a few seconds in a cold plunge before exiting. Good cold plunge tubs have superior handles available to enter and exit as well. That’s because entering or existing a cold plunge could be difficult, which is why there could be extra handles in this cryotherapy feature, as shown below in the Eurospa’s small cold plunge in Quebec, Canada.
Another cryotherapy water feature can be found at Claridge’s Spa in London, England. While their spa provides private changing rooms with bathrooms and showers, they do have a stone “cold” shower (pictured below) next to their steam room and shower. The cold shower features a water fall where cold water drops from a ceiling mounted fixture, plus there’s a hand-held wand that can be used for cold shower application.
When it comes to pain relief, anyone can apply an ice pack or follow R.I.C.E. (Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevation) for an analgesic affect, or to treat their own injuries; however, ice massage uses a slightly more skillful approach and can be additionally applied to treat areas where a client may not be able to comfortably reach on their own.
Ice massage is inexpensive and easy to apply when properly trained. There are a variety of applications or supplies that can be used to add ice massage to your practice:
Purchase 2-ounce paper cups, fill with water to the top of the cup and freeze. Tear away the top three-quarters inch of the cup, turn the ice cup upside down and massage the surface area with the exposed surface of ice. Continually tear away the upper part of the paper cup to continually expose the ice to the soft tissue through the ice massage application. Next is a video showing our ice massage application:
Re-useable plastic cups are also available amongst retailers for ice cup massage applications. Please follow the manufacturer’s instructions when using this type of specialty equipment. Practitioners can also use regular ice cubes with a small piece of paper towel or jar gripper. It is recommended to drape a client with a towel during ice massage to absorb melted ice from running over the client’s body or your equipment.
Ice massage is regularly practiced with lightly massage the skin with small, circular movements in a small, local area with ice. Leaving ice in one place for too long can damage the underlying soft tissues, causing greater pain and problems for your customer.
Ice massage is usually extremely uncomfortable when it is first applied. It will feel very cold if not painful to the client. Prolonged appropriate application of a couple of minutes will provide an analgesic effect, with pain relief and other benefits. Do not massage an area with ice for more than 10 minutes or less as needed, depending on a client’s medical condition and response to the treatment.
There are many other cryotherapy applications, including cryo chambers and machines to create cold rooms as pictured above and below. The cryotherapy examples listed here are just a few. Each cryotherapy modality would have its own specific indications, applications, uses, precautions, contraindications and more. To learn other thermal or manual therapy techniques, please visit our school for training option at: https://ceinstitute.com/
Comments