Naturally, people gravitate towards warmth for comfort. While heat can have its own benefits, cold is often overlooked. In reality, cold therapies like cryotherapy can offer exceptional healing potential and help support overall wellness in a variety of ways. Thus, they’re often recommended by wellness professionals.
Here’s how cryotherapy and other similar cold therapies may be able to help support your recovery:
Alleviates Pain and Muscle Aches
Aches and pains, whether mild yet recurring or severe and long-lasting, can have a huge negative impact on one’s day-to-day life. Pain has the potential to disrupt sleep, reduce on-the-job performance, or even make managing general tasks difficult.
Cold therapies have the capacity to reduce muscle aches and widespread pain in multiple ways. For one, the cold temperature temporarily numbs the nerves, slowing down pain signals. It can also manage pain by taming inflammation, which relieves pressure on nerves.
These therapies can additionally help relax tight muscles and tone down muscle spasms, which can otherwise aggravate injured tissues. Less tension and fewer involuntary muscle contractions can also lead to less muscle fatigue, lower risk of injury, and improved range of motion.
Reduces Inflammation and Swelling
Swelling and inflammation, while they can be necessary during the healing process, can lead to further pain. If not tamed promptly or when in excess, inflammation and swelling can also impede recovery.
With cold therapies like cryotherapy, inflammation and swelling can be reduced through the temporary constriction of the blood vessels, slowing blood flow and fluid accumulation at the site of injury.
After a cold therapy session, the blood vessels rapidly open back up, which allows the delivery of fresh, nutrient-rich blood to encourage quicker repair of injured tissues.
Calms an Overworked Nervous System
The nervous system is a crucial yet sensitive body system, easily impacted by our thoughts, emotions, hormones, chemicals, sleep, environmental stimuli, and various physical factors. An unbalanced nervous system can lead to chaos, from anxiety and panic to an increase in sensitivity to pain.
Cold therapies help support a calmer, more balanced nervous system by slowing nerve activity, activating the “rest and digest” part of the nervous system, relaxing tight muscles, and triggering the release of feel-good chemicals in the brain, which can improve mood.
Supports Better, More Restful Sleep
Getting enough good-quality sleep each night is of utmost importance. After all, when we sleep, our bodies consolidate memories, balance stress hormones, reset the nervous system, repair and build muscle, regulate blood pressure, and strengthen the immune system.
Cryotherapy and similar therapies can support better sleep by calming an overactive nervous system, reducing pain and muscle tension, boosting mood, lowering stress, and potentially balancing certain hormones, which are imperative for maintaining a healthy sleep-wake cycle.
From reduced inflammation and pain to a calmer nervous system and improved sleep, regulated cold exposure can be impactful in numerous ways. Ready to experience the benefits of cold therapy? Call Recovery Lab today to schedule a cryotherapy session.
La Verne, CA - Why Do Wellness Companies Recommend Cold Plunge For Recovery?
SYNOPSIS: Cold therapies are recommended for a reason. Read on to see how intentional brief exposure to extreme cold, like via cryotherapy or cold plunges, can help the body recover.
The Benefits of Cold Therapies Like Cryotherapy
BY: Crystal Lopez, Recovery Lab of La Verne, CA
Naturally, people gravitate towards warmth for comfort. While heat can have its own benefits, cold is often overlooked. In reality, cold therapies like cryotherapy can offer exceptional healing potential and help support overall wellness in a variety of ways. Thus, they’re often recommended by wellness professionals.
Here’s how cryotherapy and other similar cold therapies may be able to help support your recovery:
Alleviates Pain and Muscle Aches
Aches and pains, whether mild yet recurring or severe and long-lasting, can have a huge negative impact on one’s day-to-day life. Pain has the potential to disrupt sleep, reduce on-the-job performance, or even make managing general tasks difficult.
Cold therapies have the capacity to reduce muscle aches and widespread pain in multiple ways. For one, the cold temperature temporarily numbs the nerves, slowing down pain signals. It can also manage pain by taming inflammation, which relieves pressure on nerves.
These therapies can additionally help relax tight muscles and tone down muscle spasms, which can otherwise aggravate injured tissues. Less tension and fewer involuntary muscle contractions can also lead to less muscle fatigue, lower risk of injury, and improved range of motion.
Reduces Inflammation and Swelling
Swelling and inflammation, while they can be necessary during the healing process, can lead to further pain. If not tamed promptly or when in excess, inflammation and swelling can also impede recovery.
With cold therapies like cryotherapy, inflammation and swelling can be reduced through the temporary constriction of the blood vessels, slowing blood flow and fluid accumulation at the site of injury.
After a cold therapy session, the blood vessels rapidly open back up, which allows the delivery of fresh, nutrient-rich blood to encourage quicker repair of injured tissues.
Calms an Overworked Nervous System
The nervous system is a crucial yet sensitive body system, easily impacted by our thoughts, emotions, hormones, chemicals, sleep, environmental stimuli, and various physical factors. An unbalanced nervous system can lead to chaos, from anxiety and panic to an increase in sensitivity to pain.
Cold therapies help support a calmer, more balanced nervous system by slowing nerve activity, activating the “rest and digest” part of the nervous system, relaxing tight muscles, and triggering the release of feel-good chemicals in the brain, which can improve mood.
Supports Better, More Restful Sleep
Getting enough good-quality sleep each night is of utmost importance. After all, when we sleep, our bodies consolidate memories, balance stress hormones, reset the nervous system, repair and build muscle, regulate blood pressure, and strengthen the immune system.
Cryotherapy and similar therapies can support better sleep by calming an overactive nervous system, reducing pain and muscle tension, boosting mood, lowering stress, and potentially balancing certain hormones, which are imperative for maintaining a healthy sleep-wake cycle.
From reduced inflammation and pain to a calmer nervous system and improved sleep, regulated cold exposure can be impactful in numerous ways. Ready to experience the benefits of cold therapy? Call Recovery Lab today to schedule a cryotherapy session.
