Why I am doing Cryotherapy every day for two weeks

I met Tiago through his wife Rita. She told me that her husband had a constant pain in his hip due to a condition called hip impingement (when the ball and socket of the hip joint don't fit together properly). This problem was stopping him from running and causing daily pain and discomfort.

He ran the New York Marathon 7 years ago and since then he used to run a half marathon every year and was participating in 10K runs every now and then. That stopped a year ago because of the pain.

Osteopath therapy and physiotherapy sessions helped but weren't enough. “The pain improved a bit with those sessions but always returned. I also went to several doctors. Some recommended regular localized exercise and others suggested surgery. All of them said it was no guarantee it would be cured”, he told me.

Tiago is a 40 years old Portfolio Manager and, as for every person who has this kind of job, he spends a lot of time at his desk working in front of a computer so nasty back and shoulders pain were also a permanent problem.

“Last October I began exercising twice a week with a PT and I decided to try Cryotherapy after my wife talked to me about it. I had no idea what it was. To be honest, I had never heard about it before. But I was really willing to try something that could help me to get rid of this back and shoulder pain. I was very skeptical though that it could help with the pain on my hip. This was not something related to posture or stress, was a chronical thing”.

Tiago came for his first Whole Body Cryotherapy session on the 17th of March, and did it from Monday to Friday, every day, since then, and for the next two weeks.

“I work at Warren Street so it only took me about 20 minutes to get to Liverpool Street Station and LondonCryo is just around the corner. I went early in the morning, during lunchtime and at the end of the day before going home. I was scheduling it around my daily professional commitments.”

Tiago’s last session was on the 31st of March and I waited a few days before I asked him about how he felt after this two weeks of daily Whole Body Cryotherapy. Here is his testimony:

“The first session was the worst because I felt really cold and, of course, it was the first time I was doing something like that so it was that feeling of not knowing what to expect and how your body would react to such a low temperature.

On the second session, I was much more relaxed. I still felt very cold, but by the third session you get used to it and start to enjoy it.

About the benefits, I was just expecting it could help with my back and shoulders pain, to be honest, I was not expecting much more. What I can now tell about my two weeks Whole Body Cryotherapy sessions is this:

The back and shoulders pain started to improve by the second session until it disappeared completely by the fourth session.

On the beginning of the second week, the pain in my hip had improved a lot. I was not feeling it every day anymore. With the end of the sessions, I expected it to come back but it’s been 5 days now that I don’t do Cryotherapy and I am still feeling good and pain-free.

There were also a couple of things I wasn’t expecting but that were a good surprise!

I felt I had more energy since the first session and I felt a general improvement in my wellbeing, feeling more relaxed and less tired.

Having ‘tested’ it in the morning, lunchtime and at the end of the day, for me, it worked better after work because I felt more relaxed and less tired when I got home. But I guess it will work in different ways for other people.”