Ice baths have been used for decades as a mechanism to rehabilitate and recover injuries for athletes, professionals, and anyone suffering from pain, inflammation, and damage to muscles, tendons, ligaments or soft tissue. But, Ice baths have very different effects on the body than cryotherapy does.
The first and most prominent difference between cryotherapy and ice baths is that during the first 20 minutes of using an ice bath, soft tissue and muscle located fairly deep in the body begin to freeze and in return lose their capacity. Muscle is unique in its function in that it needs a specific amount of time to recover back to 100% capacity after strenuous use. Not only that but, after an ice bath, the individual must continue to rest and cannot return to activity until the next day at the earliest.
Cryotherapy is very different in this regard. Treatment in a °CRYO Chamber does not actually freeze the muscle tissue — it actually is simply the perception of freezing by the body’s nervous system. A process that would take multiple sessions of 30 minutes or more to achieve in an ice bath takes only 3 minutes in a Cryotherapy treatment.