There are so many things to love about the THPL journey but the one that again and again makes the journey worth it are the unknowns that we encounter on the way and how we react to them. Today found its way to one of those unknowns. For the most part, we all dislike the feeling of being very cold. It messes with our system and yet we all know that dealing with being cold and its impact is important if we are to be able to take on some very interesting challenges. Ah, but just imagine, if the cold challenge was not the environmental winter kind, what if it was something that we chose to do so that we could recover better from a set of intense activities. And what I found out today is that there is a “modern” alternative to the ice bath.

Whole Body Cryotherapy (WBC) is a cutting-edge 3-minute treatment using liquid nitrogen vapor to help us heal. This anti-inflammatory treatment exposes people (me) to temperatures between -190 and -256 degrees Fahrenheit for a short time—typically 2 – 3 minutes. In those few minutes, our blood vessels rapidly constrict, and skin temperatures drop while the core body temperature remains unchanged. The shock (in more ways than one) to one’s system releases endorphins (aka good drugs) and then once the session is over, blood vessels begin to dilate and blood circulation is vastly improved. Ok, maybe a bit too technical….bottom line – yes it is cold and definitely tolerable and yes it does seem to reduce inflammation which is good for us. And tackling the unknown – even better. Here’s to being very cold for a short period of time and better for it…..

Loving life when I am very cold