Chillout

Head for the freezer if you want a spa treatment to remember

WORDS BYCATHERINE COOPER

Are you someone who finds the plunge pool following a sauna a little tame?

Scary though this may sound, cryotherapy has become mainstream in many parts of Eastern Europe where it is used to treat ailments such as arthritis and osteoporosis. It is also used by athletes to ease injuries and improve performance.

The super-freezing treatment is purported to release endorphins, and is billed as easing tension and inducing calm. It is for all these reasons that people are queuing up to experience cryotherapy at Aquacity, so I thought I’d give it a try.

After a very brief medical examination we are given our special cryotherapy clothes to protect our modesty and extremities—blue cotton shorts (and T-shirts for the ladies), white ski-socks, clogs, an insulated head band to protect ears and foreheads and oven-glove-like mittens. Clothes that aren’t 100% natural would freeze inside the chamber.

We are also given disposable paper masks, and rather alarmingly warned not to breathe too deeply in case the very dry, cold air damages our lungs.

The cryotherapy chamber is made up of two parts, which look like medium-sized saunas and take six to eight people at a time. The huge door is opened and the first chamber is set at a relatively balmy –60°C. This feels indescribably cold, but so far, so good.

After half a minute the door to the second chamber is opened and in we go. The cold air hits like a wall and I try to concentrate on not breathing too hard. In this chamber we march round in a little circle, like caged animals as instructed, our clogs making a rhythmic “clump clump” sound on the floor. Dr Jan Potocky keeps an eye on us through the window in the door and says things like “welcome to minus 120 degrees!” through the microphone. Shivering in my shorts and T-shirt, the whole experience certainly feels very surreal.

It’s a strange kind of cold inside the chamber but because the air is so dry it isn’t as unpleasant as you might expect. After a few seconds though, I start feeling prickles in the back of my calves, which quickly spread up my legs and all over my arms. The prickles become more intense, ending up somewhere between pins and needles and a dull stabbing.

As soon as we enter the second chamber a dense fog has formed and by the time Dr Jan says, “Everyone alright? One minute is up, time to walk the other way!” it is almost impossible to see. I realise I have been concentrating so hard on my breathing that I have started to hyperventilate; I decide one minute in the chamber is enough for me although my braver chamber-mates stay in for two. Stay in for much more than four minutes and you would apparently enter into a euphoric state, closely followed by death!

Immediately afterwards, we are led up to a gym to do 20 minutes of cardio-work to bring our body temperatures, which will only have dropped by 0.1 to 0.2 degrees despite the extreme temperatures, back to normal.

So, did I feel better for my cryotherapy session? Yes. But that could have simply been my relief at finding myself still alive, and the couple of gin and tonics I had to get over the shock. www.. aquacityresort.com