MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Winter 2019

46 ML BLUE WINTER 2019 words :: Nelson Phillips We’ve all seen the videos of premier athletes submerging their bodies in tubs of ice water to help numb their aching muscles and begin the recovery process. Cold-water immersion is used to accelerate recovery times, reduce muscle pain, and help reduce inflammation. Plus, it makes you look pretty tough and awesome. Does it work? The theory behind cold-immersion therapy and cryotherapy is that by voluntarily freezing your butt off in a tub of ice water or a cryo chamber, you accelerate recovery from micro-trauma—the tiny tears sustained by your muscle fibres when your muscles make gains after vigorous exercise. While it sounds painful, micro-trauma is what you’re after if building muscle is the end goal. The thing is, micro- trauma is also the main cause of muscle soreness, occurring some 24-48 hours after exercise. And if you’re an athlete, or away on a ski trip for a week or two, taking a couple of days off to recover can really slam the brakes on your plans. An ice bath or a few minutes in a cryo chamber following a workout is supposed to do a number of beneficial things like constrict blood vessels and flush out lactic acid, slow down physiological processes by decreasing metabolic activity, and reduce swelling; but the real benefits come when the body warms up. Warming up post cryotherapy sesh increases blood flow, ramping up circulation and healing. But how cold does it have to be? A majority of trainers and athletes agree that enduring water temperatures of around 12-15°C for five to WELLNESS COLD IS THE NEW HOT Cryotherapy myths and merits If cold is the new hot, then daily invigoration is the new meditation.As of mid-December,Asta had cold-immersed 235 of 260 days since April 1. LESLIE ANTHONY