The sports injuries are an intrinsic element to the practice of any sport. Despite the existence of many and varied injury prevention programs, any athlete at risk of suffering an injury throughout their sporting life. Once produced, the most important thing is to achieve optimal recovery, both physically and psychologically to return to sport. In this article, we will talk about the benefits of cryotherapy, a method that can be used so much in the recovery of sports injuries.
What is cryotherapy?
By its name, we can deduce from what it is to a certain extent. Cryotherapy is a treatment that uses cold as a method to finish and prevent a lot of problems.
This procedure consists of introducing the body in a cryosauna at -180 or -190º for a short period of time, we are talking about approximately 3 minutes.
With this, we cause certain changes in the organism that help to reactivate the circulatory, digestive system, as well as cell regeneration, among others. Thus obtaining different benefits at various levels that can help us with different conditions.
In addition, mainly, we can condense the effects of cryotherapy in four, being, therefore, an anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, analgesic and regenerative treatment. Four characteristics that you must not forget because they are going to be key so that you understand everything that cryotherapy will do for you.
Cryotherapy for athletes
We know that sport is highly demanding with the body and above all when an important competitive level is reached, the risks of suffering injuries and discomfort from which it is costly to recover increase.
Cryotherapy, thanks to accelerating these recovery processes, will be a perfect treatment for this type of person. In addition, as a plus, patients can also see how their sports performance increases.
Thanks to the effect of cold on the body, not only will you be able to recover before injuries and prevent relapse, but there is much more:
- Decreased fatigue
- Reduction of muscle pain
- Increased blood flow in tissues
- Improvement and faster recovery after the efforts
- Ability to support more training load
- Acceleration of healing
- Increase in aerobic resistance
- A greater sense of energy and improved mood.
Improve your health with cryotherapy
Beyond the demanding life of the athlete, cryotherapy is also highly recommended for the improvement of health, and the prevention of a wide range of diseases.
As we mentioned, cryotherapy reactivates and improves the functioning of the different systems of our body, therefore, we are going to get our body to be able to fight and recover from problems such as those related to our mental state: stress, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders … As well as the problems of the autoimmune, digestive, respiratory system …
Exposing the body to cold, gets energize, revitalize and activate the body, which in turn leads to rejuvenating effects. This will help us with different problems such as: cellulite, loss of elasticity in the skin, the appearance of spots, etc.
Because cryotherapy, improves the circulation of an activation of cell regeneration, we can get our skin to be smooth again, to prevent and reduce cellulite, thus preventing the accumulation of fats, and in turn, we can achieve a more uniform appearance of the skin attenuating the spots.
But the benefits of cryotherapy go further, and we can improve our day to day and have a better well-being. Thanks to the cold, they achieve a euphoric effect, which can reduce the symptoms of depression, fatigue or lack of vitality.
Are there any contraindications to its use?
Yes, the use of cryotherapy would not be indicated in the following cases:
- Peripheral vascular disorders.
- Conditions that cause vasospasm.
- Hypersensitivity to cold.
- Hyposensitivity to cold.
- Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria.
- Severe cardiovascular diseases.
- Dermatological injuries.
- Renal and visceral diseases.
Conclusion
The benefits of cryotherapy are notorious. It has proven to be an effective technique in the process of rehabilitation of sports injuries, as well as in other areas of sports practice such as reducing the feeling of fatigue or improving muscle tone among others. Due to the contraindications that exist with respect to its use since it is necessary to know the type of injury that is suffered, its use is always recommended under the supervision of a Physiotherapist from zakerchiropractic.com and/or sports professional.
