Cryotherapy the Wave of the Future for Healing Athletes?

When you think of cryogenics, you probably think of two things: Austin Powers and Ted Williams. Now your opinion of it will probably change.

Cryotherapy has been receiving a lot of attention in sports circles recently. What is it you ask? It’s the use of extremely cold temperatures to help the body heal. Think of it as a super ice bath, only one that gets to much lower temperatures and in much less time.

The Mavericks got some attention last week when we learned some of their veterans used it. Kobe Bryant tried it out on a trip to Germany last month.

Two NBA teams use the Cryon-X therapy (the Mavs are one of them). There’s also one at Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando where Darren Sharper recently tried it out. Luckily the Orlando Sentinel provided a video for us so we could see what it’s all about:

The machines cost $50,000 and they use about $5 worth of nitrogen per session. It’s not something the average weekend warrior can afford, but it sounds like a pretty good investment for sports teams. I wouldn’t be surprised to see football teams start using it.