Are you training for a marathon at the moment, or even a half marathon?
Locally, the Brighton and London marathons will be taking place in April and if you’re training for one of those, the length of the training runs will be reaching their peak. This is when it’s really important to look after your body so that you avoid injuries as the big day approaches – this is where cryotherapy can help.
You might be at the stage now, where you’re starting to think about taking an ice bath after your long runs. There is so much evidence that cold treatment helps with muscle and joint recovery and that is why many top sportsmen and women have a cold treatment after competing – and also why we have lots of sports people coming through the doors at Cryojuvenate UK!
What is cryotherapy and how could it help with training?
If you’re not familiar with cryotherapy, it’s a fast and effective hyper-cooling treatment that you can experience in our whole-body chamber or as a localised treatment on a troublesome area. This is the impact it has on injured areas:
• Exposure to the cold increases the blood flow to muscles which starts working immediately – helping the muscles to repair tissue damage and injuries.
• For joints, it works in a similar way, the blood transports nutrients and oxygen to the damaged area. This would be great for tendonitis, plantar fasciitis or knee troubles.
• The cold also numbs the body and so reduces the pain messages being sent back to the brain.
But it does so much more too! Before a training run / the race itself: heart and lung exposure to the cold means that your heart starts to perform more efficiently, and you’re stimulating your respiratory system, causing your air ways to expand – both of these naturally lead to improved physical performance. The cold can also boost your metabolism and your energy levels, build up immunity (you don’t want to be going down with a cold before the big day!) and help you to sleep, as well as put a big smile on your face!
If you don’t believe us, then let us introduce you to Alison.
Last year Alison was training for her first marathon in Manchester. She was due to race her first marathon two years previously but had to 
drop out due to injury. The year before she raced each month and some of those races were half-marathons, so she is very fit but at 48 years old, and after suffering running injuries before, she knows that this time around, she has to look after herself as much as possible. Whilst training for this marathon, Alison researched professional athletes’ strategies and read that they support their training with cryotherapy. And then, while watching one of her favourite sports, rugby, she heard a commentator say that a player had returned to match fitness sooner than anticipated, again, due to cryotherapy. Alison was already immersing herself in an ice bath after long training runs (she’s up to 21 miles) as she understood the power of the cold but after her research, she contacted us.
Alison has been in the chamber about numerous times and tells me that after the three minutes she feels calm but alert, and just “so much better.” She also takes deep tissue massage to follow.
“I don’t think I’d be this far in my training plan without injury if I hadn’t looked after myself with cryotherapy.”
Alison loves her running as you can tell. For future races she knows that she’ll support her body through the training with cryotherapy. We’re thrilled that Alison has felt the benefits of cryotherapy and wish her lots of luck in her marathon on 28 April.
If you are marathon training, come to visit us at Cryojuvenate in Sevenoaks for a three minute (yes, that’s all it takes) therapy in our whole body chamber or why not try some localised treatment on a known niggle? Our sports therapists are on hand to help you achieve those 26.2 miles.
Good luck!
Ruth
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