Cryotherapy

Like Han Solo?! Well, sort of, although not for quite as long. Cryotherapy is like an ice bath on steroids. Instead of just icing you legs, athletes stand in a cylindrical chamber for ~2.5min while hyper-cold air is released all around their body. How cold is "hyper-cold"? Well, like -300 degrees (not sure if it's Fahrenheit for Celsius, but either way, that's cold). Why would you want to do this? Cryotherapy drops the skin-surface temperature to 30 degrees in less than a minute. Because this occurs so rapidly, the body's regulatory systems don't have time to kick in, and blood is immediately shunted to the core as a protective mechanism. Here, the blood picks up oxygen and nutrients.Then, when the frigid air stops, the body figures out where the blood "needs" to go (namely fatigued and damaged muscles). At least, this is the theory that the companies that make the $20,000 - $40,000 units are trying to sell their clients on. In reality, there hasn't been a whole ton of peer-reviewed research, and some say that there's not much difference between this treatment and a traditional ice bath.