How Long is a Cryotherapy Session?
What is optimum duration for a cryotherapy session?
How long should cryotherapy session last for it to be most effective?
People often assume that the longer the cryotherapy session, the better the results. It turns out that in the case of a cryotherapy session, longer isn’t necessarily better.
In 2014, there was a study done on 14 elite rugby league players that were each exposed to 1, 2, and 3 minutes of Whole Body Cryotherapy at -135 degrees Celsius or -211 degrees Fahrenheit [1].
What did the study find?
The study showed that the optimum cryotherapy session duration time is 2 minutes at -135 degrees Celcius or -211 degrees Fahrenheit after a 30 second “cool down” session at -60 degrees Celsius or 76 degrees Fahrenheit.
“A 2 minute cryotherapy session produces the substantial physiological changes in core and skin temperature, tissue oxygenation in vastus lateralis and gastrocnemius muscles and thermal sensation responses.” [1]
So now you know that if you don’t want to stay in a freezing cold chamber for 3 minutes, you’ll be fine with just 2 minutes.
Ask your doctor
As always, make sure to consult your doctor before looking into doing a cryotherapy session, as cryotherapy requires contraindications.
Learn more about the benefits of cryotherapy and go through the many cryotherapy clinical studies.