What do a running newbie hoping to complete their first 5k, a weekend road warrior working on endurance and an elite athlete interested in tweaking their body to perform a cut above the rest all have in common?  Not much…until now.

As more and more individuals work on creating an active lifestyle with hiking, biking, running, swimming and walking there has been a significant increase in sports related injuries. There are also top area athletes and age groupers who require some sort of attention to keep them in top performance. So where can the weekend warrior and top athletes go to get everything they need to actively recover?

Welcome CryoUSA Athletic Recovery Center!

CryoUSA is well known for their full body cryotherapy which enhances and improves athletic performance as well as accelerating the results of therapists and trainers efforts while redefining the recovery process. Their cryo units are used by numerous NBA teams like the Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns just to name a few. Area NCAA football teams like TCU and SMU are also now using these units. Even world renowned running coach Alberto Salazar of the Nike Oregon Project has his athletes using cryotherapy to help with their performance.

Cryotherapy is a full body cooling process that lowers an individuals skin temperature to 30 F for 2-3mins. This is achieved by using extremely hyper-cooled air ranging from -133 F to -320 F. But don't worry! The air is not blown directly on the skin but rather surrounds the body to achieve the 30 F skin temperature.

For CryoUSA's pricing click here.

To further enhance recovery, CryoUSA has now expanded their center to be the “one-stop shop for Athletic Recovery” by adding:

This Anti-Gravity Treadmill® (Alter-G, or G-Trainer) is a revolutionary medical rehabilitation treadmill with a unique differential air pressure technology that provides accurate, safe and comfortable partial weight-bearing therapy while promoting normal gait patterns. Pricing for the Alter-G.

For more information please read my review of the G-Trainer here.

At Kinetic Sports Therapy, a passion for their own fitness and health allows them to understand athletes of all fitness levels. Their vision is to provide a place where the whole athlete can be assessed, treated, and remain active for a lifetime. This is precisely why they partner with like-minded companies such as CryoUSA. Their mission is to educate athletes about their own training and recovery while providing the utmost professional and knowledgeable services available.

Please visit my recent review of Kinetic Sports Therapy for an in depth look at how they operate and what to expect during your visit.

A medical and technology company which creates a device to treat circulation-related disorders and also a key role in athlete recovery. The Normatec mimics normal physiology with its patented sequential pulse pneumatic waveform to set athletes back into play quickly.

Blah, blah, blah...compression. I get it.  
"You're going to want one of these at your house!" exclaims Mark Murdock (Sports Director of CryoUSA) with a smile. With a smirk I reply, "We'll see." I mean really? All compression is the same! You have compression socks, shorts, sleeves, shirts and full body suits that supposedly enhance performance or recovery by limiting lactic acid build up in the muscle in some sort of fashion. With the exception of a full body suit, I own these products and -eh, they do ok. So naturally I was intrigued, and a bit skeptical, about how this device was going to make me feel and, of course, how it worked.


First step - put the boots on. Each boot (picture above) covers the feet all the way to the upper thigh. They are designed with five overlapping "zones" (feet, shin, knee, mid-thigh and upper thigh) and a hose that runs from each boot to the NormaTec air pump NormaTech MVP.

This session would take 30mins so Mark puts on the massage chair (pictured above) and I kick back, relax and watch ESPN while the machine does its thing.

There are seven compression settings on the NormaTec that range from lightest to most compression. I used the highest setting (seven) to get the full effect. When the air pump turned on, both boots filled up with air from the feet to the thigh. It kind of felt like a blood pressure cuff. To be honest, it felt pretty good and then the real magic started. The first zone (feet) begins to pulse. After a certain duration of time, the second zone (shin) begins to pulse while the feet zone holds a steady pressure. Then the third zone (knee)  goes active and the feet and shin zone hold steady pressure. Once the forth zone (mid-thigh) goes active, the feet zone is released and the mid-thigh zone pulses. When it's time for the mid-thigh zone to hold, the shin zone releases and and so on. By the time the boots finish the full sequence at the upper thigh the boots and start all over again for the remainder of my time.

During the process, the NormaTec is improving blood flow by pushing blood from your feet all the way up to your thigh. With its unique holding phase (check out the cool graphic here) in the cycle, the blood flow does not release back down until full decompression is achieved. The result is an increase in blood flow to damaged muscles, tendons and ligaments to speed up recovery.

At the end of my 30min session, I walked around a bit and honestly my legs have never felt as rejuvenated that quickly. I was ready to go run 20 miles.

This is a great device that I believe everyone should try out for themselves. There are many benefits to compression but using the NormaTec far exceeds any post recovery garment for training or competition.

Click here for CryoUSA pricing for the NormaTec.

Kyle

Train Hard = Race Easy, Train Smart = Race Fast ™