Front Squat 5-5-5-5-5
4 Rounds:
Deadlift
Hang Squat Clean
Push Press
Thruster
Heavy Rope Double Unders
Last week a mixture of really hard training and manual labor left me feeling completely wrecked and overtrained. By the time Friday rolled around, I was so sore I couldn't sit still comfortably. I still hadn't done the Open WOD, and I was feeling like there was no way I was even going to be able to do the WOD I was so spanked. In an act of desperation, I decided to try the latest technology in self torture and recovery, Cryotherapy.
As long as people have been participating in sport and fitness, there has been the ice bath. It takes either serious pain or serious commitment to performance to face freezing yourself, but it does work and it's pretty simple. When you get real cold, all the blood in your peripheral tissues shifts into your core to prevent hypothermia. As you warm back up, the tissues are flushed with blood and fresh oxygen which aids in recovery. So instead of sitting in freezing clod water for 10 minutes, how about walking into a giant flash freezer for 3 minutes instead?
The experience I had was as follows. Rode out to Roseville with AO bitching to him about how sore I was multiple times. Arrived at Cryo which looked like a cross between a posh coffee shop and a spa. They gave me a shot of aloe, whatever that is and some tea. We stripped down to our gym shorts and socks. They gave us some warm gloves and slippers to prevent freezing the small parts.
We went into the -206F chamber for 3 and a half minutes. During this time I experienced what it would feel like to be locked outside in Antarctica during a storm in only gym shorts. It was intense to say the least. Immediately upon exiting, they put us on an elliptical machine for 10 minutes to warm back up and get blood flowing. Then they brought us into the localized treatment room where they had a cold air hose that is used to "ice" specific areas, I had them focus on my lower back which was the most fatigued area. The localized treatment was much more bearable than the chamber, in fact it was less uncomfortable than an ice pack even though it can take your skin to a freezing temperature in just a few seconds.
After localized treatment, they gave me the "happy ending" which was a warm water bed jet massage table for a few minutes.
We got a low sugar protein smoothy, and drove back to Sac.
Overall I was feeling much better even on the ride home. I woke up the next morning feeling like I had had 3-4 days of recovery. It actually worked much better than I had expected, and I suspect that this type of treatment on a regular basis would be really helpful for injuries and just recovery in general.
The upside is that this seemed to work very well. The downside… it's in Roseville. They offer memberships for around 60 bucks per month on unlimited treatments to CrossFitters and I think they offer drop-ins as well. If you find yourself feeling spanked and you have a couple hours to drive out Roseville, I recommend giving it a shot.
