Tim’s Take: Cryotherapy at minus 110, hyperbaric oxygen, red light, and infrared sauna in a suburban shopping centre in Melbourne sounds like the wrong setting for a serious recovery stack. It isn’t. Cameron visited two days out from a hard upper body session, which is exactly when this kind of protocol earns its keep.
“Sweat upon the brow/That’s what I want” (INXS, “Stay Young”, 1981)
That was what I wanted in going to experience Cryo Stay Young on Saturday, 18 July at a shopping centre in the north-east Melbourne suburb of Ringwood.
An hour-and-a-half drive from a birthday party on the other side of Melbourne meant my body was ready for shocks to the system of varying degrees.
One of those degrees was -110 degrees Celsius, which was the temperature of the venue’s whole body cryotherapy chamber. It’s not a secret to share that this was set for me as an absolute beginner, but more experienced people can set the temperature of the chamber as cold as -140 degrees Celsius. Keep in mind that the coldest temperature recorded on Earth was about -98 degrees Celsius – in Antarctica.
Before I get into what happened to me, it’s worth going through the level of before- and after-care surrounding this treatment.
You need to take off your regular clothes and wear a provided pair of shorts, thick socks (plus a tank top for women), and earmuffs if you wish. Before going into the chamber, you can connect your phone to it by Bluetooth and select your choice of music.
The chamber also has a pane that can be wound down for those who may get uncomfortable being in such a tight space for a period of time.
Baby, it’s cold inside! The experience of standing in that chamber is one that I will remember for a while. The ‘relaxation’ music I chose faded into the background as my mind grappled with, and eventually adjusted to, this system shock.
(Whether you think three minutes is a long time is completely relative. For example, someone participating in an eating competition won’t think anything of it, while a radio host who is facing technical difficulties will be scrambling to get back on the air.)
A blanket is available to rug up once you exit the chamber. While I was warming up, I had a chat with venue owner/franchisee Pani about his background and the heartfelt reasons he decided to get involved.
I was looking forward to this experience in particular as it came a couple of days after a particularly rigorous upper body workout. While circumstances prevented me from going into the chamber sooner after this exercise, I am glad I did when I did, as it definitely alleviated some of the soreness I was still feeling.
It was then time to go up, up and away for an hour-long hyperbaric oxygen therapy session. Apart from being incredibly useful for my body to prepare for a flight to Sydney the next day, the session provided a good opportunity to pause and take notice of my surroundings a little more.
Between the pressurised oxygen and the overall look and feel of the chamber, it’s hard not to imagine yourself in an aeroplane cabin. I wasn’t allowed to take my phone in or have anything in my pocket, such as a wallet or keys, as a safety precaution
Pani explained that keeping belongings outside the chamber is a way to control what is taken into a pressurised and oxygenated environment, so I opted to close my eyes. Pani was kind enough to check in every so often to make sure I was comfortable with the experience.
Next came the red light therapy bed, possibly my favourite treatment from the day. Akin to going on a tanning bed (I imagine), I lay down on the bed for about 15 minutes.
While I would have loved to have gone for the full ‘chicken rotisserie’ rotation experience, the bed might not have been the best for the front of my body. According to Pani, there is ‘some gentle warmth from the LEDs during the session, but the purpose of the treatment is light exposure rather than heating the body’.
Last but definitely not least was the infrared sauna for a 45-minute session. A veritable veteran of saunas by now, I found I was slightly cramped in by this particular unit. On the plus side, the room features more than enough complimentary towels to dry off the sweat you will accumulate (on your brows and elsewhere) during the session.
While these experiences are suitable for most healthy adults looking for wellness, there are some exceptions. For example, people who are pregnant should not go for whole body cryotherapy, infrared sauna, or the red light therapy bed. There are other restrictions in place; check in with the venue for any concerns. (When I confirmed my appointment, there was a pretty extensive list of conditions for me to check that I did not have.)
Overall, benefits from these experiences are typical of what the industry offers. They include feeling refreshed (cryotherapy, red light therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy), increased circulation (cryotherapy, red light therapy and infrared sauna) and supporting recovery from exercise (all four experiences).
All facilities are pristine and demonstrate a commendable commitment to hygiene. It may not have been possible with the lot size available in the shopping centre, but a bathroom within the venue rather than five minutes’ walk away would be nice to have, especially with the extreme cold of the cryotherapy chamber being likely to startle the bladder, as Pani explained it might.
While there was a fair amount of foot traffic past the venue (Cryo Stay Young is near an entrance of the shopping centre it is located in), Pani was able to provide me with one-to-one attention throughout my time there. This may not always be possible, but it does serve as an indication of the customer service Cryo Stay Young brings to the table.
You can book your treatment or treatments through Cryo Stay Young’s website.
The cryotherapy session costs AUD 99, the hyperbaric oxygen session costs AUD 129, the infrared sauna session costs AUD 49, and the red light therapy session costs AUD 89. You can get discounted rates for multiple sessions of the same treatment, but it could be an idea to offer some sort of reduction on different treatments during the same booking to encourage longer visits.
Ringwood is not my usual stomping ground, but I am so glad I made the visit.
Cameron is an experienced news writer and consummate media professional, with previous bylines in SmartCompany, The Australian Farmer, Innovation Intelligence and other local outlets. Having completed his bachelor of journalism and master of communication at RMIT – one of Australia’s leading universities for media studies – Cameron uses his cross-disciplinary knowledge and industry experience to source news stories and find unique angles that create impact.
