Putting injuries on ice
Let's say you're the coach of a national rugby team favored to win the Six Nations Cup this year. Your captain and another star player both have serious injuries, and need to recover quickly in order to return for the highlight of the season-a game against your country's toughest rivals.
Where do you send your players to get state of the art rehabilitation? Germany? Britain? The US?
The answer for Eddie O'Sullivan, the coach of the Irish national team, was none of the above. When his captain, Brian O'Driscoll, and fellow center Gordon D'Arcy injured their hamstrings, he sent them to Spała in Poland.
The Medical Rehabilitation and Olympic Preparation Center in Spała has been around since 2000, and is now being used by Olympic and professional athletes from Austria to New Zealand. The center's popularity stems from its cryotherapy facility, considered the best in Europe.
Specifically, the center specializes in "whole body cryotherapy"-a procedure in which an athlete is exposed to temperatures as low as -120 degrees centigrade.
First, an athlete-wearing no more protection than socks and a pair of skivvies-is placed in a small room and blasted for 30 seconds with a gust of air cooled to -70 degrees.
Next, the temperature in the room takes a dramatic drop to between -84 and -120 degrees. The player is then forced to endure the cold for up to four minutes maximum. Any longer, and the liquid in the eyeballs starts to freeze. Five minutes in the chamber results in death.
Athletes undergo this treatment because the cold temperatures help to develop defensive reflexes that, along with having therapeutic results, also restore the body's natural balance. The extreme cold causes hyperemia-an increase in the amount of blood-speeding up metabolism and eliminating harmful products, such as lactate and histamine, faster. Inflammation is reduced, injuries heal more quickly, and the athlete can endure more arduous training and rehabilitation for longer periods of time. The numbing effect of the frigid air results in painlessness that can last up to eight hours.
Other advantages of the treatment include an increased production of endorphins and decreased anxiety-which could inspire some of our more stressed readers, with hopes of escaping the pressures of the business world, to book their next vacation in Spała.
However, if you're not a member of the Irish rugby team preparing to take on England Sunday, we wouldn't recomend it. With Poland's frigid winter temperatures, a quiet stroll in the brisk February air might just do the trick.
Just be sure to thaw your eyeballs.
Where do you send your players to get state of the art rehabilitation? Germany? Britain? The US?
The answer for Eddie O'Sullivan, the coach of the Irish national team, was none of the above. When his captain, Brian O'Driscoll, and fellow center Gordon D'Arcy injured their hamstrings, he sent them to Spała in Poland.
The Medical Rehabilitation and Olympic Preparation Center in Spała has been around since 2000, and is now being used by Olympic and professional athletes from Austria to New Zealand. The center's popularity stems from its cryotherapy facility, considered the best in Europe.
Specifically, the center specializes in "whole body cryotherapy"-a procedure in which an athlete is exposed to temperatures as low as -120 degrees centigrade.
First, an athlete-wearing no more protection than socks and a pair of skivvies-is placed in a small room and blasted for 30 seconds with a gust of air cooled to -70 degrees.
Next, the temperature in the room takes a dramatic drop to between -84 and -120 degrees. The player is then forced to endure the cold for up to four minutes maximum. Any longer, and the liquid in the eyeballs starts to freeze. Five minutes in the chamber results in death.
Athletes undergo this treatment because the cold temperatures help to develop defensive reflexes that, along with having therapeutic results, also restore the body's natural balance. The extreme cold causes hyperemia-an increase in the amount of blood-speeding up metabolism and eliminating harmful products, such as lactate and histamine, faster. Inflammation is reduced, injuries heal more quickly, and the athlete can endure more arduous training and rehabilitation for longer periods of time. The numbing effect of the frigid air results in painlessness that can last up to eight hours.
Other advantages of the treatment include an increased production of endorphins and decreased anxiety-which could inspire some of our more stressed readers, with hopes of escaping the pressures of the business world, to book their next vacation in Spała.
However, if you're not a member of the Irish rugby team preparing to take on England Sunday, we wouldn't recomend it. With Poland's frigid winter temperatures, a quiet stroll in the brisk February air might just do the trick.
Just be sure to thaw your eyeballs.
