Cryotherapy before or after sport: when is the best time?

Why do athletes use cryotherapy?

Whole-body cryotherapy involves briefly exposing the body to an extremely cold environment.

At CryoBliss, it is carried out in an electric cabin without nitrogen, with a temperature that can reach approximately -90°C and an exposure of only a few minutes.

This thermal contrast causes different physiological responses which explains the interest in cryotherapy in the sports field.

Research has focused in particular on its use in post-exercise recovery, delayed onset muscle soreness, and the perception of recovery.

But that doesn't mean you necessarily have to go into a changing room as soon as you finish a workout.

Using cryotherapy after sports: the most intuitive use

After a difficult session, a competition or a long outing, the body enters a recovery phase.

It is at this point that many athletes choose to incorporate cold exposure into their routine.

Running, HYROX, Cross Training, cycling, tennis or physical preparation: intense efforts can be followed by muscle fatigue and soreness, particularly when they are unusual.

Cryotherapy can then be considered as a complementary recovery tool.

It obviously does not replace the fundamentals: nutrition, hydration, sleep and training load management remain priorities.

Should it be done immediately after training?

Not necessarily.

It is not necessary to run from the locker room to the cryotherapy cabin for the session to be worthwhile.

In research on cold and recovery, protocols vary and timing is not the same from one study to another.

In practice, the most important thing is therefore to think about the place of cryotherapy in your overall recovery program, rather than looking for a window of a few minutes that would be universally optimal.

For an amateur athlete who trains several times a week, the regularity of recovery generally matters more than the time between the last repetition and the cryotherapy session.

And before sports?

Using cryotherapy before a workout raises a different question.

Exposure to very intense cold can temporarily alter bodily sensations.

If a cryotherapy session is scheduled before a sporting activity, it is therefore important to allow the body time to regain its usual sensations and then to carry out a proper warm-up adapted to the effort.

The goal is certainly not to consider cryotherapy as a replacement for warming up.

Before a demanding session, the priority remains the progressive preparation of the body for the effort that will follow.

Cryotherapy before a competition: good or bad idea?

As a marathon, HYROX, match or other competition approaches, the temptation is great to multiply the techniques to arrive «at the maximum» on the big day.

But the last few days before a competition are rarely the best time to change your habits.

If cryotherapy is already part of your routine, it can be scheduled into your week according to your preparation.

If you've never done it before, trying out a new technique for the first time just before an important competition is generally not the most logical approach.

This rule does not only concern cryotherapy: food, equipment, recovery… the day of the event is not for experimentation.

And during a period of intensive training?

This is probably where the question becomes most interesting.

When an athlete is preparing for a competition, training sessions can follow one another in quick succession.

The challenge is therefore not only to recover after a single session, but to manage the fatigue accumulated over several weeks.

A cryotherapy session can be integrated occasionally into this recovery routine.

But an important nuance must be kept in mind: systematically reducing all responses caused by training is not necessarily the desired objective, since some of them actually contribute to the body's adaptations to exercise.

Recovery must therefore be adapted to the context: recovering sufficiently to be able to continue preparation, without systematically seeking to erase all the physiological consequences of training.

And after a competition?

Marathon, HYROX, trail, tournament or particularly intense match: after a competition, the logic is different.

The priority becomes more about immediate recovery and recovery in the following days than about adapting to training.

This is therefore a context in which many athletes choose to use cold therapy.

Here again, a cryotherapy session should be considered as a component of a more comprehensive strategy.

Drinking, eating, sleeping and allowing the body enough time remain essential.

Cryotherapy and muscle aches: can it make them disappear?

No, one session does not guarantee the disappearance of muscle soreness.

DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness, can reach its peak several tens of hours after unusual exertion.

Cryotherapy is being studied for its potential benefit on the perception of muscle pain and certain recovery parameters, but it would be excessive to promise an immediate recovery.

The best strategy remains to combine the different recovery levers rather than expecting a single technique to do everything.

Cryotherapy, pulse therapy and red light therapy: when should they be used?

At CryoBliss, several approaches can now be integrated into a sports routine.

Whole-body cryotherapy uses intense cold and is particularly sought after for recovery after significant exertion.

Stendo® pulse therapy uses pressures synchronized with the heart rhythm and can be appreciated in particular for the feeling of lightness in the legs.

Red and near-infrared light, or photobiomodulation, relies on a completely different mechanism. Several scientific studies have focused on its use before and after exercise, with interesting results on certain performance and recovery parameters.

Therefore, it is not necessarily a question of choosing a single technique, but of understanding why and when each one is used.

So, cryotherapy before or after sport?

In summary:

Therefore, there is no such thing as a «magic moment».

The best time is the one that matches your goal and fits intelligently into your training and recovery program.