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I started experimenting with exposure to cold in the winter of 2012. It was brutal in the beginning. My initiation consisted in taking cold showers. 

The first cold shower had probably lasted for 3-5 minutes. It wasn't entirely cold water, but it was more like a gradual shift from moderate to cold. The cold-only part of the shower lasted less than a minute. But it was intense, so intense that completely woke every pore in my body. 

Immediately after the shower I would feel a rush of adrenaline traversing throughout. It was that sensation that got me hooked. I would go through pain to reach the pleasure. With consistency, I made a habit of exposing myself to cold.

As I developed tolerance, I would have to prolong my showers to get the same intense response. Then I would take 2 shower per day. Then I would slightly progress into cold baths and eventually into ice baths. To resensitize my body, I would withdraw from exposure for a certain period of time. Then I would start all over again. I'm still doing it...

In the fall of 2014 though, I remember listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast in which he interviewed Tony Robbins. And Robbins was talking about this craze he's gotten himself into, called 'cryo-something'. 

Hearing the word 'cryo' took me back to the old Stallone movie _The Demolition Man_ where the main characters had their bodies frozen just to be restored to life some time in the future. 

Holding on to the thought, I found out that Robbins was talking about cryosaunas - the opposite of a normal sauna. 

You basically go inside a cabin, as you can see above, and instead of heat you are being exposed to liquid nitrogen that reduces the temperature to as low - 180°C or even lower (yes, there is a 'minus' in front of 180). To prevent tissue damage, your exposure time is limited to 3 minutes. 

## My Cryosauna Experience

### Things to know about the cryosauna:

- it works by: mixing fresh air with vapors of liquid nitrogen 
- it reduces outer skin temp. to below 0°C in less than a minute
- your core temperature remains unchanged
- it activates skin cold receptors that signal the hypothalamus leading to a cascade of reactions inside the body
- proponents (merchants) claim that it is helpful in injury treatment and recovery among athletes.

Some scientific [paper](http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/35000.pdf) attributes numerous health benefits to using cryosaunas:

- aiding the treatment of muscle inflammation
- beneficial in joint diseases of metabolic origin (gout)
- beneficial for rheumatism 
- beneficial for tendon inflammation 
- beneficial for osteoporosis and chronic inflammation 
- has analgesic effects (what doesn't?)
- helps with blood flow
- increases serum norepinephrine, beta endorphins, adrenaline and testosterone
- etc. 

Well, I'm a bit skeptic of all these claims because I have not seen solid replicability of such results. However, my interest was to test the cryosauna out of curiosity, not to validate its supposed over-inflated benefits. 

Cryosaunas have been around for decades but they started becoming mainstream only recently - many celebrity figures started using them. They are costly. In the U.S., from what I've researched, a 3 minute session costs $80 - $100. In Romania it only cost ~$25. 

I was even luckier because as I searched for crysaunas in Romania, I discovered there are only a limited few. And the lucky bastard just happened to be a few blocks away of one. 

Two days later and I was ready to jump in. 

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Justifying that I was acclimated to cold, I was able to negotiate the duration of my first exposure. In your initial session, they only let you stay at -100°C for about 100 seconds. I stood at -130°C for 140 seconds.

As I reported immediately after the [experiment](http://cristivlad.com/love-cold-cryogenic-experiment/):

_"Before going into the cabin, they gave me insulated lady footwear :) and I was instructed to keep my hands closed together at chest level (like when you're praying). Some people hold them outside the booth. When inside the cabin, I was told to constantly move (turn-around) and to try and hold my head high when I breathe."_

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You might ask about the toxicity of the liquid nitrogen vapor. Well, if you didn't know, the breathable part of the atmosphere (the air) on Earth is 78% nitrogen. 

Plus, I could always calmly say 'stop this f*ucking apparatus' and they would cease the entire procedure. 

## My thoughts!?

Given that the lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was -94.7°C and I had been exposed to -130°C, I gotta confess it was a very unique and amazing experience!

It was intense, what can I say?! But, it was not as intense and brutally disturbing as a 15 minute ice cold bath. Dry cold (the cryosauna) is much more bearable than wet cold (ice bath). 

The cryosauna made me shiver only slightly. I like shivering. But I get the same, if not more intense, shivering from my usual-non-overly-hyped ice baths, for a much lower investment...

Bottom line: 

I may use cryosaunas more often when they become dirt cheap. As I wrote in the [past](http://cristivlad.com/love-cold-cryogenic-experiment/):

_"There are bold claims from companies selling cryo-cabin sessions which say that a 3 minute session will trigger the burn of extra 1,000 kcals. Most of them do not know the science behind it. But, after-all, they have to sell their stuff._

_I personally believe it can increase the metabolic rate tremendously, especially if it involves shivering thermogenesis post session. I did not experience a lot of shivering thermogenesis afterwards. In fact, I immersed into an ice bath three hours after the cryo session :)"_

Yours coldly, @cristi
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#extreme #cold #cryosauna
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[Cristi Vlad](http://cristivlad.com), Self-Experimenter and Author