3 min read
Cryotherapy vs ice baths: what's the actual difference?
Both use cold. They feel completely different, and they suit different people and different goals.
The most common question we get is whether a cryotherapy chamber is just an expensive ice bath. The short answer is NO. The mechanism, the sensation and the practicality are all different.
Dry cold vs wet cold
An ice bath conducts heat away through water, which is why it feels so aggressive and why most people can only tolerate a few minutes. A cryotherapy chamber uses very cold dry air, which cools the skin surface rapidly while the core stays comfortable. The result is an intense but far more tolerable two to three minutes.
Practicality
An ice bath needs setup, water, ice and a shower afterwards. A cryotherapy session takes minutes, you stay dry, and you can go straight back to work. For most people building a weekly habit, that difference decides which one actually happens.
Which should you choose?
If you have access to an ice bath (at home or somewhere else) and use it consistently, keep going. If cold exposure keeps falling off your schedule, a supervised chamber session is far easier to stick with - and that consistency is where the benefit lives.