What Science Says About Cryotherapy and Cold Gyms

Chilly wellness is trendier than ever

Illustration by Alexis Jamet

Drastically changing body temperature has been a wellness trend for some time now. There are infrared saunas — which warm the body from the inside and are believed to help loosen muscles — and hot yoga, a popular practice performed in rooms heated up to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. But in the last couple of years, exercising in chilly temperatures has started to gain widespread and mainstream appeal for both its fitness-related benefits and the idea that it can build resilience.

Cryotherapy, in which a person stands in a chamber filled with liquid nitrogen that cools the air to minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, is a niche (but growing) wellness trend that’s estimated to reach a $7 million market by 2026. The sessions, typically around $75 each, last just three or four minutes and are advertised to decrease inflammation, ease muscle pain, and aid in weight loss. At Brrrn, a New York City gym that opened a year ago, the studio is kept at a brisk 50 degrees Fahrenheit with the promise to help gym-goers burn more calories.

As with many health trends, there’s a spectrum of intensity. Wim Hof, a Dutch extreme athlete famous for swimming in ice-covered lakes and running snowy marathons barefoot, has developed a training program for people seeking extreme cold experiences that he says can complement endurance training and provide potential health benefits like “balanced hormone levels, improved sleep quality, and the production of endorphins.” His approach — which is being studied by Dutch scientists — teaches special breathing methods that are paired with gradual exposure to the cold, such as standing in snow barefoot for prolonged stretches of time. The goal is to build up resilience to harsh elements and make peace with discomfort.

“By encountering stress, you are able to change the way your body responds at a fundamental level. It’s much bigger than just the cold.”

Proponents of Hof’s cold exposure trend argue that humans are rarely cold anymore, and that’s bad. People bundle up for the outdoors and use machinery to keep homes at the same temperature year-round. Scott Carney, author of What…