GRENOBLE, France (Reuters) – Spending three minutes in a cubicle at minus 150C is not exactly the kind of thing you dream of doing first thing in the morning, yet riders from the FDJ team will do it every day on the Tour de France.
The French cycling team have been experimenting with cryotherapy — exposure to extreme cold in a small chamber to help recovery — since last month.
I tried out the method myself on the morning of the fourth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine, a preparation race before the Tour de France.
Just after breakfast, I was told to strip to my underpants and given a pair of slippers before entering a cubicle filled with liquid nitrogen that lowers the ambient temperature to minus 150C.
I stood in the cubicle, keeping my forearms outside it to protect my hands from the cold — I could have worn gloves instead. My head was also sticking out of the top, as the body’s extremities cannot stand such a low temperature.
At first I was just a bit chilly but quite rapidly the cold began to sting my skin as the temperature dropped. Despite the cold, the core temperature of the body stays stable.
Some
Read More from the Article Source: Full Article
