If you’re like me, you get emails from Groupon pretty much on the regular.  I think the best part of Groupon is that I’m able to try out new stuff without paying too much to do it (knife-less lipo, anyone?).  Every once and a while there will be something in the email that catches my eye.  A few months ago, it happened to be cryotherapy.  I’d seen it before on the internets and Instagram and it’s with a minimal amount of sarcasm that I say to you all, “if it’s good enough for a celeb, it’s good enough for me.”  So I bought a Groupon for a local cryo place for three visits for the price of one.

This is your standard 5 w’s and how.

Who?: Me!

What?: I did cryotherapy!  The when/where was really irrelevant but I went three days in a row.  They recommend keeping your appointments more *together* than not and if you’re going twice in the same day, you have to separate it out by several hours.  Since I was going after work, it was just better for my schedule to go three nights in a row after work.

Why?: I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect but I had done enough research on the benefits to know that cryotherapy is known to ease muscle aches (good for athletes), helps weight loss (speeds up the metabolism), and encourages blood flow (which makes skin look clearer) among other things.  I was definitely curious about the weight loss part and (spoiler alert) I can tell you that in three days of going, it wasn’t one of the benefits I experienced.  However, that could vary from person to person and I wasn’t expecting a miracle in three days.

How?: So the gist of it is is that you strip down to the under-essentials (putting it delicately) or you could wear a swimsuit if you like.  You put on these tall fluffy socks that are provided, some clog looking rubber shoes and some gloves.  The more sensitive extremities are covered.  You step into the tank (with the aid of the little operator – my gal was super nice and chatty.  2 minutes, 40 seconds goes by quickly when you’re talking about Game of Thrones…) and it raises so just your head pops out.  You’re encouraged not to breathe in the magic coldness which is why just your head is out of the tank.  The gal told me a lot of people walk in place and as soon as she turned on the cold, I understood why.

Guys, it.gets.cold.  Like -110 degrees cold.

The weird part is that you just feel it on the surface of your skin.  I wouldn’t say the experience was *pleasant* but I definitely went back the other two times and would gladly do it again – so it’s not that miserable.  Right after I got out of the tank, I actually started to sweat (which the cryo people said was good).  It was a super weird feeling to have my skin be cold to the touch but sweat at the same time.

Verdict: I would totes do it again.  I don’t know that I experienced the full *benefits* of it but I can say that I noticed I slept much better those three nights and my skin did look clearer after all three treatments.  The place I went to offers “packages” for cryo.  While that’s not something I feel like I need in my life right now, it would be interesting to see if that provides more of the benefits touted.  All in all, I’m super glad I tried it.