The Cryo Hub mission is quite simple:

To transform the lives of our customers through the power of the cold.

Through the experiences and expertise of The Cryo Hub founders, supported by an ever-increasing body of scientific research, the potential of cryotherapy to make rapid and sustained improvements to the quality of life for our customers is no longer in question.

Benefits

While Cryotherapy isn’t new as a technique – originally developed in Japan in the late 1970s by Toshima Yamaguchi for the treatment of rheumatoid diseases – it has evolved and been proven to provide a huge range of benefits:

Boosts the immune system
Enhances the cardiovascular system
Elevates mood
Soothes chronic pain
Accelerates injury recovery
Improves metabolic efficiency
Stimulates healthy weight loss

And that’s just the headlines.

Why Cryotherapy?

Cold therapy (which also includes ice baths and cold water swimming) has become increasingly popular – with advocates such as Wim Hof popularising the techniques and scientists such as Andrew Huberman providing the latest research and advice on how to get the optimal benefits.

There are however a few barriers with respect to conventional cold therapies like ice swimming – with perhaps no greater demonstration needed than this video showing the reaction of a US Marine during training. The second part of the video shows why the Royal Marines used to advertise why 99% need not apply!

Genuine Ice bathing in a frozen lake isn’t pleasant. It hurts. The benefits are well worth it but it isn’t the most accessible or easy of pursuits.

Ice baths at home are certainly easier than finding and getting into any icy lake. But they come with their own challenges. It doesn’t take long to find it is very difficult to get the water cold enough to be effective – unless you are fortunate enough to have endless supplies of ice each morning. Water quality deteriorates rapidly even when using chlorine tablets or filters. And a commercial system to keep the water cold and clean comes with a hefty price tag.

This is where Cryotherapy as a service comes into its own:

Rapid – sessions in a cryo chamber take between 3-5 mins
Minimal discomfort – the ‘dry’ cold of the chamber isn’t shocking or painful
Safe – customers are always supervised and supported
Effective – super-cooled chambers quickly and efficiently cool the body to produce the stress responses needed to drive the myriad benefits

Are all Cryotherapy Chambers the Same?

While cryotherapy chambers all operate with the same principles, they aren’t the same.

Partial Body Cryotherapy (PBC) chambers are probably most familiar to those aware of the technique. They use liquid nitrogen to provide the cooling effect, with the subject placed inside an enclosure with their head outside remaining at room temperature – as you can’t breathe nitrogen!

PBC is effective but has a few challenges:

While the gas is extremely cold (often advertised in the -120 to -140C range), it rapidly warms up as soon as it expands, meaning the temperatures experienced by the body can be inconsistent
Extremely cold gas runs the risk of burns
Convection currents mean colder air quickly sinks – resulting in lower limbs being cooled but less effective cooling of the upper body.

A more modern alternative is whole-body cryotherapy. These chambers are powered by electricity and enable the subjects to immerse themselves entirely in the chamber.

These chambers provide a number of benefits over PBC:

The electric chamber provides a safe and consistent temperature for the entirety of the session
The entire body experience is more pleasant – meaning the customer can freely move – and crucially the exposure of the face to cold temperatures provides additional benefits
The chambers provide more effective cooling right across the body:

The Cryo Hub – Making Cryotherapy Accessible

The Cryo Hub’s mission to transform the lives of our customers through the power of the cold is enabled by two key differentiators:

Investment in a state-of-the-art Mecotech WBC chamber
Situating within The Wellness Hub

There aren’t many WBC machines around, let alone that could be accessed easily on a High St.

But the real hook behind The Cryo Hub is its location and synergy with The Wellness Hub in Berkhamsted. The Wellness Hub provides award-winning physiotherapy, and complementary therapies (such as ophthalmology and IV boosts) and regularly hosts expert therapists and practitioners to provide a ‘department store of health’ under one roof.

In this sense, the Cryo Hub becomes less of an inaccessible luxury experience – becoming a community where customers can conveniently access the power of the cold in a state-of-the-art chamber and easily access the expertise of physiotherapists and other experts should they need to.

In a short time we’ve seen the power of this model:

Physio patients turbo-charging their recovery
Chronic pain sufferers finally experience relief
Fitness enthusiasts hitting new heights
Elevating mood and well-being

The Faces Behind the Cryo Hub

Emma James is an award winning physiotherapist and entrepreneur. After building a successful practice in Hemel Hempstead, Emma opened the Wellness Hub in Berkhamsted with a vision to offer something new. A concept to provide a welcoming and safe space on the High Street, where no matter a person’s mood or ailment, they would be able to find respite, and if needed, the services or advice they needed to walk out feeling better. With the Cryo Hub now in situ, the ability to deliver on that promise is more powerful and unique than ever. Emma’s decades of expertise as a physio, and as someone who has faced her own share of life’s challenges (opening The Wellness Hub just as the Covid pandemic reared its head being just one of them), she’s ideally positioned to make sure that every customer gets the benefits from Cryotherapy they need.

Steve Corney is an advocate of cold therapies – given they quite literally got him back on his feet following spinal surgery and a subsequent life-threatening infection which left him on crutches, in constant pain and reliant on a cocktail of pain-killers. Ice diving in Norway showed the power of the technique in catalysing his recovery, and an interest in the power of cold therapy and its potential followed – culminating in the vision for The Cryo Hub, making the life-changing power of the cold accessible on the High Street to as many people as possible.

We aim to measurably improve the lives of all our customers and ensure they get expert care and advice, in an approachable setting, so they get the results they desire.

In just a short time since launch, we’re seeing exactly that…

W: The Cryo Hub
E: Steve / Emma

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