Prognosis

Strategically Planned Stress Can Be Good For You

A cold-water swimmer at the Umka ice swimming club at Lake Dolgoye in Norilsk, Russia.

Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

Hi everyone, it’s Angel in London. A few weeks ago, I tried whole body cryotherapy for the first time as a way to recover from a workout. I felt accomplished and energized for the rest of the day. Turns out, there are benefits of putting your body through pain. But before we get to that…

Being inside a chamber in -120C degrees for three minutes felt long and torturous. My body was trying to cope with the abrupt freeze caused by nitrogen-cooled air, and I had to keep telling myself I only had a few seconds left and it would soon be over. After all, when there’s no pain, there’s no gain, right?